NCTA Club Articles

North  Coast Triumph, TR3, TR4, 250,TR6, TR7, TR8

America’s British Reliability Run 2006

 

By Eric Langreder

 

The 2006 America’s British Reliability Run is now in the history books. Judging from all the smiles at the wrap-up dinner in Massillon and the financial totals, it could be said that this year’s Run was a success! All thirty cars participating completed the Run with only a few minor issues along the way. The participants raised over $23,000 for camperships for children with diabetes to attend Camp Ho Mita Koda. This, the fourth Reliability Run, brings the total raised for children’s charities to over $110,000!  NCTA had five teams participate and contribute over $3,200 to the final tally.

The Run weekend began with a small car show in downtown Massillon. Then all the teams met for dinner at Kozmo’s Restaurant for a video presentation on Camp Ho Mita Koda and highlights from last year’s Run. Everyone turned in the money they had collected, got their door prizes and route books, and got to know some of the other teams. Cars came from Michigan, Ontario, Kentucky, North Carolina, Maryland, and Ohio. Representing NCTA were Ron and JoAn Boals - TR6, Darrell and Bev Floyd - TR7, Jim Shear and Sharyn Kitzmiller - TR6, Jim and Karen Perone - 1973 Mini Cooper, and Eric and Tim Langreder - 2006 Mini Cooper. Joining our little NCTA group for much of the route was Steve Swift in his TR6 from Baltimore, Maryland, and Jack McGahey and Randy Cardoso from Charlotte, North Carolina in Jack’s TR8. Jack’s TR8 was originally a Triumph press fleet car and was on the cover of Car & Driver magazine in 1980.

Saturday morning began with a police escort to the Massillon city limits heading for southeastern Ohio along some very scenic roads past Atwood, Leesville, Tappan, and Clendening Lakes. We crossed the Ohio River into St. Mary’s, West Virginia where we stopped for lunch at McDonald’s, the last town before we really got into some remote back country. As we climbed the roads of West Virginia some of the navigators were getting a little carsick from all the twists and dips we encountered. The weather was good and the roads were fine, but not marked as well as we hoped, so somehow we missed a turn and also the New River Gorge Bridge. Oh well, now we have an excuse to go back. The good news was we got to the hotel in Hurricane early enough to rest and refresh ourselves before dinner.

Our LBC’s were covered with a heavy frost Sunday morning and the air was fairly thick with the smell of petrol and Castrol while everyone warmed up their cars at full choke. Jim Shear had a problem with his heater valve, but not to worry, one of the other cars happened to have a spare.

The Sunday morning route took us on some of the best (smooth, narrow, hilly, twisty, turny, fun) roads I’ve ever been on! I heard the scenery was beautiful, but I was too busy watching Byg Red’s bumper disappearing and

reappearing over all the turns and whoop-dee-doos.

I don’t know how the route planners found some of these roads, but we were really having fun! We crossed back into Ohio at Ironton where we picked up St. Rt. 93 then Rt. 555. This is where Automobile Magazine and Car & Driver do much of their road testing.

Lunch was at another McDonald’s where many of the cars dropped their tops for the dash back to Massillon. There were many tired, smiling faces at Kozmo’s. We couldn’t believe how fast the weekend and over 700 miles went by! Everyone was already wondering “Where do we go next year?”

After breakfast we were on the road again headed for Kentucky, then Ohio.

 

See the results and photos at www.abrr.org

 

Submitted by Eric Langreder.