My TR-6's first trip by Bruce Cooper

As the two-and-a-half year restoration of my 1973 TR-6 wound down, I set a goal of taking a trip:  first, Reno, Nev., the first week of August for Hot August Nights.  It didn’t work out.  OK then, the Roadster Factory party with Texas Triumph Register members Vern and Russ; a transmission leak, better not push it.  Well, so much for a trip I thought, until in the mail comes a flyer telling of the Albuquerque British Car Club’s meet in Durango, Colo., on September 25th - 27th.  I can make that!

I immediately start working on the transmission leaks.  I was able to stop all the leaks but one, which I slowed down.  To keep the leak from dripping onto the exhaust, I made up some plates to route the oil away.

Tuesday September 22nd, 5:20 a.m., I’m on the road for Roswell, New Mexico.  The car has 712 miles on it.  I take Hwy 290 towards Austin; the car is running great.  Wait, did I just hear something?  I turn off the radio, listen, and everything seems fine, oil pressure, temperature, so on I go. While passing though Austin, I stop and have the transmission fluid checked (880 miles), it’s OK, some leakage but my diversion plates are working.

Leaving Austin, I take Hwy 84 towards Abilene.  I stop for lunch in Goldthwaite and a couple of elderly men come up and want to talk about cars.  It seems they knew someone with a TR-3.  The car is idling a bit high, so I adjust the carburetors (975 miles) and then it’s back on the road.

Coming into Abilene, the wind is blowing so hard I need to roll up the windows to stay warm.  At Abilene, I take I-20 west and use the mile markers to check my odometer.  It’s off on the low side, but not by much.

Heading west on Hwy 180 through Lamesa, I smell oil and pull into a service station to have the transmission checked (1,265 miles),  but my car won’t fit on the lift, the car’s too narrow or the lift’s too wide.  I’m told about a Quik Lube three blocks down.  My car fits their bay.  The oil is a bit lower than in Austin, but still OK. Oil on the plates is dripping onto the exhaust when I stop.  Wiping off the plates fixes the problem, for now.

Heading west on Hwy 180, I pass a Texas state trooper on the side of the road.  As I get about 1/8 mile down the road, the DPS officer pulls on to the highway headed west.  I know I wasn’t speeding so he can’t be after me, but the next thing I know he’s behind me with lights flashing; I pull over.

Officer Hernandez asks me for my license, registration, and insurance and explains that in Texas I need to display a front license plate.  I explain that the TR-6 was not designed to have a front plate, especially when fitted with an oil cooler.  Officer Hernandez goes back to his car and does what officers do.

Minutes later, he’s back and hands me my papers and a written warning.  Before getting into his car, he says, “By the way, your car sounded great going by.”

At Seminole, I turn north on Hwy 214 to Plains, where I stop to get gas and add a quart of oil (1,331 miles).  Sixteen miles west I’m in New Mexico (1,347 miles).  It’s now 7:15 p.m. Mountain time and I stop to stay the night with friends in Roswell.

The next day I leave Roswell on  Hwy 380 and finally get to the mountains and some great winding roads that we all love to drive.  Just east of Lincoln, New Mexico, road repairs force driving at speeds of 20-25 mph on oil and gravel, but I get by without any damage.

I have a few vehicles to pass and the TR-6 and I are having a great time.  As I accelerate and shift up through the gears I feel the horsepower and torque of my modified engine, which makes passing a breeze.

After Lincoln, Hwy 380 goes through Capitan, home of “Smokey the Bear.”  There really was a bear named Smokey, a cub that lived through a fire that wiped out everything else.

The road between Carrizozo and San Antonio is a wash board.  I try to find a smooth groove, but no luck. I guess it was a good test, since nothing fell off the car.  San Antonio provides a lunch stop at a great place, The Owl Bar & Café, which got its start from scientists working on the “Trinity Project” who would stop in for a drink and some food.

Due to the delays from road repairs and rough roads, I take I-25 to Albuquerque to make up some lost time.  About 60 miles south of Albuquerque, I run into a dust storm blowing across the road.  It doesn’t look too bad and I can’t turn around; there’s no harm done.

I get to Albuquerque (1,729 miles) around 3:30 p.m. and meet up with my friend Kevin.  Even with the TR-6 running great, I want to check it over, so Kevin and I get to work. We add some oil to the carburetors and with a color tune kit we look at the fuel burn. The burn and the plugs look great; no adjustments are made. The transmission oil is low and oil is added.

