In reply to last week’s post about the Morgans, “PacDoc1956” wrote “Good story, neat car … just don’t want one, not my style!!!”
To which I replied:
“… hee hee …
I’ll take the one you don’t want! I would love to have a Morgan – but not, however, before I sated my appetite for ’56 Packards … unless it was one of the 100 Aero Max coupes they built …
Morgan AeroMax
A year after I graduated from High School, I was no longer using the trombone I had played in the high school band. It was an expensive horn. I had decided that if I was going to play the “slush pump” in the band, I was going to get day-yumed good at it and I was going to play a first class instrument while doing it. So I squirreled the money I was making as a bagger in a grocery store away until I could buy my new trombone. As I recall, I paid $360 for it – which was a lot of money for a high school kid in the mid-‘60s. With the home environment I lived in, I knew I would be moving out sooner rather than later and that if I was going to get a college education, it would be out of my own pocket. Thus I knew I would be working while I was in college and there would be no time to try to get into the college band. What to do with the trombone?
There was a man in Lubbock who had a beat up ’55 Triumph TR-2. It had been hit in the right side, right at the passenger’s door. It was caved in and he had never had it fixed. He wanted to sell the car. For some reason, I was smitten with this beat-up Triumph. It turned out the owner of the Triumph had been a professional trombone player – and he no longer had a horn. I offered to swap him even-steven: my horn for his Triumph. He took one look at the horn and knew he had to have it. From memory, he belted out a jazz version of “Blue Moon.” He took the horn home and I took the Triumph home.
Typical of British cars of the era, it had Lucas electrics and it was anyone’s guess as to whether it would start or not when the key was turned. I learned to park it on a slope so I could get a rolling start and pop the clutch to start it.
After a year or so, I realized that I didn’t need two cars while I was trying to put myself through college and sold it for $250.00.
I wish mine had looked like this:
Instead, it looked a lot like this, right down to the color:
Anyway, I’ve never completely gotten the bug for British sports cars out of my blood …”
In fact, the fun I had with the Triumph helped me learn to appreciate what a Porsche was capable of and indirectly led me to the purchase of my first Porsche a few years later.
Hemmings gives a nice snap shot of the TR-2s >>HERE<<
“B-Squared” rounded up a few Porsche photos for us:
With its rear-engine cars, Porsche got the cart before the horse!
And now, in closing, just for you Jaguar fans:
'56 Packard Man 
I think every boy wanted one of the little sports cars if they could not afford the Vette or T-Bird. I never owned one. BUT son mark had a TR-6. A friend of mine gave a reference to his friend’s shop who handled the Rolls and Bentley business in Charlotte. I went in to see him. Floors shined like new money. It was a classy shop. When I told the owner I was looking for someone to work on a TR-6. He smiled and asked I owned a Rolls or Bentley. Of course I said no. He apologized and said, “That would be the only reason I would pull a TR into my shop. I enjoy working on a car that stays repaired, The TR is like the VW, reliable as long as you are a tinker.” I thanked him, I had never stepped into a classy GARAGE, it was worth the turn down to see how the garages look for the Other folk. HA!
BUT I would love to have a TR now, just to whip around in….
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