Chris lived a few hours North from me in the rural town of Eltham (just past Kathem) in the Taranaki Region so I didn't see him very often. In fact I probably only met him about 10 times, maybe less, but he was the kind of bloke you wanted to count as a friend on the first handshake. For the most part the only time I would see Chris was at the annual Triumphs at Taupo meeting where he & his 2500S owning brother Alan were gaurunteed to be there every year. Despite being their cars being pretty standard (a rare thing for Triumphs in this country) they were always keen to test themselves on the track so they provided an excellent benchmark to those of us that liked to modify & tinker. For the record the 7V8 is less than 10% faster.
Since I bought my TR7V8 I had reason to meet up with Chris a bit more. Near his home there is a hillclimb event that has been running for a good number of years called the Ngawhini which is entry by invite. Since Chris was on the organising committee not only I was pretty much issued with a summons to attend, he & his better half, Tina, put me & Eion (Grinnall owner) up for the weekend. Thanks to their hospitality & an excellent day of hillclimbing I have some very happy memories & the only 1st in class prize I'm ever likely to win. Certainly well worth the speeding ticket it cost me on the way up there.
Well I won't have Chris's blue TR7 to kick around the timesheets anymore. He found out he had cancer early this year. In fact the doctor told him he had just a few weeks to live so Eion & I raced (literally[8D]) up to Eltham to catch his last breath & maybe raid his spare parts bin only to find him at home with a big sheepish grin on his beardy mug. After a week in hospital they'd let him out because he had responded so well to the treatment that instead of being on death's door he was looking forward to a treatment program. He even turned up to the Taupo meeting 2 months later looking slightly worse for wear but on his feet.
But it didn't last & after several months of the usual awful treatment he suddenly went downhill & died today just about a year away from his retirement. I treat death as the inevitable part of life that it is but it is very sad that Chris couldn't have a few more years to see the paint fade on his 7. RIP.
Typically I only have pictures of Chris's car. It's the blue one & you can see he was a very proud owner. I got to drive his car the last time I was up to see him & apart from the apalling lack of power [;)] his car felt a lot like mine thanks to the uprated springs. I particularly liked his front spoiler.
The map: http://tinyurl.com/wedgemap . The blog: http://www.forum.triumphtr7.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8548
