What were you doing 40 years ago ?

[Bfg]

Not at all Triumph TR related, but great fun nevertheless.  

Although a motorcyclist by habit - by this time (1985) I had built several prototype cars including a Triumph Herald special ..that never quite made it to being a kit car..  I was very much into Citroen 2cv's and the like.  One of the prototype kit cars, I did put into production, has very recently been uncovered . . .

For me - this video is a wonderfully nostalgic blast from my Citroen motoring past ! ..  I thoroughly enjoyed Ian's video and youthful enthusiasm.  Also well impressed with his brut force 'skills' in getting her going after some 23 years (since she was abandoned).  I suspect a day of simply dismantling components & cleaning things up.., the car would both look a lot better and she would run.  The chassis though looks as if would not be safe to use on the road.  By the way the wiring was not mine. I loathe and so would never used blue crimped connectors. The original wiring diagram is in the build manual, still with the car.   

This car was was the prototype ..and so it was in fact my company's (Falcon Design's) original Falcon 'S' demonstrator.  There should be photographs and road test in the kit car magazines of the period.  The car was sold to Colin Maclaren ..a lovely chap and son of the inventor and business entrepreneur of Maclaren pushchair buggies. The photos on the brochure's cover was our subsequent demonstrator, also in signal red for marketing consistency, but refined in detail and finish and with 650cc Visa pistons. 

Yes this car, on a Citroen 2cv platform, and its engine fitted with an Ami-8 twin-choke Solex carb - was just 602cc.  Putting that in context to the Lotus style - Colin Chapman's original Lotus 7 hill climber was itself only 700cc.   

My friend John, who lives on the Shotley Peninsula, Suffolk still has the original Falcon LX3 demonstrator, sadly likewise sitting for years unused and painted blue (..because the red gelcoat finish was so very faded). It would be wonderfully quirky to see them both restored as each are great fun cars to drive. 

Anyway, that's what I was doing as I approached 30 years old.  It was a bumpy roller coaster ride thereafter.  I never did make my fortune.   

What legacy do you leave ?

Pete.

 

Edited April 16 by Bfg

[stuart]

40 years ago I was schlepping round the world as a freelance sound engineer for some of the biggest bands in the world at that time. Another life altogether.

Stuart.

[mike ellis]

A few weeks ago I was watching a Sky Arts programme featuring a number of Who concerts and noticed that one of the sound engineers was a Stuart Edwards!

40 years ago I was part of the small group planning the 1985 TR Register Goodwood sprint.

Mike

[John Morrison]

Wish I could remember 

John

[peejay4A]

Southwark Crown Court prosecuting a case under Forgery and Counterfeiting law, an aberration which led to the Computer Misuse Act 5 years later. 

[RobH]

I was sheltering with an instrumentation data recorder in an all-too-small concrete bunker, on a bleak and very flat island on the Essex coast.  This was in case the test we were conducting failed, which might result in the object under test destroying itself in an extremely energetic and interesting way.  

 

 

 

Edited April 16 by RobH

[Dic Doretti]

Working as a field geologist in Co. Tipperary, dodging from site to site in a TR2, not really suitable but fitted with a sump guard made in a local quarry workshop.

Cheers

Richard

[Lebro]

Bouncing up & down inside one of Her Majesties Ton Classs Minehunters assisting the RN with our (Decca) navigational equipement (& throwing up a lot)

Bob

[Tim T]

7 hours ago, stuart said:

40 years ago I was schlepping round the world as a freelance sound engineer for some of the biggest bands in the world at that time. Another life altogether.

Stuart.

Stuart, I am intrigued. Who did you work with?

Tim

[stuart]

5 hours ago, mike ellis said:

A few weeks ago I was watching a Sky Arts programme featuring a number of Who concerts and noticed that one of the sound engineers was a Stuart Edwards!

40 years ago I was part of the small group planning the 1985 TR Register Goodwood sprint.

Mike

That would be me though I usually put an X in the box for no publicity 😉

Stuart

[brian -r]

Stuck on an oil rig  offshore in the Bombay High oil filed on post commissioning standby. 7 weeks overdue for home leave and the only other english speaking person onboard was a very nice Sikh gent , sent out to defend the rig with a rifle but no bullets. Only in India

[Bfg]

12 hours ago, RobH said:

I was sheltering with an instrumentation data recorder in an all-too-small concrete bunker, on a bleak and very flat island on the Essex coast.  This was in case the test we were conducting failed, which might result in the object under test destroying itself in an extremely energetic and interesting way.  

I thought such tests were undertaken on Orford Ness..  As the east coast and you are both still here I'm guessing the test was a success.  Well Done !

[RogerH]

In 1985 British Airways Engineering received a very impressive inspection machine from RollsRoyce to inspect the big fan blades from RB211 engines.

These blades are made from Titanium and can crack (but very rarely) but Titanium is such that trying to find these cracks (very very small)

was almost an impossible task.  It is like trying to find a crack in thin air.

Needless to say the machine worked in the RR labs but was very iffy on the workshop floor with a dozen or so engineers not that interested.

I eventually got it running quite well and ended up with a trip to San Francisco to have speeks with the designers in the USA.

 

Roger

 

 

 

[RobH]

1 hour ago, Bfg said:

I thought such tests were undertaken on Orford Ness

Orford had closed by then Pete but some work was still carried out at Foulness, as doing that sort of safety test in the middle of Berkshire is rather frowned upon .  

