Urchin's Weblog

This winter it seems as though my TR-7 Spider has served one function - as an object to be shoveled out daily.

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About 10 years ago, I remember emailing a woman from North Carolina about winter in Maine. At the time, I had a '78 Spitfire 1500 as well as my current '66 Land Rover. It seemed to snow daily, several inches every night, so I had to jump into the Land Rover and drive a short distance away to shovel out the Spitfire. Given its ground clearance it needed a great amount of shoveling before it would move. After I emailed this woman several times with the same tale, she suggested that maybe the sole function of the Spitfire was to provide me with a daily workout.

That's the way it's seemed with the TR-7 this winter. I live on an island off the coast of Maine [click here for information] but work on the mainland during the week. I'm a high school/middle school principal, now serving 150 miles away in Calais, Maine, right at the Canadian border. The Land Rover has become the mainland car because of the blizzard conditions this winter and the TR-7 is the island car.

So once a week, I get home after the 80 minute ferry ride to uncover the Spider. I live on a narrow lane in the village, with the harbor on one side and picket fences on the other. The 7 is crammed into a space in front of a boathouse, parallel to the road. There's little room to maneuver it around and get it out of the snowbank created by the town plow. I'm careful to get the snow and ice off the headlight pods, wipers and around the rear window. Opening the car door always seems to bring on an avalanche of snow onto the driver's seat - no matter how much I try and clear off the roof.

The car handles snow very well. Up through December, I was using it on the mainland and found myself driving very rural, two lane roads in heavy snow. The 7 tracked very surely; you can always feel if it's going to lose traction in the front or the rear. The sure steering helped a lot, too. What hurt was the high idle speed of around 1500 rpm; it makes it difficult to let the engine torque power the car slowly. I have run snow tires in the rear each year the car has run all winter and I must say they make a huge difference. The front tires have very good tread right now, too. Of course, the heater pumps out nicely and the car feels quite snug. I hate to see the bits of rust poking through because of the salt on the roads on island and on the mainland, but I'll fill those it this spring. It's a car and it's meant to be driven.

Well, off in the Land Rover for a two hour drive through eastern and northern Maine. At least the sun is out today. Can't wait to see the TR next weekend at home.