The Austin Healey Sprite might have had some odd nicknames thanks to its quirky, bulbous styling, but there was no nonsense about its drivability or value for money. Intended from the outset as a basic, affordable sports car, the Sprite carried out its brief very successfully, and is held in high esteem by classic car collectors today. Billy Roche from Kilrush spent five years restoring our cover car, as it came in a load of rusty and worn-out parts, but he has turned out a fantastic result. As the story’s title suggests, he also fitted a little something under the bonnet, and Andrew meets up with him to find out just what was involved.
Chicago Special
IH Farmall tractors were famous for their eye-catching, bright red colour schemes, so why is this fabulous, restored Model-C white? It’s actually a factory shade, which was only applied to a very limited run of a couple of hundred tractors in early 1950 earmarked for dealer-demonstrator use. Andrew travels to Co. Cavan to meet with the owner of this rare machine, a long-time vintage vehicle enthusiast who spent many years trying to track down one of these elusive C Demonstrators. When he eventually became the owner of this one as a half-finished project, he wasted no time in rebuilding it to the stunning condition you see here.
Trading Places
Classic commercials enjoy a special place in the memory of any classic vehicle enthusiast, as they were part of everyday life back in the fifties, sixties and seventies. One particular favourite on these shores was the Ford Thames Trader, and this month we catch up with Alan Barry and his compatriots from the Halfway Vintage Club in Co. Cork, who have only recently completed the restoration of this very fine Trader 70. An original Cork truck with a known history, it certainly wasn’t the ideal starting point for a project after lying in storage, rusting, for decades, but its local background meant that it just had to be saved from the grave. It certainly turned out beautifully, as Andrew tells us this month.
Double Triumph
Classic motorcycles come in all shapes and sizes, and this month we catch up with a bike enthusiast who has recently restored a ’72 Triumph T100, as well as building his own 1955 Triton café-racer. As the name suggests, the Triton is an amalgam of the best parts from Triumph and Norton, namely the Turner Speed Twin engine and the featherbed frame, along with a whole ream of fabrication work. As they were never officially produced by a manufacturer, it is highly unlikely that there are any two Tritons the same. The two machines in our feature have very different characters, therefore, but share the same quality of restoration and attention to detail that has been lavished on them by their skilled owner.
Editor’s letter
Well hello and welcome to our Retro special 2010, after 4 years of putting together Irish Vintage Scene our monthly magazine Andrew and Myself have came across a lot of cars we would like to feature but just didn’t fit into what we were trying to do. So the idea of a Retro special was born last year and it has taken us a while to get around to it but here it is. We have decide the idea of the magazine would be to feature cars that would not normally make it into our monthly magazine Irish vintage Scene like post 1980 cars and modified cars. Indeed these are the types of cars that both of us really like and as we are both young lads we grew up with these. In this issue we have picked just a few of the hundreds of cars we could have featured, we also look at some events that were either retro events or had a retro element. Another thing we look at is clubs in Ireland that welcome Retro owners as members there may be more if so contact us. We have a great competition for you and we hope you enjoy the magazine. If it’s a success well who knows there it may become a regular on the shelves but we need to know what you think so please email us your thoughts on retro@irishvintagescene.ie and we will try to improve on what we have here.
