Uncle Frank, Team 710's Mascot, Gimp, Sugar Daddy, Medical Advisor, and Font of all things bollocks
Team 710 Cams R Us Tour 2010
Once again the team 710 boys planned to make the pilgrimage to this year’s classic Le Mans. In their usual style and with only two weeks to go, three of the team decided to whip out their engines and replace the cams.
Firstly Nigel with the Peerless started, then Richard and finally Nick. Richards job was about to change the cam on his TR3, this proved to be a bigger job than originally thought as the parts were late arriving , and with work commitments , would prove to be impossible. Nigel managed to set his engine up and the Peerless was ready for the road, then finally Nick, Although not a TR, got the engine back into his 1972 MGB Roadster on the Tuesday before the off, only to discover that whilst he was tightening the head down , one of the studs snapped. The international distress signal was raised by waving his arms in the air and muttering profanities. After a few telephone calls, the boys rallied around and managed to remove the original stud and replace with new. The following morning the car was on the rolling road being set up before the convoy on the Wednesday evening.
The lads rendezvoused in Portsmouth with some other guys and the convoy was complete. So the final line up was Nigel’s Peerless, Richards TR6, James Porsche with Edd as co driver, Nick with his MGB Roadster and finally Phil & Carl in the Team 710 Surgical support vehicle. As those who will have witnessed Portsmouth ferry port on Thursday morning, the car park was full of classic cars from Ferraris, Bentley’s, Astons an abundance of Triumphs.
Once in France the cars made their way via various routes to Le Mans, we had decided to take the scenic route. This proved to be a error as the temperature was starting to rise causing the cars and drivers to suffer. Talking to others who travelled down on the Thursday, many cars suffered due to the magnificent weather and heat, not just ours. We finally arrived at the camp site and received a warm (no pun intended) welcome from those already settled for the weekend.
We could not have asked for a better weekend, we started off watching the practice laps with spectacular lightening storms in the back ground, followed by glorious weather for the races. We were all amazed at the amount of Triumphs that attended from all types of TRs, Spitfires, Stags, GT6’s etc even the kit car based Triumphs. The camaraderie between other clubs was also very enjoyable and everybody who attended had an excellent weekend, it was just a pity it had to end and we all had to make our way back home.
As with any classic car events, new friends were made and old acquaintances reunited. I would like to congratulate all the Triumph teams who raced Including the French Peerless team, Mark with the Jigsaw racing team and not forgetting our very own Celia Stevens, who with the Antonia Loysen, raced the 1932 Citroen.The Citroen is the only Citroen to have raced at Le Mans since 1932. There aren't any other eligible Citroens and we were therefore the only one there!! Can't be bad really.
Although she was not racing her Peerless, Celia found the time to talk and support the other Triumph teams, a true ambassador for the register. I would also like to express thanks the North London Group for supporting Celia and Ian with a raffle to help them on their way. A thank you goes out to the TR register, TSSC, and many more for making this trip a memorable one. See you in 2012
Celia with the Citroen, The team came a respectable 48th out of 68 cars. This was the only Citroen to race with all British women drivers.
Congratulations to
Celia and Antonia, Drivers
Ian for preping the car.
Richard and Ben as sponsors
Nigel and Phil For pit bitching
And not forgetting all sponsors who help with this project Thank you from TEAM 710
