TR7 Design Proposal - Part 2

Hi folks

One of the things I have realised about restoring a car is that sometimes you have to know when to quit for the day, as things always look better in the morning. Another is to break a job down into chunks, so that when you go back the next time a lot of it is already done. Another is that doing the job can become a very solitary affair and that we all need a bit of motivation from others every now and then.

Never having been a fan of classic car clubs, I recently found myself going against my own grain and joining the TR Drivers' Club. What an epiphany! I now feel like I am in a little family of TR7 owners, all obtaining great enjoyment from whatever they (we) do with their TRs, although in my case I can only dream of the "driving" bit. After an email conversation with the club's John Clancy, masterminded by Simon at Robsport and in connection with my Austin-Morris styling sketch for a TR7, I decided to join. Now I have a childish thrill of anticipation when the club magazine arrives each month and enjoy very much reading its contents cover to cover. 

Incidentally, it turns out that the sketch is a genuine Harris Mann affair! How do I know? Because John sent the link to Harris who then telephoned John in amazement that his trace drawing had survived all these years. John can't recall exactly what Harris said but apparently the full colour rendering below was coloured in after Harris had taken the tracing of it which now hangs on my office wall. Clearly the design was just one of those never expected to go into production but gave a possible option as to a styling update to the car. Interesting!

Harris Mann styling sketch for a TR7 upgrade. Now hanging on my office wall.

The coloured-in version, from Harris Mann's own collection.

I had a great email today from Kent Sandiford, who follows this blog. It is another example of how a few words can motivate an individual. Kent also has a TR7 which he is restoring and - amazingly - his story is even longer than mine, starting in 1987 (a year that always reminds me of my heavy metal phase,typified by Whitesnake's 1987 album. Ahem, we were all young once). The car concerned is a 1977 fixed-head like mine, although Kent's is S-registered whereas mine is an "R". What's interesting to me is that my car has a VIN number starting ACG178** whereas Kent's car's VIN is ACG257**, which means that they must have made 7,000 odd cars between mine and Kent's. And of course you can take the word "odd" any way you like. Kent has a great TR7 restoration blog, which puts mine to shame, at http://irestorationtr7.blogspot.co.uk/.