Desert Centre – Triumph Registar of America

Craig Kenyon's TR-6

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In spring of “81, I purchased my first Triumph.  It was a baby blue 72 Spitfire 1500.  I bought it off a family in north Houston.  I had just changed jobs and didn’t have a company car anymore so I needed backup wheels, as my main car was a 74 Europa.  I figured that two british cars might be as reliable as one real car.  Plus, an open car appealed to me after briefly owning a Healy in the “70’s.  When I relocated 6 months later, I let the Spit go.

In the summer of “82, I came to the Valley to attend the “Willy” school for wayward young men.  The Europa wasn’t the most optimum as there was no A/C, tiny windows and an anemic fan.  I called it my rolling sauna.  However, a fellow student from Maine with a “74 TR6 wanted to trade keys periodically.  The bug was back; well maybe the idea of natural air conditioning was uppermost.  I located my TR6 in Mesa and bought it off a real estate agent.  I drove that poor car hard.  Still do.  It took me faithfully to New Mexico, back to PHX and on to California.  Up the coast to Spokane, back to CA, through PHX and on to Grand Forks ND.  The Europa was laid up for a long time following a small incident coming down the mountain from Ruidoso.   In “90, my wife and I decided to come back to the Valley, actually, it was one of my few job offers.  As we had 4 vehicles, I let the Europa go as it was worth the most and we needed the money.  The TR was trailered down.

In the 130k plus hard motoring miles, the TR hasn’t been restored nor has required anything really more major than clutches.  What a piss poor design.  I had it repainted about 6 years ago following an incident in the garage.  Oh well.  I have pretty much done my own work for the past 25 years of ownership and find the car easy and straightforward.

4 Responses to Craig Kenyon's TR-6

  • Mike Long says:

    Craig,

    I love your story of how you grew and evolved with your British car passion over the years.. It was fascinating and very well written!!

    Nice post!!

    Whose next to post???? I really enjoy reading these personalized and unique stories about members… if you need help email Dave R. or Marty Clark!!

    Get Involved!!

    Your Triumph Buddy,

    Mike…..

  • Austin Branson says:

    Hi, Craig,
    I am an Englishman, living in France. I have an ex-California, 1974 TR6 that I am trying to get supercharged. One of my areas of concern is the ignition system. Where can I source a system that you use, please? Many thanks,
    Austin

  • craig kenyon says:

    Austin,
    I got out of the ignition business but here is a checklist to do it.
    1. go to http://www.autosportlabs.net/
    learn about about the megajolt controller, it is very simple but I would just buy one assembled (surface mount kits are really hard)
    2. the two biggest things are a mount for the VR sensor and a toothed wheel. There is a big megajolt community in the UK. You can source toothed wheels there. thoughts on the VR mount, mine were all behind the damper, so that once installed you never had to disturb it. That required machining that back of the damper with a step to accept the wheel, and the damper had to be rebuilt (you can’t afford to have the outer ring of the damper rotate on the rubber in relation to the inner ring. Or you can source a solid damper from racetorations in the UK.
    3. the wiring harness is pretty simple, see my wiring diagram. I mounted the megajolt on a sheet metal plate mounted in the pedal box and the EDIS-6 just inside the drivers right knee.
    4. The megajolt can sense positive pressure from a supercharger. best thing I ever did for my car. I did one for a E type too.
    Where do you live in France? I periodically go through Paris for work.
    Craig

  • Bruce Eskeberg says:

    Craig, in searching the DCTRA site I found an article in the October 2007 newsletter about a conversion you did to a crank triggered ignition system. I have a 1972 TR6 with the Patton throttle body fuel injection conversion and would like to add a crank triggered ignition system. I can’t seem to find a kit that is available for this and was hoping in addition to the above post you could give me a bit more detailed information on the parts and process you went through to build the system in the newsletter. In addition doing an internet search I found an article on a conversion that looked very nice that was printed at some point through DCTRA, the only date info I can find is the dates on the pictures form June 2006 and September 2007, is that an article you were involved with as well?

    Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated.
    Thanks,
    Bruce Eskeberg
    bandce@reagan.com

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