Please say Hello to Clayton, our 2003 TF 135

To have had two tf’s with a fifty year age gap is quite something. There can be few people who can comment on handling of both cars with such authority & there in your picture is the car as it waves leg in the air; what a great shot.
When the kids were young & having a sports car was impractical, I would borrow my brothers Morgan, he had two & no kids, it was all a bit wobbly but great fun , especially around Donington. That was the apogee of my track driving & it was a long time ago.
M

Thanks, AP. I first put the old TF on a track in 68, although there've been large gaps in its experience. For a while I ran a U2, an X1-9 and an MG Metro. About 10 years ago I put a blower on it: only 5PSI because I wanted to keep it fit for road use. That gave it about MGB power and helped acceleration, but the car has such high drag that, with a 4.3 diff, it wouldn't exceed about 95 MPH. I'm always baffled by drivers who say they got their old TF up to 100 MPH with a head job or a change of exhaust. Mine had a pretty good head job, new cam, bigger valves and so on. Mind you, they aren't really designed for the track. Couple of crankshafts, sets of pistons after dropped valves, broken axles, broken gearboxes, cracked wheels etc, etc. Apart from the usual nausea like shedding a fan blade at top speed on a straight (below) and thinking the engine had blown up. Again. Ah, memories.

Nothing quite like a pretty good head job……mind you is there any other kind?

C’mon, you can’t expect me to leave that one alone! :bust:

Having been aquatinted with you Cobb’s over a number of years & having looked at your recent thumbnail picture I’m surprised you can leave much alone.
Within the prevailing law of the land. Obviously.
M

Back to the subject in hand.
I’ve never had the privilege of being involved in white hot motor sport, other than as a “spanner hander” not even dull red, & it appears to me that the sheer pleasure of competition driving must be so rewarding that you are quite happy to put up with collateral damage.
The litany of destruction listed above & the feeling of distress after another failure will have to be viewed as being all in an afternoons play.
How the Ferrari owner fells after a wipeout after a few minutes on the Goodwood festival track will be way outside our scope.
The chance of the owner being the driver is starting to be a rare occurrence these days; does that make it less of a traumatic incident or more?
M