Regular commenter in The Garage, Andre Rousseau drives the sweet Triumph GT6 in the shot above. He writes about life with an aging Triumph at his website GT6.ca and takes some pretty cool photos to go along with it.
Last weekend, Andre and the feisty coupe visited Ottawa’s Vintage Wings to take some pics of the car with the group’s Supermarine Spitfire XVI. Not only is this aircraft the namesake to the Gt6’s roadster sibling, but they are both audibly stunning. For those who’ve never heard a Spitfire, imaging the Triumph’s straight 6 at full song and then multiply it by 100. You might have a sound close to the Rolls Royce Merlin engine found in the British WW2 fighter.
I’ve already wasted some quality time reading the stories at the Vintage Wings website and I expect I’ll be reading for a while yet. There are stories of each aircraft in action and through restoration. Pilot Tim Leslie has a great tale about learning how to use the ejection seat in the Saber they are restoring that came complete with some quotes that could easily apply to racers and minor sports coaches:
“…every pilot has a bag of luck; and a bag of experience. When you start out you have a full bag of luck. However, one day you will reach into your bag of luck and it will be empty… by then you better damn well have a full bag of experience you can fall back on…”
On our next trip to Canada’s capital, we’ll be sure to visit Vintage Wings. We may even have to invite Andre along for another photo shoot!
4 comments ↓
Back in the early 70’s the Cdn. Championship raced once at Rockcliffe in Ottawa. It poured on Sat. and about the only place you could find a race mechanic (or driver for that matter) was in the aircraft museum. In those days most people didn’t have enclosed trailers or canopies so you had to work in the open. There were a few pickups and the odd truck or van but mostly just cars or station wagons as tow vehicles.
I remember hearing about that. Do you have any photos Leighton?
Sorry no. We didn’t take pictures ourselves so none at all. The only pictures I have at all are some of me racing and some of Judy in her F4.
Awesome, thanks.
I guess I should get my hands on a new server and start blogging again. I made a failed attempt with http://blog.gt6.ca
If your looking for some GT6’s engine at song…
http://www.youtube.com/user/slippingclutch
As for the Vintage Wings, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSAWdSaKv8Q
That is the video I dropped off to them.
A.
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