I was born in Dearborn, Michigan, literally in the shadow of the FoMoCo Rouge Plant. In the late '60s. While my friends fantasized about muscle cars and hot rods, my vision was set across the Pond. My first car was a 1959 TR3, a trade-in at the local Ford dealership, brought home by my used car salesman brother. It lasted two days. The local gas jockey was called to jump the battery, he was unfamiliar with polarity and fried the electricals. The car was quietly returned to the dealership that night. 

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My next try was a 1963 TR4, purchased in the summer of 1967 for $1200. Over that summer, working at the Rouge Engine Plant, I spent $1200 keeping it running, and sold it for $1200 before returning to college. It was my first, but not last, lesson in vintage and British car-owning economics.

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Still, the deep seated affliction persisted, and twenty years later in 1989, my wife and I took a south of France car tour in another 1959 TR3. The car was wonderful, once we roughly translated the French language owner's manual at 2AM in the DeGaulle airport parking lot. Several days touring the vineyards and small villages via the country roads of Burgundy and Chablis taught us the joys of a well-sorted TR3 and the hazards of stopping for photos in a bee-infested sunflower field (Photo 1).

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Fast forward another 30 years (2019) and a variety of British cars owned (Alvis, Bristol, MGs, and Jaguars), my third Triumph, a 1960 TR3A, TS61523L, was trailered home from Michigan (Photo 2). Signal Red/ Black leather with white trim and a heater, its modifications, over 15 years of ownership by an active TRA-club member, included rack and pinion steering, an alternator, chrome wire wheels, new side curtains and a thermostat-controlled fan.

During the last five years, it's had limited drive time as I pursued tours and shows with pre-WWI and WW2 American autos. Now, as I'm downsizing, it's become a favorite once again for local drives and shows (Photo 3-Oakwood Historical Society 2024). To date, my upgrades are a correct overdrive and radials. As a new member of the MVT, I'm looking forward  to touring the backroads once again in the Spring.