Thursday, September 24th, I retrieve my wife Cammie from the airport.  She feels the TR-6 is too small for that long of a trip, but she’s more than happy to go on shorter ones.  We spend the day eating New Mexico food and visiting friends and family.

We arrive at Kevin’s house early Friday ready to head to Durango, Colo., but Kevin isn’t home.  His wife Andrea tells us he’s still working on his Jaguar XJ-6’s fuel pump.  We leave a bit late; our caravan includes a nice, unrestored MGB.  My co-pilot for this part of the trip is Woeter, a teenagera from Belgium.  We get along great and talk about cars.

The road to Durango offers a few turns and the drive is not thrilling until we get north of Bloomfield, New Mexico.  For most of the trip we fight a strong crosswind; oncoming trucks seem to pull the car into their lane.  We arrive in Durango (2,201 miles) around 2:30 p.m.  The Albuquerque British Car Club’s first night’s activity is a “meet everyone” gathering.  We meet a few, but call it an early night.

Saturday 7:00 a.m., and it’s the drivers meeting for the TD Rally. My TR-6 is entered with Kevin as the driver and me as the navigator. Some of the ABQ club question my sanity in letting Kevin drive, but it’s part of our secret plan.  The rally starts at 8:00 and we are the fourth car out, top up, yes, I said top up. The temperature is about 45 degrees and a wind chill of way too cold, I now know my heater works!

The first checkpoint is an odometer check with the rally masters and we are off a bit.  All the rally checkpoints are marked with orange paint on the road, so as Kevin and I approach the mileage that should be the second checkpoint we start looking for the markers.  One small problem, the road is marked for repairs with orange paint, so where are the checkpoints and are we ahead or behind?  The next checkpoint is manned and we are about 45 seconds ahead of schedule, so Kevin slows as much as possible. We still cross this checkpoint about 20 seconds early.  We proceed at a slower pace than need be to lose some time.  Being on a two-lane road makes the drive nice until we come up behind a truck pulling a horse trailer.  We should be going about 47 mph and we’re doing 30 mph with no place to pass.  Finally a chance to pass, and away we go.

I guess we’re about 2 1/2 minutes behind, and Kevin’s having a ball making up time, doing better than the posted speed.  I see our road sign and Kevin checks out the brakes as he makes a left turn.

By the odometer and my watch, we’re back on schedule and now watch for the next checkpoint.  There it is and it’s manned, we’re 15 seconds early, so Kevin slows as I count off the seconds.  I estimate we cross about 2-3 seconds early, not bad.  We think we’re doing great and then car 5 passes us, did we miss something or did they?

Now we’re on a gravel road, which is not too bad, and we see why car 5 passed us, the driver needed a short break (Mother Nature).  I tell Kevin that I could use one of those and we decide to wait for the next checkpoint, where we arrived 30 seconds ahead.

After our break we are four minutes behind and three cars have passed us.  Kevin increases speed and promises there will be no power slides.  The hard part is getting by the other cars, but we get lucky as they are stopped for cattle trucks to load.  We pull around the two cars as the trucks start to move. We still have one car to get by, but the road is wider, so that’s no longer a problem.

The time made up by not having to wait on other cars was taken up by waiting for the trucks, so Kevin’s still pushing it.  This road is better packed, but a wash board, and the ride not good.  We seem to have made up most of our time so we slow down.  At the next checkpoint we’re ahead of schedule by about 25 seconds, so we slow again. As we creep up on this checkpoint, I count down the seconds until Kevin can increase our speed.  5-4-3-2-1, Kevin hits the gas and the tires spin on the dirt road.  We go through the checkpoint 4-6 seconds late.

Back on paved roads and we believe we’re doing great (or we have no clue).  Only one more checkpoint and Kevin thinks it will be unmanned; we don’t watch the speed closely.  As we near the finish, the checkpoint is manned and we’re 30 seconds early.  Kevin slows to a crawl, and we hit the checkpoint about 4 seconds early.

The car is covered in dust, but the rally was worth it; a little ways past the finish line is a car wash.

