(As best as I can remember at my age)

It all began when Grace, my wife, and I were going somewhere, don’t recall where, and were on County Road I in Ozaukee County, Wisconsin. Going to get this part wrong, but we were in our late 30’s or so, years that is. Grace mentioned that we needed eggs and as luck would have it, there was a small sign on the side of the road by a farm that said, “eggs for sale.” We pulled into the driveway and a gal told us to just grab a basket, maybe it was a bag, don’t remember that far back, and said, “The hen house is up the drive next to the barn, pick out your eggs and stop back here when done to pay for them. Sounded easy enough. Turned out the hen house was part of the barn and there were chickens everywhere, clucking, and shrieking perched all over the place. Sitting in the middle of this mad house sat the saddest excuse for a car you could imagine. A powder blue 1957 Triumph with chicken poop all over it, interior seats rotten away, top, what top, you could not see if it had one because of the chickens and their poop all over it. It had a tear in its headlights because of all the abuse the chickens have given it, plus whatever other varmints had decided to make it their abode. We, Grace mostly, collected the eggs, we paid for them and made a hasty retreat to our car before we caught whatever plague may have been lingering in the barn just waiting for us to help it multiply. Again, we wanted to escape before taking any unwelcome guests back home with us. A shower was definitely on the agenda!

Well, Grace and I were out “bumming” again. No plans or anything and we found ourselves on County I again, fate? I think I mentioned “I wonder what ever happened to that old car that was in that barn where we got eggs that one time”. Thank God we never got eggs there again! We were just passing it and since we had our Bio-Suits with us this time, we decided to stop and see if it was still there. The farm had been sold to a William Litt and his wife and he had requested the owner of the car, a Lillian Zaun, to please remove it since it had not moved since her divorce about 15 years before. It had been a wedding present from her husband when they had married. As luck would have it, Lillian Zaun lived in Cedarburg Wisconsin about 10 miles away and he had kept her phone number which he gave to us. So, we thought, let’s give her a call and see if she still has it. So, we did. Fate happened again. She told me it was in her garage, in Cedarburg, she had just purchased a new car and needed the Triumph gone so she had room for the new car. A few days later we, Grace, our two kids, Elena and Christian stopped by her house to look at it. It still had a couple of tears in its headlights, but a tentative coy smile in the grill. Could it be, it thought, someone may want me! Lillian said she just wanted to get rid of it! We had no idea what to offer but Lillian said she would take $500 dollars, if we would get it out of her garage that weekend. It was January, cold, snowing and since our memory was starting to fail, we said yes. So, on a Saturday morning, when it was about 15 degrees outside, a friend of ours, Sergio Salinas brought a trailer to pick it up and bring it to our home in West Bend, Wisconsin.

It was a cold January day when the TR-3 arrived from Cedarburg. We, Sergio and I wrestled it off the trailer and into our garage. We started   to look it over and see just what we purchased. Had some surprising finds! We had all the manuals since when it was new, spare tire, flat but that was OK. You could start it with a crank that poked thru the grill and it would “turn the engine over” so Sergio, he became Chief Mechanic from that instant on, turned the crank and pronounced that the engine was not “frozen” even after sitting in a barn for 17-18 years. I know nothing about cars, so Sergio checked the oil level and pronounced it ok. SOOO we added about ¼ cup of gas to the cars carburetors, used jumper cables from my car, turned the ignition key on, pushed the starter button on the dashboard and, AND, IT STARTED!!, some smoke but everyone in attendance was shocked to say the least, after 18 years! After letting it run about 20 seconds, we shut it down since we didn’t want to push our luck. The car just grinned and thought, ‘did you have any doubts’? I have a home now and no chickens around, plus I am low mileage, just 25,000!

SO, NOW WHAT?? We did some searching and got in contact with a collectors Triumph club called Vintage Triumphs of Wisconsin in Fox Valley Wisconsin, since where do you find parts for an 27-year-old English sports car? Sergio felt it would need lots of things, electric harnesses, mice had eaten most of the cables and such. Any way the Triumph club told us to contact “The Roadster Factory” to get parts catalogs which we did and gave them to Dr. ‘Sergio’ who we asked to oversee the preliminary restoration to make the car road worthy. Our intention was not to restore it to “showroom” condition but to have a cute reliable little two seat sports car to drive around during warm sunny days in the summer. A couple of times we did take it to British car shows in the area but just for fun.

