April 2016 Classic & Sports Car 161

THANKS TOΔ Moss Europe: 020 8867 2020;www.moss-europe.co.ukΔ Oli Cottrell, Classic JaguarReplicas: 0118 971 2091;www.jaguarreplicas.com

It was a funny old year, 2015. Thelast time you read about theTriumph, I’d just taken it off theroad for a pre-50th birthday (its,not mine) spruce up. Nothing toodramatic: some filler here, a dash ofrattle-can paint there, that accursedsteering column bush, all puttingoff for a bit longer the bigger tasksthat I can still ignore at the moment.And then work (namely C&SC –The London Show) overtook me.Suddenly it was November, ourworkshop was being demolishedand the Beast needed to be shifted.

Thankfully, Oli Cottrell of Clas-sic Jaguar Replicas stepped in,allowing me to kill several birdswith one stone: get the Triumph offsite, give it a good home over thewinter and get some of those jobsdone while it was there. I borroweda Kia Something-or-other fromformer editor Clements (today theGod of all things caravan andmotorhome), hitched up the C&SCtrailer (now also sadly gone due tolack of storage space), loaded up theTriumph and made a dash for Berk-shire as the bulldozers moved in.

Oli’s principal job was to fit thenew wiring loom, which I’d wantedto do myself until common senseprevailed. I’d bought the loomfrom Moss Europe and been hugelyimpressed by the process. Before Iwas allowed to order one for myMk1/Mk2 cross, I took a call fromfellow owner (and Moss employee)Adam Chignell. He then painstak-ingly talked me through thedecades of mods and bodging to theTriumph, to make sure that thereplacement was bespoke andwould fit with minimal adaptation.

It was nice to catch up with Adamand Triumph-mad son Will when Ipicked up the loom from MatthewHutchins at Moss Europe’s LondonHQ, which was only a spit and acough from our old office.

Oli was certainly grateful of thatextra attention to detail when hefitted the lovely new item. The

BEASTIE’S LONG-AWAITED RETURN

Triumph 2.5PIRun by James ElliottOwned since April 1998Total mileage 64,218Miles since January 2015report 224Latest costs £1170

bottle). That bought a little moretime but my original thinking thatthe car would be away until springwas undone by 6 January when, forthe first time in more than 12months, the Beast became legal.

On picking it up, I instantlybecame addicted all over again. Inapproaching 20 years of ‘owner-ship’, the joyous thrills of drivingthe Beast have never dimmed and itstill brings out the hooligan in me.It isn’t the fastest car in the world,but it is the best-sounding andthere is just something a bit lairyand outlaw about it. My relation-ship with it is like forever beingstuck in the first three months of aromance, and I guess that’s why I’venever parted with it when so manyother classics have come and gone.

With the car pressed into dailyuse (the kids love its attention-grab-bing persona and springy back seat),my growing jobs list (carpets, heater,hi-fi, rust-holes, etc) is being toppedby the fact that maybe it’s time togrow up and fit a steering wheelthat takes a bit of pressure off myarms. If anyone has a MkI PI item,I would love to hear from them.

There is another reason, ofcourse, why I am so pleased to havethe Triumph back: sadly, there issombre news on the Jensen front.

previous horrible mess was soknackered that even I was contentto watch him bin it rather than letme try to salvage some “get youhome” emergency wiring from it.

As a result of the loom being anear-perfect fit straight out of thebox, Oli was done far sooner thanexpected and put the car in for anMoT test in mid-December. Thegood news from the point of view ofmy storage woes was that it failed.The bad news was that it failed.

Typically for the Triumph, it wasa similar list of problems to prettymuch every year: some welding, abush or two and something minorand electrical (in this case, theimpeller pump for the washer

Triumph 2.5PI

Matthew Hutchins with replacement loom

Oli Cottrell with the old tangled remains

Corrosion to the sills required attention

Cottrell with his handiwork: the Beast is finally running and seducing Elliott all over again

Moss employees and arch Triumph enthusiasts Will and Adam Chignell with their cars

With the car rewired, it was time for an MoT; the short list of fails was easily addressed