Even at Orford and Foulness there was no chance of a really catastrophic event, as by design the necessary materials are not present - but enough normal HE to make a rather BIG bang certainly was. 

 

[Trev Good]

40 yrs ago, I had returned back to the UK from living in the Middle East and Africa for the past 20 years and was just off to Caliifornia to begin living there for some time whilst again competing (without any success) in the Baja 500 amongst other races. The Jensen and Triumph at home had recently been replaced by the Scimitar as our family grew!

[Trev Good]

1 hour ago, RogerH said:

In 1985 British Airways Engineering received a very impressive inspection machine from RollsRoyce to inspect the big fan blades from RB211 engines.

These blades are made from Titanium and can crack (but very rarely) but Titanium is such that trying to find these cracks (very very small)

was almost an impossible task.  It is like trying to find a crack in thin air.

Needless to say the machine worked in the RR labs but was very iffy on the workshop floor with a dozen or so engineers not that interested.

I eventually got it running quite well and ended up with a trip to San Francisco to have speeks with the designers in the USA.

 

Roger

 

 

 

Roger, when I first joined RR as a design apprentice,  I was assigned to the RB211 development team, we were designing the front impellers from carbon fibre and testing them at the de havilland centre near Watford. Needless to say, they failed under the chicken test (aptly named for both the frozen, but defrosted bird and also for me as the hapless apprentice throwing them into the engines running at high speed on the test bed!). Our team hold the dubious distinction of breaking RR and of being the first redundant staff members in the organisation. 

[RogerH]

10 minutes ago, Trev Good said:

Roger, when I first joined RR as a design apprentice,  I was assigned to the RB211 development team, we were designing the front om carbon fibre impellers frd testing them at the de havilland centre near Watford. Needless to say, they failed under the chicken test (aptly named for both the frozen, but defrosted bird and also for me as the hapless apprentice throwing them into the engines running at high speed on the test bed!). Our team hold the dubious distinction of breaking RR and of being the first redundant staff members in the organisation. 

quite so - the CF fan blades were not a high point.

 

Roger

[Charlie D]

I spent most of the early 1980's in a Leamington Spa railway arch building kit cars.
Pete was in a Birmingham railway arch making panels for my cars.

He's even mentioned in this history page:

https://www.totalkitcar.com/2025/02/06/the-burlington-motor-company-story/

 

[TorontoTim]

Drumming, playing small venues around London (mostly) hoping for the big break...

Tim

[Trev Good]

10 hours ago, RogerH said:

quite so - the CF fan blades were not a high point.

 

Roger

A total failure, Roger. And all because it was too early in CF development so the fibres were not woven as in modern CF use.

[graeme]

1985, a year of contrasts for me. Began with no job, virtually broke,  my wife and 18 month old twin sons at home, no TR, only an old Ford Escort estate. I quickly secured a position at Moss Moran in Scotland, commissioning the Fife Ethylene Plant for Esso. A friend of mine lived in Fife at that time and was the current owner of my first TR4A which he had stored in his basement.

Later in the year, I went on to commission a Flexicoker Plant at the Total refinery at Vlissengen, Netherlands.  I was driving a Ford Granada Ghia estate by the end of the year and I was never out of work since.

Thanks for the memories.

Graeme

Edited April 18 by graeme
Spelling

[Bfg]

On 4/17/2025 at 2:00 PM, Charlie D said:

I spent most of the early 1980's in a Leamington Spa railway arch building kit cars.
Pete was in a Birmingham railway arch making panels for my cars.

He's even mentioned in this history page:

https://www.totalkitcar.com/2025/02/06/the-burlington-motor-company-story/

 

I understand Morgan were 'not keen' on your Burlington, but did your demonstrator and customer's cars survive.?  I always like your take on Malvern's best efforts. 

Pete

[Bfg]

6 hours ago, graeme said:

by the end of the year and I was never out of work since.

That's certainly something I could never make claim too !

 

[Charlie D]

53 minutes ago, Bfg said:

I understand Morgan were 'not keen' on your Burlington, but did your demonstrator and customer's cars survive.?  I always like your take on Malvern's best efforts. 

Pete,

One of the Morgan owner's clubs spread rumors that Mr Morgan had shut my company down. I started a thread on their site last year explaining to them that he had not shut me down, even though he knew all about the car. (If interested Google "Burlington SS. Facts not fiction")

The thread started reasonably civilized but ended up with insults, vitriol, and amazing nastiness about myself and my cars. No one ever apologized to me for spreading total lies.

Amazing how unpleasant some people can get about a lump of metal.

The amusing thing is that I included the photo of my prototype in the thread. A couple of months later a man in Norway emailed me to say that he'd read the thread and realised, from the numberplate, he was the proud owner of the prototype, which he had exported to Norway and used every day.

[qkingston]

On 4/16/2025 at 10:49 PM, Lebro said:

Bouncing up & down inside one of Her Majesties Ton Classs Minehunters assisting the RN with our (Decca) navigational equipement (& throwing up a lot)

Bob

Whilst you were bobbing up and down on a Minesweeper, I was on my way home from a 6 month stint in/around the Falklands in HMS/M Olympus; Apr 85 heading back through the Caribbean enr Montego Bay Jamaica

David