Texas Triumph

Texas Triumph Register was honored as the 1999 Houston AutoRama Club of the Year and TTR’s award-winning display was featured in a prominent location near the entrance at the 1999 event as a result. The Club of the Year is chosen by the show’s organizers based on the activities in which club members participate and the club’s involvement in the community. TTR members Mike Hado and Don Carter prepared our successful Club of the Year application; it appears here in a slightly modified form to serve as a brief overview of Texas Triumph Register and its activities.

About the Texas Triumph Register

Founded in Houston in March 1981, the Texas Triumph Register is an organization of Triumph automobile owners and enthusiasts dedicated to the preservation and continued enjoyment of the Marque. Membership is open to all who appreciate automobiles bearing the Triumph name. In addition to monthly meetings, the club sponsors rallyes, shows, road tours, technical seminars and social events.

The TTR is a local chapter of the Vintage Triumph Register, a national organization open to all Triumph motorcars. It is also an Area Center of the Triumph Register of America, a national organization for TR-2 through TR-4A automobiles. Membership in the TTR currently stands at 149 families. We use the term families because about 80 percent of all spouses also attend club functions. We also have over 200 Triumph cars, several of which have won regional and national honors in concours-de-elegance, auto crossing and road rallying.
The club publishes a monthly newsletter, The Bluebonnet, with articles by members. Included are technical discussions, photographs, human-interest stories, and other materials of interest. The newsletter has missed its scheduled due date only once in over 18 years of publication, a tribute to the dedication and enthusiasm of the officers and membership. The newsletter is also distributed to over 50 additional automobile organizations throughout the USA and England.

The Texas Triumph Register has participated with a club display in the Houston AutoRama for 15 consecutive years since 1984. The current 8-ft. x 60-ft. display with its rotating sign was designed and built entirely by the membership. The club was honored with two Best Club Display awards during this period as well as several second and third place awards. The club has continued to improve this display each year, using better materials and building in more versatility. Even though we received one of our Best Club Display Awards only last year, the membership is busy working on an all-new “big screen visual presentation” to go along with our cars in the coming year.

The TTR has coordinated four car shows in conjunction with other auto collectors and professional groups to benefit the American Heart Association. In these private shows, which were held on spring weekday afternoons, each show raised more than $20,000 for this worthy charity. The TTR also raised over $12,000 with its first afternoon show for the De Pelchin Children’s Center, a Houston-based center for children needing help. These shows consisted of 50 to 60 classic cars, (from both sides of the pond), entertainment by famous star impersonators, one raffle for a Model A, remote control car races, and plenty of food and drink for the huge invitation list.

The TTR also participates in the annual Wooden Keels and Classic Wheels Car Show hosted by the Lakewood Yacht Club benefiting the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

The TTR hosted and coordinated all logistics for a Vintage Triumph Register National Convention in 1988 that was attended by over 300 families. We also host the South Central USA Vintage Triumph Register Regional Convention every six years. This is a rotating honor that includes participants from other Triumph clubs in San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, Oklahoma City and Tulsa. The Texas Triumph Register consistently achieves the highest number of participants of any attending club at this annual event. The TTR is hosting again in 2001, and we are planning a huge gathering in the Houston area.

We enthusiastically participate in numerous events with other British and American car clubs in the South Texas area. These include the clubs for collectors and drivers of Austin Healeys, Jaguars, Morgans, MGs, 55-57 Chevys, early Fords and Corvettes.

The Texas Triumph Register maintains an Internet website at http://www.kingswayrc.com/txtr/ that offers information of interest to both members and visitors. It is updated regularly and features a new car-of-the-month and pictures of the latest events. This keeps our members’ interests piqued, and lets interested new families know who we are and what we do.

Several of our members hold “Repair Days” in their own garages to assist fellow members in the maintenance, restoration and care of their Triumphs who might not have the means or ability to do so themselves. Members are always helping members keep their cars on the road, and this camaraderie and concern is remarked upon often by new members.

In addition to our monthly meetings, the TTR offers at least one driving event each month. This includes gimmick and TSD rallyes, road tours or leisurely breakfast and picnic runs in the country. The club has had at least three families each year drive their Triumphs to other Vintage Triumph National Conventions as far away as Washington, Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Georgia, North Carolina and California.

In closing, the Texas Triumph Register is in reality a family of friends bound together by a common appreciation for classic British automobiles and the enjoyment of each other. Our continued growth and the commitment of our members promote the ongoing preservation of these vehicles. Our membership has grown steadily over the past eighteen years. In only the past five years, TTR has enjoyed a 50 percent increase in membership.

The Texas Triumph Register is a very active, exciting and just plain fun-loving group with members who realize that our common hobbies should always be fun by definition. Several other automobile clubs, including Triumph clubs, have ask what our secret is to keeping such an active, non-political, happy bunch of people doing things together.

How we answer is to simply say: Exactly!

Drive your Triumph!

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