I think it was about this time that we decided to move the car to Sergio’s garage in Jackson, Wisconsin since that was where the preliminary restoration work could be done more conveniently. Don’t really recall how long it took, six months maybe more. It finally got a new rag top, carpeting, seats, wire wheels, tires, etc. Grace picked out the color, Cardinal Red. Not an “official” 1957 Triumph color but sure looks better than the powder blue we started with. We did take a trip to my sister’s house near St Louis, MO for a family reunion many years ago and had no problems. It kept up with traffic on the interstate at 70 MPH and got a lot of looks.

Time passes and Grace and I sold our Home in West Bend Wisconsin. Lived and traveled in a 36-foot motor home for a couple of years. Traveled around the US, Mexico, Canada, even to Alaska.

But it was time to “pass the torch of the little sports car” to our son, Christian, who we are sure will pick up the ‘Saga of the 1957 Triumph’ from here. It is 2019 and the car is 62 years old and looks like it just came off the showroom floor. May he have many more years of enjoyment with it, hopefully passing it on to his son someday. In any event I’m sure it will always be a ‘member of the family’.

Conclusion of Part 01
Written by Chris, Father
October 25, 2019

I would like to add one story of my youth about the vehicle, something that my father probably does not remember well: It had to be when I was only about 13-15 years old when we had the car in our garage one summer and it was too tempting.  My sister and I knew that we were too young to drive on the road with any vehicle, but if we stuck to private property, we could drive a vehicle.  Luckily our home in Wisconsin had enough space that we could make a circuit from the front yard, around the backyard to the side of the house and back to the front yard where we could drive a car.  Obviously, the parents were not home at the time (different time vs today) so we proceeded to 1. Learn how to drive a manual transmission car and 2. Drive the circuit repeatedly until we were comfortable with driving the car.  Were the police called? Yes. Could they do anything about it? No (private property). When the parents were called and arrived, they were surprisingly not that upset.  My father only said: “If you break it, scratch it, or burn the clutch you will have to pay for the repair on the vehicle, and you will also have to repair any ruts you make in the lawn”.  I am not sure if at this point, he made the decision that I would eventually take over ownership, but he also knew that I would be quite careful with the vehicle no matter what happened.

Fast forward to 2000 when I unofficially took ownership of the vehicle.  At this time, I was living in Wisconsin and storing the car at the home in Wisconsin, while living in an apartment.  I was the only one that would infrequently drive the car, yet would service it, and pay for any repairs that needed to be done to the vehicle. From 2000 – 2006 the car mostly sat in the “extra” garage built in the backyard of the Wisconsin home and only came out, “once in a great while” when the weather was nice, and I had the time to enjoy it. Heading in to mid-2006 I moved from Wisconsin to Massachusetts which greatly limited the amount of time that I could enjoy the vehicle. The car may have thought that it was forgotten while sitting in the garage, but I had not. I had plans to get it closer to me, but life gets in the way.

During 2007 I get the call from the parents that they will be selling the family home in Wisconsin and I need to find a place to store the car. Luckily my friend Patrick was leaving the state of Wisconsin and taking his classic with him, freeing up a spot at the Fox Valley British Car Club where I could store the vehicle.  Perfect I thought, a place that the car could be stored while still being able to “show it”, a place where “Little Red” would not be alone, a place where it would be around other like vehicles. So, I drove Little Red to the clubhouse in Omro, WI to house it, for a price.

Coming in to 2008 I made a choice to finally leave the snowbelt altogether and head south to Texas, a state that I thought would help me realize the plans that I had for the car, I just needed time to build finances so that I could move Little Red closer to me and enjoy it more frequently. In late 2008 took a trip to Wisconsin from Texas to check up on Little Red and took it for a drive so that I could reminisce and plan.  Unfortunately, Little Red was upset at me for leaving her for so long and threw out a clutch plate.  I had to get her towed back to the clubhouse in anticipation of getting repaired. But again, life gets in the way and she was idled for even more time.

