I think I won the sports car lottery this week....

I was a little surprised when a friend offered to gift me his deceased fathers Miata last week, but it showed up yesterday in my driveway. Bright red and in perfect condition with 130,000 kilometers.

So then this morning I received a phone call from an old family friend who said he was giving me his Triumph Gloria Monte Carlo. Well I am not about to say no, am I? This one is a project, but it is all there, and not rusty he says. I haven't seen it since I last laid eyes on it 20 years ago and mentioned I would like it. Apparently he remembered. Next step is to take down a wall of his house to remove it....

It does not look like this one.... yet.

The Triumph is really a cool car. Never seen one before but I like the (what looks like) really short wheelbase. I'll have to start trying your technique.

There is a schoolmate of my daughter that I occasionally see driving a G60 Corrado that looks to be in very good shape. Not sure if the car is her's or her father's. I have been wanting to do the ole "if you ever want to sell" line but I'm afraid I'll come across as a stalker. Not a VW fan boi but I have always loved the Corrado.

Bad news is I'm out of room as it is.

I agree! Nothing like having another ride to drive and yet another ride to work on! I'm sure you'll enjoy them both!

Congrats, cool on both counts!

Luckyyyyyyy!

Went to look at the Triumph last night. The first thing that jumped out at me is that it's not rusty! Woo hoo. How does that happen? I now own two old british sports cars that do not have rust. I think that may be a record. I'll get some pics up later, but here are the specs on the Triumph...

August 1934 to July 1935 4-cylinder Glorias

Gloria Model Monte Carlo Tourer

Price -- £335

No. Recorded -- 4

No. Survive -- 2

No. with original style bodywork -- 2

I am guessing that they don't know about this one which has been in a Canadian basement for 40 years.

"SCORE"

(Nicely done BTW)

great congrats.

So wait are you saying some one GAVE you a car from 1934 that only 6 are known to exist?

Do not touch it head directly to an auction. Collect massive $$.

Congrats, hope you'll be able to post pictures soon.

Wow - that is some amazing luck. We definitely need photos.

nocones wrote: So wait are you saying some one GAVE you a car from 1934 that only 6 are known to exist? Do not touch it head directly to an auction. Collect massive $$.

No, apparently 4 were built and there are two left. But I doubt this is one of the two.

Might want to contact an auction house dude..

Any ideas on value of the other 2?

Prewar... rare... could be one of 3 in the world? I wouldn't touch it until I gathered information. Don't even clean it.

I tip my hat to you you lucky som beech. I keep hoping someone will gift me a TR3.

They built that car for two years right? Are you sure it is from the year they only built 4?

Still cool and lucky...

Well, not quite the same deal as you got, but I bought another TR8 last weekend, essentially an almost barn find with absolutely no rust, good interior and original paint for get this - $4000.

Proceed very cautiously with the Triumph. If it's really as rare as people are saying, you don't want to screw up the value of it by "fixing" things. You can easily take it from treasure to trash with just a few missteps.

That is really cool.

Not to in any way belittle the neat car you got, but Triumph made a total of 24 Gloria 4 cylinder tourers in the first year, and another 4 the next year (not calendar year), for a total of 28 cars. They didn't take any notice of model years back in those days. That's largely a more modern and American thing.

Normally, in a British model, if they made 6 cars before Dec. 31 and a couple of thousand the next year, the first six don't attract much special attention or value.

In this case, your car appears to be among the last handful built as they were tapering off the body model.

Neat little cars! 28 of a given body style wasn't a lot even in those days! A Monte Carlo 6 tourer would be even more collectible (5 total made). I used to own a Mayflower, so I am partial to small, slow, but neat looking Triumphs.

I do need to point out that it was more entrusted to me than anything else, and by a family friend. So it is not in the cards to just pack it off to the auction house, however rare. The idea is to restore it with the help of the previous owner.

VERY COOL. Please document the process completely with pictures and project log. Even video clips probably would be a good thing. Even if you have no plans to sell the car, at this point in it's life, you're a steward for it's care. The next care taker would love to see all of the things you did and why.