Craig Kenyon's TR-6

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.