Diary

Everything, in order

Prep, breakdowns, ferries and border crossings, written up as we go.

A grey Club Triumph cap with the 10CR26 Finisher badge, held over the cobbles.

Postscript

Passing the baton

TS2 side on, hood up, on the cobbles in front of Rolduc abbey with a row of flags on poles behind her

Home

Back to modern life.

Evie and Andy hugging beside TS2 at the front of Rolduc Abbey, the finish

Saturday

Bringing it all to a close

TS2 alone in the empty car park below the Hotel Belvédère on the Furka, Andy sitting on her wing, tyre marks on the tarmac

Friday

Twice, before breakfast

A hairpin on the Umbrail climb, a Triumph ahead on the bend and snow on the peaks above

Thursday

The best driving road... in the world.

TS2 parked in an underground car park in Merano, wedged between two modern SUVs

Wednesday

Some you win.

TS2 side on at an Alpine viewpoint, spruces and snow streaked peaks behind her

Tuesday

Evie's journal for Germany and Austria

Evie beside TS2 outside a restaurant at dusk, headlights and sidelights lit

Monday

Race, race against the dying of the light.

A red warning triangle standing in an Amiens street, TS2 stopped ahead of it with her bonnet up

Sunday

From Caen to the start

TS2 setting off from home, two up with the hood down, heading away down the lane

Grand Départ

Off the drive at 19:47, 90,159 on the clock, and a steady 63mph East to the boat.

The open boot of TS2 packed to the lid with sidescreens, spares and tools

Tomorrow, then

The last day at home. Sorting the route, working the list, and one more slow walk round the car.

Andy sitting on the gravel in front of TS2 under a gazebo, head down, forearms on his knees, in black and white

Athena has lied to us

A long couple of days on the master cylinders. Not photogenic, not heroic, and finally finished.

Evie beside TS2 in a garage, the car up on a four post lift with the roof on, torquing the front wheel

Better here than in Andermatt

A shakedown day on a friend's four post lift. A water test, a misfire chased down to the condenser, and a clutch slave cylinder that had been on the car since the turn of the century.

Andy standing beside TS2 in a field, a TR Register Wessex Group flag either side of the car

Wessex TR Register BBQ

An invitation from the Wessex group, TS2 given pride of place in the middle of the field.

Hands on the wheel of TS2, red dash and its row of gauges ahead, hedgerow going past

Passing Muster

Time to inspect TS2. A different view from a four-post lift.

A frame from the 360 camera: low beside TS2's front wing, road and hedgerow running past

Camera testing

Seventeen days to go, and a 360 camera that needs to earn its place before we ask it to work in a 1953 car for six days.

Spot the odd one out

T minus 21...

To Malvern for Car Club Fest, to meet TS2 for the first time, and to drive her 120 miles home to Dorset.

An application form headed “Taking TS2 back on the road”, stamped APPROVED in blue, with the rubber stamp and a pen beside it.

“That’s what the car is for”

The Trustees approved the request, and welcomed it in terms better than anything we had dared write into the application.

Asking to borrow a national treasure

A hands-free phone call, a keyboard sitting unattended in front of me, and a dangerous idea. One email to the office, and no way back.

The siteDiary, map, all of ittriumphts2.pages.dev