Sitting in my living room a day or two before Thanksgiving 2021, I was discussing with a few friends about the possibility of taking part in another Lemons Rally. “If we do this, I would like to try and win it this time”, I was telling them as we begin to think about what car to use this time around. In 2019, I took part in the Four Bangor’s Rally entering a mid-2000s Audi Allroad that was barely clinging onto life. The car did well, not giving us any major issues but we only finished mid pack out of the 25 entered vehicles.
For those that have never heard of the aforementioned rally, I would describe it has a point based automotive scavenger hunt with cars that barely meet the minimum requirements to qualify as road worthy. Points are given at the beginning of the rally on: origin of manufacture, how old it is, and on the state of the vehicle (Read: how shitty is it?). The worse off the car is the more points you start the rally with, We didn’t start with many point. The organizers did however call us crazy for driving a 250k+ example of arguably the worst car ever made, so that counts for something, right?
Back on my couch, I came across something unusual on Facebook marketplace. I could immediately tell it was the car I wanted to take on the trip, a 1952 Triumph Mayflower. I had never seen nor even heard of a Mayflower before, It looked at little worse for wear but mostly complete and possibly the perfect car for the job at hand. After contacting the seller, he said that it was running and driving and came with a bunch of spares to get it properly road worthy again.
Cut to a few days later, my family and I are in a storage lot just south of Knoxville watching Jim, the seller, unlock and slide open the door on his storage unit. Tucked away in the corner of the unit sleeping under a dusty cover and several boxes was the treasure I had driven over 500 miles to retrieve. Jim shuffled over to the car quickly pulled the boxes and cover off saying “Here she is, her name is Victoria” . Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get any pictures of her in the place she had been resting but I was able to get some just after she had been pushed outside.
It became apparent that she hadn’t been started in some time. Jim confirmed that she hadn’t turned a wheel in a little over 3 years. Trying not to being deterred by this news, Jim and I set off on the task of awakening her from the long slumber to get her on the U-Haul trailer. It took us around an hour to get her running well enough to pull on the trailer, mainly because of the lack of a battery that had any juice in it. After Jim’s wife brought us a fresh battery from his house, I let him do the honors of pulling her up onto the trailer so he could drive her one last time.
Loaded up with all the extras and spare parts. We began the drive back to Swayton’s house where Vicky will be getting worked on to prepare for the rally the following year. But along way we had a special stop for the old girl.
Every Christmas season Bristol Motor Speedway hosts a light show where you get to drive around the whole compound, a total of 4.5 miles. I have a feeling that I am one of the few ‘people’ (read: idiots) that has driven the around the light show with a car on a trailer. I was expecting to be asked to leave but I was met with more curiosity from all the event workers than anything else. People were taking pictures, giving thumbs up and asking questions. No one had any issues with us taking Vicky for a spin around the light show. Driving through the concession area and pulling out onto the 28-degree banking of the track were the most nerve racking. But now I can say, with a fair amount of confidence, that Victoria is the only Triumph Mayflower in the world that has “driven” on a NASCAR track.
The rest of the trip to her “layover” at Swayton’s place was mostly uneventful. The next morning in the hotel parking lot I noticed she had evacuated a large amount of oil all over the trailer. Something that would have to be dealt with later. We arrived at Swayton’s house that evening, pulled her off the trailer, and placed her next to the shop where she would be getting brought back to life in the coming months.
