The Brits on the Bay

The 1962 Triumph TR4 was born in Liverpool, England, with a curved and seductive body envisioned by one of the 20th century’s master sportscar designers, Giovanni Michelotti. This particular TR4 was the mechanic’s car at the Gulf service station at the corner of Bayview Avenue and York Mills Road in Toronto, where a teenage Mark Hord worked part-time pumping gas, amongst other things.

“I fell in love with the lines of the car,” Hord recalls. The two-seat convertible had large round headlights, chrome bumpers and muted tailfins, themes that can also be seen in Michelotti’s designs for Maserati, Ferrari and Austin Martin during the same time period.

The lovesick high schooler put any practical thoughts aside and bought the car as soon as it became available. “(The TR4) started breaking down on (the mechanic) and he said you can have it for 300 bucks,” he recalls. In 1970 that was a fair sum for a student. “I had to put all of my money together to buy it,” smiles Hord.

Then reality set in. “Drove the car home, my dad was livid,” Hord laughs. “I had it for two years. Every extra penny I had went into that car to keep it alive.”

That TR4 was the first of many Triumphs Hord would go on to resuscitate over the next five decades. By the time he finished university, he was already an experienced driveway mechanic, fully indoctrinated into the brotherhood of skinned knuckles and greasy fingernails.

“The whole getting your hands dirty thing is what it’s all about, the satisfaction you get from problem-solving, figuring it out and seeing it work.”

After spending his professional career as an educator, Hord retired and settled in Collingwood where his devoted hands keep busy restoring vintage Triumphs. He has a natural affinity for perfection and it shows when he hits the road in a gleaming vintage convertible.

“Whenever I drive one of my British cars, people start telling you stories, you can’t get out of parking lots. I get those stories all the time, I love that part of the car culture,” Hord says with a wide smile.

It’s widely recognized in classic car circles that every generation has their own iconic marques and models. Hord enjoys getting together with members of the Georgian Bay British Car Club.

I’m one of the younger guys,” he says as he expresses concern that the club’s members are aging.“We need to get more younger people involved.”

The Georgian Bay British Car Club was established in 2006 by chums Graeme Wallace and Bill Rogers.

“The club is dedicated to the preservation and enjoyment of British cars,” Wallace explains with a lively Scottish burr. “MGBs, Triumphs and Jaguars are most common, but you don’t need to own a British car to be a member.”

Born in Edinburgh, the retired computer software salesman developed his own passion for MGBs while living in London as a younger man. He remembers how the small convertibles were well-suited for the meandering roads in Cornwall and Devon. “The roads are sometimes so narrow, if you meet another car, one of you would have to reverse back to a passing spot,” Wallace reminisces.

Today the Georgian Bay British Car Club has about 80 active members who take part in car shows and cruises (not rallies).