2009 was the year that I made plans with a club member to put a new clutch in Little Red, unfortunately after the parts were purchased that club member moved out of state so could not do any work; 2009 passed without any work done. 2010 came and went, so did 2011, Little Red thought that she was forgotten again, but at least she had friends to converse with. I did travel to Wisconsin quite a few times between 2012 and 2015, but was unable to arrange anyone to take a good mechanical look at Little Red, so she sat again, but this time, no chickens, when winter came there was heat to keep her warm, when summer came there was A/C to keep her cool, but no one was driving her to keep her fresh.

It was now 2016 a full 8 years since Little Red had moved from her perch at Fox Valley British Car Club.  I had made multiple trips to the clubhouse to keep the appearance of Little Red as well as I could, but I knew she needed some work done.  In late 2016 I finally found someone that could work on Little Red, and they would pick her up from the clubhouse so that they could start “in the off season”. I had plans for Little Red even if she was not aware.

January 5, 2017: Little Red was awoken from her slumber when Jim Wagner of Classic Mechanics Garage in Neenah, WI picked her up. She thought she was going to a new owner after being forgotten again by the family that rescued her from the chicken coop. Back in Texas I had reached a point where I had decided it was time to get everything in order and get Little Red in top mechanical shape again.

From 2017 until early 2019 Little Red underwent an engine out, complete mechanical rebuild with the goal of turning Little Red from the cool weather cruiser which would occasionally overheat on cool Wisconsin summer days to a cool runner that would not overheat in the overbearing heat of a south Texas summer day. Little Red thought that her new owner was nice to get her functional again with some added parts, but was concerned that while she was mechanically fit, why had they not changed her appearance in any way, why where the scratches in the paint still there, why were the memories of that family still present in the glove box, why was the emblem that the family affixed to the trunk still present, why must she remember that family that had forgotten her and given her to this new person?

July 9, 2019: Little Red had been through much, she now had her engine fully rebuilt, she had new shoes that were much better than the old ones she had, her brakes were new, her fuel system was new, her hydraulic system was new, she had a new much upgraded stainless steel exhaust, she had a new clutch as her old one broke, her transmission and drivetrain had been rebuilt, she had a nice detail and looked new, she was ready to be driven. But why did her “new owners” only place her in front of the garage door looking at the road but not driven on it? Wait, who is that, could it be? Is that, no, it couldn’t, but it is. That man that rescued her from being a chicken coop, though older, was back! The person next to him, that was the child that drove her, that took care of her. He, now a man, is here once again! Little Red was happy to see the people that rescued her was here to see her in her glory again. But what is this? She thought she was given to a new owner, why are they here.  That is when she hears it: “Wow, Jim, she looks great! Let’s settle the repair bill so that we can take her home”.  To her astonishment the family that rescued her had not forgotten about her, instead all that time waiting, culminated in her being rebuilt so that she could go home, a real home.  Little Red felt her trunk open, luggage, actual luggage, added and closed again. The boy, now a man, adjusted the driver’s seat to his height, the mirrors were adjusted so that he could see. Then it happened, he turned the key, then pushed the starter button, and Little Red fired right up, she was ready to go. First stop was to a relative’s home in Port Washington, WI so that pictures could be taken, and the road trip could be voiced.

July 10, 2019: Little Red spent the night in a garage at a home for a first time in years. She was happy but also a little sad. She now knows that there is quite the trip planned for her. She was not heading to the home that she stayed at many years ago, no, this time she was heading to a home in a distant land call Florida. All she heard was that the journey to this distant land would take four days and three nights at a distance of 1539 miles, much farther than she had ever been driven before. But first, both her and her family needed to become reacquainted. Both members of the family took her around the area to learn how to drive comfortably again.  It reminded her of the time many years ago of when the child had taken her around the yard to learn how to drive.

July 11, 2019: Little Red was awoken again by the family putting their luggage in the trunk. Everything was adjusted the way it was needed, then the journey began. She enjoyed being on the road once again, being driven on winding country roads, the feeling of the wind over her body, the allure of smells, the sounds of the world.  The drive was long she saw many sights, she experienced expressway driving for the first time in many years.  She was surprised at how large other vehicles had gotten, but she kept her family safe, she would not let them down as they had not forgotten her or let her down. The first stop was sooner than she would have liked as it had been so long since she had been on the road, but she knew that the family was just getting to know her again and with all her new parts they didn’t want to have anything adverse happen to her.

