Introducing TA1157

[Owen]

This car, affectionately known as Numbum, started life as a narrow wing, wide tank model. It was rebodied around 1980 with a narrow tank and wide wings.

It has many non original parts on it, largely because of funding. I'd rather be driving a non original car than have it off the road waiting for funds to buy the right bits. It's never been restored, just repaired as needed and driven.

My wife & I use this car quite a bit, not only for club runs but just going out for a drive when the fancy takes us.

durham9.jpg (53.03 KiB) Viewed 6684 times

1937 MGTA Numbum Stanhope Ford 1982.jpg (37.38 KiB) Viewed 6684 times

Here's a short video taken at the Saltburn Historic Motor Gathering, which is a non competetive hillclimb on a closed public road.

[Steve Simmons]

I love a car that gets used as intended.

TC8975 was restored by a general mechanic back in the early 80's, driven for a bit and then left to rot outdoors for over a decade. I haven't restored it either, and never plan to. Just maintain and drive as you do with yours. Although if you add up all the work I've done "maintaining" then you would have most of a restoration! Only thing I haven't done is take the body off the chassis.

FYI, you can also embed your You Tube videos in your posts. Just place the video ID (in your case UUknOMpt0iwLfKEqM0hGawfQ) between the You Tube tags.

[Rick Waters]

TC 7881 is also a member of the "Never Been Restored" club. This is partly because I've heard so many stories of TC's being taken apart, and somehow never going back together, at least with the owner that dismantled them. Just about every piece on the chassis, except for the gearbox, has been either replaced or restored. All the correct original pieces that were missing when I bought the car have been sourced and installed, and it runs like a dream. What it needs is, of course, a tub rebuild and proper paint job. Can you spell expensive?

[Gene Gillam]

Very nice sound going up that hill.

[Owen]

Steve, we love using it too. It's in the sort of condition I imagine it might have been in when 10 years old, but still great fun. Like you, my maintenance has meant replacing a lot of parts, but it's been over time not all at once.

Thanks for the tip about Youtube. I'll remember that for next time, and thanks too for a great forum.

Rick, I can't remember what my tub cost me but it wouldn't have got done if we hadn't had a cash windfall at the time.

Gene, that sound is the direct result of my reluctance to spend more money than I need to. The original exhaust had been patched so many time that it finally got beyond patching. I priced a new one and nearly fell over. I went to a local exhaust supplier and raided his oddments bin to come up with that exhaust. Cost £12 and a few hours fabrication

[David Edgar]

Owan,

I love your avatar of the TC barely visible through the water spray. Very cool ! ! !

And if you wanted to, you could try imbedding the the video as Steve describes by going back to your first post and doing an edit.

[Owen]

Thanks for the kind words about my avatar. That shot was taken a couple of years ago on the annual Beamish Reliability & Road Safety Trial. This is a run of about 160 miles over roads that were used by manufacturers for testing cars in the 1930s & 40s. The hills are still the same but the road surfaces will be much better than they were. If anything is going to break or fall off, this is the day it will happen.

When I saw the water I decided to go for it and not slow down too much, fully expecting to be stopped at the other side to dry out the ignition, but there was no problem.

I've tried editing to show the video but nothing shows up in preview so I left it as it is.

[Steve Simmons]

Whoops, I read the You Tube link wrong. The video ID is actually "a8-4mRARLik". Those You Tube links are so complicated and I never understood why. If you want to use that text in the Youtube tags then it will work. Sorry 'bout that!

[Owen]

Thanks, Steve.

I've amended it.