There is an ancient Chinese proverb that goes, “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single terrible eBay purchase”. Being worldly scholars, the GK Garages boys knew this and got straight to work.
How do you go about selecting a vehicle that will take you halfway around the world? By creating a detailed list of requirements of course. Reliability, high-tech electronic aids, top quality safety standards, off-road capability. We don’t understand what any of these words mean, but one phrase we do understand is “MOT Exempt” which for the non car savvy means any death trap over 40 years old is fine to drive on the road (with the added benefit of being Tax-Exempt as well!). Perfect! A pre-1982 car is a requirement we understand, and are happy to get behind!
The 60’s and 70’s were well known for producing high quality, reliable cars. So the next job was to work out the model of our dream rally car. Now obviously when you think of this era, your mind goes to the beautiful Italian super cars of the time; the Ferrari 250 GTO, Lamborghini Miura, Maserati Ghibli to name but a few. Alongside the Italians are the classic British beauties; E-type Jaguar and Aston Martin DB5 and DB6. Both nations making some of the most iconic motorcars ever, so surely we could get one for under the £1000 budget… right? (Spoiler: we couldn’t)
So we had an era, countries of manufacture, and a price limit from the rally rules; time to start some eBay searching! And what beauties we found! A slew of Morris Minors, a rear-engined Italian weapon in the form of a Fiat 850d, a sneaky Standard 10 from the 1950’s even crept into our watchlist, however all of these were overshadowed by a legendary British manufacturer. We discovered a car which Motorsport Magazine reviewed at the time calling the suspension “jarring”, the brakes “spongy”, the gearbox was noted as well, stating “1st gear very often almost impossible to engage” however, importantly they say “the interior is of true luxury demeanour”. So to us, this was perfect!
Without further ado, meet our new (to us) British Beast, a 1967 Triumph 1300fwd, Stanley!
Now first thing to note is, after some detailed engineering research and difficult mathematics, we discovered that 1296 is a bigger number than 1200. This means that our 1296cc engine is over the 1200cc limit of the rally. However after some begging, bribing, and unmentionable acts, the Adventurists have allowed Stanley’s entry into the rally provided an additional fundraising effort of £200 as a fine for our flagrant disregard of the rules.
Like any good car buyers we know how to go about ensuring a good purchase. We got him after very little consideration, even less research into the make & model, and bought him sight-unseen – the holy trinity! I know, we’re true professionals! After parting with our hard earned cash, we waited patiently for delivery of our new team member, in the meantime planning important aspects such as sticker placement and exhaust pipe girth. Until on a random Tuesday, Christmas came for us at GK Garages.
Some thorough, professional level inspections took place where we discovered important features such as a lack of wing mirrors, seat belts which can only be described as “better than nothing”, and a healthy amount of structural rust. Nothing GK Garages cannot handle… so stay tuned to see Stanley’s progress. Some serious turd polishing is about to commence!
