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Peter bought his first Triumph, a TR2, new in 1955. He professes a liking for streamlined cars, couldn't afford an XK120, and happened to have some money when the TR2 came out. That was the first, and he has owned ten in all over time, including the current two. The TR5 was bought for five Rand....
While browsing in a pawn shop with a lot of car spares, he saw 4 Triumph 2000 hubcaps, and bought them for R5. Having refurbished them, he later sold them at an auto-jumble for R20. When a young girl selling raffle tickets approached him, he couldn't resist, and bought one for R20. The ticket was from the local BMW club, who were raffling a BMW motorbike for charity.
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The ticket duly went on the kitchen noticeboard, to be forgotten. Much later, Peter had been fixing up his Stag (one of the ten) to take on holiday the next day, so had got an early night. The phone rang at about 11pm, and the lady on the other end, having confirmed Peter's identity, told him he had won the bike! He leapt in the car, and drove off to collect his prize at the BMW club's Christmas dinner. Having never ridden a motorbike, though, and not too confident in his 55-year old reactions, he decided to sell it.
R5 had now become the R11,000 he sold the bike for. A year earlier, he had seen advertised a TR5, and had offered R10,000 for it, which had been rejected. Shortly after selling the bike, the ad appeared again, and Peter repeated his offer, with the cash from the BMW burning a hole in his pocket.
This time the offer was accepted - a TR5 for R5 with R1,000 left over, with which he bought a 1500 saloon, subsequently sold. The TR5 used to be white, and not too bad, but then the overdrive blew up, and when he took out the gearbox, his son suggested that he rebuild whole car. It took a year to dismantle it, and the target date for completion was 1995 - the son's 18th birthday. It was finally finished late in 1996.
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