Fat Bloke and Poppy - Part 1

by Mike Peake

The start of the adventure.
 
Having joined this fantastic group early in 2015 and enjoyed myself here immensely, I felt the need to contribute more than the odd post. I hope you enjoy it and don’t lose the will to live whilst reading! 

​Inspired by Daniels great blog and other good tales on here,  I foolishly decided to inflict upon you … er … I mean write a blog about my 15 year and counting ownership of a lovely little car named Poppy.

​WARNING:- some post ‘85 and Johnnie Foreigner cars may be mentioned in passing and I apologise for any distress this may cause. 

Me and the girls with Poppy (13/60 Triumph Herald)

​I’ll start by introducing myself properly.  My name is Mike and I live in a very nice small town in the UK called Royal Wootton Bassett. I’m 47 years old and an ex grass roots Prop Forward Rugby player who is working successfully to turn all that 1st team muscle into fat. I’m a sales manager for an automotive wiring harness manufacturer supplying a well-known Japanese car/bike manufacturer in the UK, Turkey and Italy. I’m married to Anita with 2, now grown, daughters.

​My car ownership CV

click on the table below to view

My Spannering CV prior to classic ownership is as follows.
 
1985
17 years old. My Dad made me “help” replace  the engine in My Mum’s Talbot Horizon after I’d wrecked it in a flat out thrash coming back from a camping trip in Tenby. It was very much a case of the blind leading the blind and I don’t think my Mum ever worked out who was Laurel and who was Hardy! We got there in the end though with the help of a school friend of mine who was a bit handy with a spanner.
 
Late 1985 
Bought my 1st car, a Marina, and learnt how to service it.
 
1986
The poor little engine in the Marina would lose all its oil if driven any distance over 55MPH so I decided to rebuild the engine. Well, watch my future father in law rebuild my engine. W replaced big end and little end bearings, new rings and valves, the lot. It still lost all its oil over 55MPH. so sold it and bought the viceroy for velour enveloped effortless motorway cruise to London to see my future Wife. With the experience I have now maybe I should have rebalanced the crankshaft too. Hindsight eh?
 
1988
I Got a Job in Reading and commuted from Swindon. The Viceroy was too expensive to run so bought the Stellar. Also bought my future wife’s 1st Car (1st of 2 “proper” Minis) and learned to service them.
 
1990
Replaced gearbox on the Stellar as 5th was incredibly noisy after all the motorway miles. This was done on the road outside our 2 bed terrace over a weekend as I needed to drive it to work on the Monday. (Be impressed please. I was!!)
 
1992
Mini failed MOT in style. One of my Dad’s mates knew of a car with a sound shell but bad mechanically, so I acted as dogsbody to him and built one good car from the two bad ones. Gave it to my wife as a wedding present.
 
1993
Replaced gearbox again on the Stellar as 5th was incredibly noisy after all the motorway miles. Car now done 210K and I only ever serviced engine which I think is really rather impressive, (and changed GB (Twice) not so impressive) but decided to buy my father in-law’s Citroen.
 
1995
Got my 1st company car and could now afford to pay someone to do any work on my wife’s cars. Sold the Mini and gave her the Citroen as she was expecting our 1st born. Moved to a house with a garage but promptly converted it into a downstairs WC and an office (I Know! What was I thinking?) I put my weapons of car destruction beyond use. (Hung up my spanners)

Introducing the car

It is now 2001. I was in a very bad and stressful place at work and badly injured my knee playing rugby which ended my playing days (Well mostly). My Wife decided I needed a hobby and suggested I buy a classic car to help relieve the stress. And the rest, as they say, is history!!
 
Well, at my wife’s suggestion, images of shiny TR6’s and E-types came to mind but I soon realised that these were:-
A.            Way beyond my budget.
B.            Way beyond my budget.
C.            Way beyond my spanner skills.
D.            Only had 2 seats. Which would be a problem as we now had 2 young daughters (6&3) (That’s their ages at the time, not their names.)
 
So, good sense prevailed for a change, and I started doing some research which involved endless hours looking wistfully through issues of Practical Classics, Classic car weekly etc.
 
I’d decided that it had to be a convertible and had to have 4 seats (and it had to be red!). It also had to be fully useable and not require restoration. Mercedes and Triumph Stags came to mind but also had to be dismissed for reasons A to C above. 
​

Practical Classics then ran an article on “cheap convertibles for summer fun” which included a Herald and I was smitten!! PC said it was “as cool as a refrigerated class a cucumber, really easy to work on with plenty of spares availability”. It was also within my budget. It was ideal.
 
After reading various horror stories, I was determined to do this properly and not rush out and buy the 1st car I saw. So I got a copy of Practical Classics’ Buyers guide, joined the Triumph Sport Six Club and got a copy of their buyers guide too. Then I rushed out and bought the 1st car I saw!! Which was in Birmingham.
 
I lucked out though. She was in good condition having been restored in the early 90’s with photographic evidence and ran/drove really well.  Although she hadn’t been used in “a year or so” the owner volunteered to put her through the MOT and carry out any work required. A deal was struck and I went back a week later to pick her up with the fresh MOT. I’d hired a trailer to bring her home as it was quite a long drive for our 1st time out and I didn’t want my first experience of classic car ownership to be soured by breakdowns.
 
The Girls were waiting excitedly, and my wife not so excitedly, when I pulled up. We immediately drove her off the trailer, opened the hood and all piled in for some top down classic motoring and all fell immediately and hopelessly in love with “Poppy” as the girls insisted on christening her.
 
Thus began our long and happy relationship with “Poppy”.
​

to be continued ...

Next...

More by Mike Peake...