July 12, 2019: More interstate driving, mostly monotonous, but the landscape was changing, where it once was mostly flat, now there were hills.  The young man took an “unplanned detour” which the older man objected but was a much more fun route through a mountainous area and properly winding mountain roads. Little Red saw signs saying “Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area”, she liked it here, it was a good break from the interstate and it gave her an opportunity to show the men that she could handle anything they could throw at her, for she was enjoying the trip.

July 13, 2019: The duo was up early again, excited to continue the journey but also concerned that some weather would be moving through the planned route and it was going to be much warmer than originally planned. Little Red was not worried, she knew she could power through the rain, and with her upgrades the heat would not bother her. Coming through a city called Atlanta it finally happened, rain. The duo was again concerned but continued the drive. Little Red loved it, rain! She hadn’t experienced rain in over a decade, rain felt much different than the water used to wash her, it crept across her body in ways that no spray could, it felt good, it felt right, she was in her prime. Throughout the trip Little Red had watched the passing cars, their occupants turn to look at her, take pictures of her, and give her a thumbs up. She was being noticed, being appreciated, making an impact on others. She hoped that they would see her and go rescue other ones like her that just needed to find the right family to care for them.

July 14, 2019: The duo was up a bit later than usual, but then again, they did cover over 500 miles the previous day and only had a bit more to go before arriving in the now not so distant land of Florida. The day was hot, very hot, so much so that the duo made more frequent stops to make sure everything was still operating fine. Finally, on one stop Little Red saw a sign in front of her: “Florida Welcomes You”. The duo had parked her a little bit far away from other vehicles so that they could stretch their legs. Little Red saw people posing under this “Florida Welcomes You” sign as others took pictures. Then it happened, she heard someone say: “oh, mommy look at that car”, then others “holy shit, that car is from Wisconsin, judging from the road grime I bet they drove it from there”. Pretty soon some people were no longer posing by the sign, but by her. She knew she had some “road grime” on her, but she tried to look her best. After about an hour the duo gets back, answers any questions that people had, and verified that yes, they were driving the car from Wisconsin and that she had not given them any problems. The young man reiterated that the weak point in the trip was not Little Red, but instead the drivers as they needed to stop to cool down, Little Red was perfect. Little Red was happy at the compliment but also a little sad as she now knew she was in the land that initially was so far away, she knew that the trip was going to end soon. A few hours after that initial stop, Little Red arrived at her new home and parked in the garage.  A bit smaller than the home she remembered in Wisconsin, but a home, nonetheless.

July 15, 2019: Little Red was awoken again, she knew the trip was over, but was ready to hit the road again. This time though she would have another modification done. First, she visited a large building where two police officers questioned the duo and inspected every inch of her. Then, she went to another building where the duo entered then came back out carrying a small metal rectangular object. Upon arriving back at her new home, the younger man removed her rear panel that covered her spare tire and he took it inside the house. He emerged with the panel again but gone was the blue and red license plate that she had worn for many decades and instead a light blue and white license plate was present. The young man placed the rear panel back on Little Red, then proceeded to remove the front license plate that had also been in place for several decades. Little Red had been made a resident of this land of Florida. Now with her new license plate she was backed out of the garage and the young man gave her a wash and detail. The care he took to clean everything, polish where needed, reminded her of the countless times he had done this in the past even those visits where she knew he could not drive her, he still took care of her.  After the wash, something that had not been done in decades occurred. The young man removed the roof, side skirts, and prepped for top down driving.  Little Red would be driven with the top down!

July 16-23, 2019: Little Red and the young man had many adventures in this new land of Florida and many enjoyable drives, but the young man needed to return to his home so that he could return to work. Little Red, while sad to see him go, knew that he would return. The duo cleaned the interior, exterior, and convertible top during their time together. The final thing that the young man did before he left was to purchase a new cover for Little Red.  This cover would protect her while he was away, and the older man would watch over her as well.

Little Red was home. Her journey was long, but she went from a chicken coop in rural Wisconsin to a reliable vehicle in central Florida.  The family that rescued her all those years ago is the same family that takes care of her now. The man and his wife that found her, have given her to their child, to take care of her and to have adventures with her. That man has promised her that her story will continue, she will not be forgotten, she will be cared for, she will be loved, for she is part of the family and will remain so.

The story thus far, it is not a conclusion of Part 02 as that story continues…

Written by: Christian, November 26, 2019