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Starting with one of the hottest Mays ever, we travelled down to Brands Hatch for TSSC Essex’s line up at Grand Britannia 100, spending two nights at their campsite. Then came a week of early starts to get a few miles under our belt before the heat of the day as we headed down to Cornwall. 

The trip down included a day at Haynes Motor Museum during the hottest part of the day and a sleepover in a picnic area on the A303. 

About 25 miles from our destination a suspected leaky gearbox seal meant our grand touring plans, including staying at the Austin A35 National, were promptly chucked out the window. We abandoned the scenic route and headed straight to Hendra Holiday Park.

Thankfully, without the caravan attached, the leak wasn’t too bad allowing us to do some drive outs in the Triumph during the week including the Lost Gardens of Heligan, Padstow and a trip to Healeys Cider

We attempted the drive home to Norfolk, but realised that playing “will we or won’t we run out of oil on the M4” wasn’t a game we wanted to play. So, after a tense 200 miles and consuming around 4 liters of ATF, we conceded defeat and called the AA. They took the car almost the whole way home, leaving us just enough distance (20 miles) to drive it back in a face-saving finale. Meanwhile, the caravan got its own VIP, separate flatbed ride home.

We did better than last year (broken flexplate), but still not quite good enough. Over 630 miles with the caravan on the back and around 150 miles without. Next year, we have a radical idea: actually making it to the National and back again under our own steam. No tow trucks, no broken bits and no excessive use of fluids.

A massive thank you to Jo, Mark, and the friendly lot at the Register for a great week. Hopefully see you next year!

One of our favourite runs, if only because its organised by Andy and Gill. For this one Nick came along too as he was down for the weekend.

After our initial wrong turning all went well with a Herald estate following us along the route. Halfway there, in the middle of a country lane, we met some of the Norfolk youth coming the other way and had a quick chat and picked up the gazebo they’d borrowed for their weekend.

Waxham Barn was a great place to meet and we were allowed to park up in front of the barn.

The Triumph behaved well and gave us a chance to check out the new temperature gauge added to the gearbox ready for our run down to Cornwall.

The threatened rain never materialised (hence the decision to take the estate), and we managed to have a great day wandering around and sitting by our cars and having a good natter. Thanks again to Tim for organising for us.

Originally started during Covid as a way of getting Triumphs out for a drive but without mixing in groups, and now in its fifth year, TSSC Norfolk Drive It Day Scatter Treasure Hunt keeps growing in popularity.

The hunt started between 10 and 10.30 with a choice of eight locations to choose from. The rest of the stops could be done in any order. Each stop had 3–5 questions with points given for correct answers. Although the big scores were from taking photos of other Triumphs out and about.

Our lunchtime stop this year was at Whitwell and Reepham Station where we had 22 Triumphs parked up at various times, plus a Rover and MG. Other stops included County School Station, a church ruins and Bug park.

(Both the Heralds in the main photo have the Vitesse engine, note the different ways to making it fit with the Herald bonnet, the most common way is to cut the grill so it can go infront of the bonnet, versus the bonnet extension on my Herald).

With the Triumph 2500 estate Polybushed all round a good drive out seemed to be in order and the TSSC AGM seemed like the ideal opportunity.

She ran like a dream, its great to be able to cruise at 60mph in reasonable comfort. Saturday saw haveing a quick look at Foxton Locks and then is staying in a Premier Inn, Market Harborough, and meeting up with a few fellow AOs before attending the AGM on the Sunday. Hoping that the estyate will make it down to Cornwall for the 2000 Register National, but happy the way she is at the moment.

We had a great turn out for TSSC Norfolk’s New Year Brunch Run. Despite snow, especially on the Norfolk coast, stopping several members from attending and others choosing their moderns, we still managed a good turnout of 17 Triumphs along with a Standard and MG.

There was a short run, starting from Attleborough, along frosty country roads, including a quick dip in a ford, and ending at Forncett Steam Museum, where the Triumphs parked up together. The museum did a great job accommodating 55 of us with some lovely soup, bacon rolls, tea and cake, along with a guided tour (in two groups due to the number attending). All this whilst supporting the museum, which is run by volunteers and purely from donations, raising £550 for hosting us for the day – everyone’s a winner!

A very small reasonably close car show/fair. It had been cancelled the week before due to the weather, which was just as well because I thought it was on the Sunday not the Saturday.

It was a bit chilly to be sitting by the car so there was plenty of walking around chatting to other car owners, we seem to be getting known as the TSSC people.

Car of the show must have been Alans, who we know through the Retro Caravan Club, CORD 810 from the 1930s.

On the way home we also picked up a new to us caravan – a Sprite 400 on the hope that the estate won’t have any problem towing it when we head down to the 2000 National in Devon next year.

Well that seemed to go well! Campers began to arrive at Forest Park campsite from Wednesday, and all 13 of the pods along with 32 pitches were booked for the weekend. It was great to see so many people (and Triumphs) staying at the campsite. 

