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!

Who woulda thought that finding cool automotive stuff would be tough in a thriving city full of tourist stuff like Ottawa? This being my first visit to Ottawa since a grade 8 trip almost 3 decades ago, I had no idea where to look for automotive stuff. There certainly is a ton of great museums, most with a ton of stuff to keep the kids entertained while they are learning.

It was a bit surprising that the most automotive stuff we came across was at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, where we spotted this cool old workhorse. The Canada Hall follows the growth of life in Canada from the 1600’s through to modern day. Along the way, visitors travel through a cool series of villages and buildings all inside a dome that convinces one that they are outside in twilight. Outside a Saskatchewan granary sat the old beast. Very cool.
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