The afternoon drive is a road tour with a questionnaire to be answered for a prize.  Cammie and I takea our time and tried to enjoy the drive and scenery of Durango and the mountains.  As we pull into the hotel parking lot after the ride, we hear a loud aaclunk from the rear of the TR-6.  I pray that it’s something simple.  As Cammie get ready for the banquet, I jack up the car and crawl under to see if I can find the problem.  There it is, the rubber washer on the muffler bracket has melted away and the muffler is swaying from side to side.  A little work with a wrench and I’m ready to clean up for the night’s activities, beginning with happy hour.

Sunday, September 27th, the car show starts at 9:00 a.m., but right now it’s two hours earlier and I have a TR-6 to clean out and wash.  Man, is it cold out here, and my hands do not like this, but off I go to the car wash.  On the way to the car wash, I have to put air in my right rear tire, which is low.

The show has two judges and popular choice for each class.  The judges pick their choice out of each class and everyone who registered for the show votes popular choice. Cammie shows up around 10:00 a.m. and we make our choices.

We have to wait until noon for the results, and in the meantime I talk with a few other TR-6 owners. We talk about parts and our home clubs.  I tell them about the clubs I belong to, the Texas Triumph Register and 6-Pack.  I realize what great club support we have at Texas Triumph Register.  I don’t know if it’s because we’re an all Triumph club or just our people.  6-Pack is a national club that has really helped me with information and inspiration about the TR-6.

High noon, it’s time for the showdown.  First are the awards for the road tour and Cammie and I win nothing.  On to the TD Rally: third place, not us; second place, not us; first place, Kevin and Bruce! It’s a surprise, with 118 points missed.  Next is the long distance award, which I win for driving over 1,000 miles.  Now for the classes, I don’t win a popular choice award, but do get the judges’ award for my class.

What a trip and show!  My first and I go home with three awards (trying to keep up the Texas Triumph Register tradition).

After some lunch, it’s 3:00 p.m. and we’re on the road (2,430 miles) to Albuquerque.  My co-pilot for this leg is Sean, whose dad is Gordon with the MGB from the trip to Durango.  The pace is a bit slower and the TR-6 is barely working to keep up  The pace reflects in the gas mileage, 31mpg.  Just outside of Albuquerque our caravan stops and we say our good-byes, since we are going to different parts of the city.

After taking Cammie to the airport Monday morning, I go to get my tire fixed.  The tire shop is busy and while waiting, I set up a wheel alignment.  The wheel alignment is done at a shop call AP Automotive, and what a great group of guys.  I get right in and they make some adjustment to the rear wheels.  I wish these guys were in Houston.  If you’re ever in Albuquerque and need an alignment, go see them.

I head east to Lubbock, where I plan to stop for the night.  Behind me I see those beautiful mountains and in front of me I see black clouds.  The rain starts about 40 miles west of Vaughn, New Mexico, and my TR-6 doesn’t leak!  I stop for a soda in Vaughn and talk to a trucker who just came from the east.  He tells me there’s hail in the storm to the east of Vaughn.  I don’t want to go through that, so I head south on Hwy 285 to Roswell.  About 60 miles south of Vaughn, the transmission drops out of overdrive and then right back in.  I pull across a dig and crawl under the TR-6, but the oil level is good (2,900 miles).  What could be wrong? I make it to Roswell around 8:00 p.m., decide to get a room and leave early Tuesday morning.

It’s 4 a.m. and I’m on the road.  The TR-6 is running great.  The heater is on to battle the cold and all is right in my world.  Five hours later and I’m in Sweetwater; the heater is off but the inside of the TR-6 still has warm air coming in.  It’s still cool outside, so what is causing this?  I stop to check and find the part that holds the heater cable is broken, so the cable just slides back and forth.  I adjust the heater control valve to the off position.  The TR-6 needs another quart of oil (3,260 miles).  The engine is new, so could it still be breaking in?  I guess I’ll need to keep track of oil added, to see if this usage continues.  I travel various highways from Sweetwater to Austin to Georgetown to Giddings, where I pickup Hwy 290 to home.

At 4:30 p.m. I’m home with 3,688 miles on the odometer.  The trip was a blast, the TR-6 ran great with only minor inconvenience.  I averaged 29 mpg over the whole trip.  Next year, I hear the Albuquerque club’s show will be in Ruidoso, New Mexico.  I love that country!  I can make that!