The weekend started on the Friday with a meet and greet in the bar at 5pm and carried on into the evening with bingo and meat raffle. There was a drive out on the Saturday as well as a walking treasure hunt from the campsite to Overstrand, both of which were well supported. 

On the Saturday evening the results of the picture quiz (won by Dirk and Sue) and the treasure hunt (won by the Muschialli family from Leicester) were announced and prizes awarded. This was followed by 64 of us sitting down for a meal. The evening was rounded off with a live band playing covers from the 60s and 70s. 

Sunday morning saw bright sunshine for the run to Holkham Hall (a relief after the weather forecast the preceding week), with 42 cars joining meeting at Forest Park. After the initial rush of cars at the entrance to the Hall, things settled down to a steady stream of Triumphs. We managed to make just over the 1/4 mile, made up of 84 Triumphs. Results were given for the teddy naming and won by Nichola and Ian, while the Peoples Choice was a TR2 owned by TR Wensum member Helen. 

We thankfully managed to get the gazebo away just before the rain came. Sunday evening saw 20 odd remainers getting together in the bar for a final drink or two, before leaving on the Monday. 

Altogether we raised over £2,000 (with gift aid) for East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices. 

Thanks for the weekend must go to Forest Park staff for their great hosting, and organisation; to our band of hi-viz wearers – Dirk & Sue, Andy & Gill for the sending off at Forest Park, Steve and Delia for selling so many teddy names and helping with the booking-in. Steve & Linda, Clive & Sandra, Jane and Lou at the gate. Chris, Ian and Colin for helping with the measuring. Special thanks must go to John and Caroline for providing both the Saturday and Sunday tulip routes as well as helping out on the Sunday, and special thanks to Steve and Karen for liaising with Holkham Hall for the ‘mile’. And finally to all the Norfolk Triumph owners that attended and to TSSC members from further afield who made the trek to sunny Norfolk – especially those who brought their Triumphs! 

Judging by the comments folks had a great time. Will we be doing it again? Watch this space… 

With the organising of the Norfolk camping weekend we thought we’d do something nice and easy for the afternoon. A two minute drive down the road to Broom Hall to display both Triumphs at Watton Rotary’s gala day and classic car show. A good selection of classic cars, especially pre-war. A very pleaseant and stress free way to spend the afternoon.

What could possibly be the last trip with the Triumph estate and Sprite combo this year we thought we’d take Kai away for a few days, combining it with a catch up with Forest Park for the Norfolk camping weekend. 

Paul picked up Kai on the Tuesday morning and popped into the kiddies play day at Watton where Christina was helping out. After a quick lunch, and with the combo sorted, we were off to North Norfolk. 

Everything was going swimmingly until around an hour into the journey when we had the usual “gearbox getting hot” smell. Before we could pull over it did its thing of spewing out some oil leaving a trail of smoke in our wake as it burnt off on the exhaust. Confirmed by the way the trail of traffic behind us suddenly dropped back. We pulled over in a building site driveway to let things cool down while trying to remain calm in front of Kai. 

After half an hour with only 10 miles to go we decided to resume the journey, making it to the campsite just as the gears started to play up. 

We were soon set up having a cup of tea with Kai, keeping us busy, quickly taking any thoughts of breakdown away. We then did some exploring around the campsite including a walk through the woods before a pasta dinner and an early night. 

Thankfully Kai was the last to wake up giving us time to come round naturally. After joining us for breakfast in bed we were up in time for a meeting with staff at the campsite to discuss final preparations for TSSC camping weekend in September. The rest of the morning was taken up sorting a 2.5 mile walking treasure hunt to the beech where we saw the Red Arrows doing a display at nearby Cromer. There was a children’s music workshop in the afternoon which we took Kai along to. Followed by a walk in the woods for a bit of hide and seek. 

We’d decided to give ourselves a treat in the evening with a meal in the bar and after such a busy day we were all happy to get to bed early again. 

Earlier in the summer we were part of a display at the North Norfolk Railway anniversary weekend for which we were given free tickets for a ride on the railway. With Thursday being a “steam” day we decided to redeem them and take Kai for a ride from Holt to Sheringham for a walk along the beech and some fish and chips. We also made a detour to Halfords to pick up some more gearbox oil just in case…

Back at the campsite we had another walk through the woods for a bit of hide and seek. This was followed by a third early night. 

Friday was our last day and we aimed to leave early while the weather was relatively cool, setting off just before 9.30. To try and stop the gearbox from boiling over we stopped off for a tea break just over halfway in the Easton lay-by. Half hour later we were back on the road with our fingered crossed but making it home just before lunch. All that was left to go was to pop out and buy Kai a new pair of shoes after his new ones he went away in were used as brakes on his balance bike. 

So it would appear that stopping every hour for half an hour stops the gearbox from boiling over when towing. A refurbed oil cooler and electric fan will be needed before next year’s trip to Devon the Triumph 2000 national. Or it’s going to take a long time to get there…