TRIUMPH ROADSTER 1947 -- BENELUX RALLY

In May 2000 I joined our Area Secretary John Hardy and his wife Sylvia in their Triumph 2000 Roadster for the Benelux Rally. In my fairly newly acquired 1947 1800 Triumph Roadster (Penny) we headed for Ostend via Dover and on to Breda

via Breskens and Vlissingen for our overnight stay. The hotel was very good and the cuisine superb.

The Roadsters waiting to board the Hovercraft

The next morning we started off for Prinsenbeek , our starting point for the Rally. Very soon, on the motorway , the exhaust manifold gasket blew. Never mind, a temporary repair with "exhaust repair putty" and off we went. We had Lunch and then started off on the Rally. The instructions were naturally in Dutch. Although I have some knowledge of Dutch, I could not read and drive. I was thus assigned a Dutch member of the Club, Bert, as navigator.
He was a bit fed up me waking him up to ask for directions and he said “ just follow the car in front”. This I did until I got on to motorway and saw a sign saying ROTTERDAM 20km. I woke Bert up and asked him if we were on the right road . “No”, he replied. He is going home… to Rotterdam. Turn back”. This set us back 30 Km or so. Back to Breda missing three rounds of beer. Fortunately, here was a the owner of a private museum with a small collection of classics including Alvis TD 21, XK 150 and Rileys.

Whilst I was having my first beer, he doctord a Riley exhaust manifold gasket and fitted it to my Roadster.

Another superb meal, a good nights sleep and an uneventful journey home.

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All the Triumph Roadsters with hoods up