Final tour of the year

As I am typing these words the month of November is almost over. Which means that this year's TR7-driving season is over again. But not before I took ‘t Kreng out for one final drive this afternoon. And a rather enjoyable drive it was!

So now both the DHC and ‘t Kreng are tucked away for their three month tax dictated winter hibernation. And as in previous years I wanted to promise myself to carry out some work on my TR7’s over winter. But then I realised I have done that before in previous years. Usually with not much to show for it! And as the car behaved rather well, I'll see what the coming months will bring 😋

Another fine afternoon

When I returned home last Wednesday I knew I had to take the DHC out for one final trip. To the car wash to get rid of the salt from the previous trip, and after that to the fuel station to top up the tank. After that the car could be put away in the shed for the 3 month winter hibernation. But not before one final short trip through the area. And a good excuse to bore everyone with some more autumn pictures of the DHC 😝

Autumn colours west of Hout-Blerick (NL)

Farmland north of Baarlo (NL)

Mission monastery of St. Michael in Steyl,
seen from the western shores of the river Meuse, Baarlo (NL)

The Holy Spirit monastery in Steyl,
seen from the western shores of the river Meuse, Baarlo (NL)

Panoramic view over the valley of the river Meuse, Neer (NL)

Farmland north of the village of Beesel (NL)

The Church of Our Dear Lady and castle “De Keverberg” Kessel (NL)

Washing away grid salt and mud collected over the last few days!

And I managed to add a few more jobs to the To-Do-List;

• The seat belt on the driver’s side doesn’t roll back up as it should;
• The speedo meter is getting very agitated at low speeds, with the needle bouncing wildly between 0 and 180 km/h!
• The clock has now stopped working completely;
• And finally while getting into the car at the carwash, I managed to rip of the driver’s side windscreen corner finisher;

But for the time being she’s tucked away in the shed, alongside the ’76 FHC. And as it looks now, she will stay there for the next three or four months …

Enjoying a fine autumn day

As the weather forecast for last Wednesday was rather fine (5°C and sunny), I decided to take a day off from work and enjoy the DHC. And after picking up the car from the shed I headed south towards my favourite “short distance” touring destination; “het Mergelland”. Or the marl stone country. Was a brilliant 200+ kilometres drive. The fact it is well outside the tourist season and there was a chill wind blowing certainly helped to keep most of the roads rather quiet.

Farmland south of the village of Eys (NL)

Forest road through the Vijlenerbos (NL)

Sadly the final part of the planned route (along the shores of the river Meuse) was closed shortly after the small village of Geulle aan de Maas. As it was getting late I decided on a favourite pastime of mine; beat the satnav J. Managed to knock of well over 15 minutes from the satnav’s ETA. To sum it up it was a rather enjoyable day!

But I’ll have to take the DHC out at least one more time before the end of the month of November. Due to some night frost there was a fair amount of salt grit on the road and that needs to be flushed of before the car will be tucked away for the winter months. Hopefully there will be more fine days this month …

View from the Kuttingerweg, Terziet (NL)

Chateau Beusdael, Sippenaken (B)

And I was reminded of a few small electrical gremlins that need sorting. First one being a now random functioning clock, one instrument panel bulb still not working. And the fuel gauge of course, though there was slightly more life in it!

Between Wijlre and Ubachsberg, Heugdenweg, Fromberg (NL)

Between Wijlre and Ubachsberg, Heugdenweg, Fromberg (NL)

FHC resto nr. 82; Fitting the doors

This evening another important job was carried out; fitting the doors. As this is definitely a two man job I asked a friend to assist me here. Glad I did! But before the doors could be fitted, the threads of the studs on the hinges had to be cleaned. That was a rather straightforward but time consuming job.

With the threads cleaned of the excess paint I first took a sidestep; trial fitting one of the door handles. I think the combination of the bright orange, black striping and all black door handles looks very good!

Back to the main job of fitting the doors. We started with the passenger door. And it didn’t take very long before it was in place and correctly aligned. Sadly the driver’s door turned out to be slightly problematic. It didn’t fit correctly in its designated place. That is when I remembered this was the door from my DHC that was removed after the problems with the paint some years ago. And when the door from was fitted I forgot the B-post grill and the rain gutter finish. And that’s where the door frame touched. But after moving the grill and the rain gutter finish back as far as possible we had enough clearance with decent shut lines (for a Speke car) 😜 But overall an evening well spent!

Autumn

This afternoon I had a few spare hours left. And as the weather was rather fine I took one of the cars for a short run. I had to take ‘t Kreng as it would lose me too much time to fetch the DHC from the shed. But it was a rather enjoyable drive nevertheless over some back lanes through the wide and lush valley of the river Meuse!

TR7’s left in The Netherlands

This post is partially thanks to a works colleague who pointed me at an obscure open source part of the RDW website (being the Dutch equivalent of the British DVLA). I was aware this site existed but over the past year or so I hadn’t managed to find it. But now I have! What’s so special? Well it gives an overview of all cars registered over here. Though the program isn’t without faults, but once you know how to use the various filters the result were rather pleasing: an extensive list of all Triumph’s TR7 and TR8 (still) registered in The Netherlands. Cars that are scrapped or exported are removed from the archives.

A few TR7/TR8 statistics that can be extracted from the database;

• Total number of registered TR7’s = 320
• Total number of registered TR8’s = 38
• Number of cars with a valid MOT = 111
• Number of insured cars = 192

This means that there are currently 111 cars that are “road legal”, with the oldest original Dutch TR7 on the road being registered on the 22^nd of March 1977. But from the TR7’s sold in 1976 there are 10 cars left, but none of these has a valid MOT certificate at the moment. Though 4 are still insured. And at least one of these is currently under restoration …

From the cars sold new in the Netherlands between 1977 and 1979 there are still 88 cars in the register. But only 12 of these have a valid MOT and are insured.

The lists with remaining 1980 and 1981 cars are markedly shorter compared with the previous ones. Though 18 of these are still on the road.

1982 is an interesting year as 44 of the cars sold then are still registered. But only 6 are currently on the road But probably the most interesting car in this list (with the exception of ‘t Kreng of course J) is the TR7 DHC with registration number LH47YV. A car that was first registered as late as the 17^th of August 1984!

But what is clear from the lists above, is that there are a fair number of cars that are currently of the road. And probably some of those will be lingering in forgotten places!

But there are also a fair number of cars that were sold new elsewhere and were imported to the Netherlands later in their life. These include all TR8 registered in the Netherlands.

And for the none Dutch speaking readers a short translation of the most important columns;

• Kenteken = licence number;
• Vervaldatum APK = expiry date MOT;
• Datum tenaamstelling = Registration date current owner;
• Datum eerste toelating = Car’s first registration date;
• Datum eerste afgifte NL =  Date that the car was first registered in the Netherlands;