Friends 1978 Triumph Spitfire Project

My friend Ricky Taylor always come across these great vehicle deals. It was through him that I manage to get a 2001 Jeep Cherokee Sport. He drives around Lubbock in his (now yellow) 1985 Mercedes-Benz 500SL.

Today, he collected his latest project car - a 1978 Triumph Spitfire 1500. That's him posing next to the car while it is still in the trailer in front of his garage. His plans for this is to repaint it British racing green and to convert it over to electric power after finding a YouTube link. And all of us got to get our picture taken with us behind the steering wheel. Ricky Taylor, Tucker Mack, and myself (see top picture).

Some specifications for the Spitfire. Length - 83 inches, width - 57 inches. Height is 48 inches and has a curb weight of 1,568 pounds. The typical engine for this car was a 1,493 cc displacement motor is missing from this particular vehicle. The sportscar was designed by Giovanni Michelotti. The manufacturer was the Triumph Motor Company (also known as Leyland Motors).

Ricky had several Spitfires back in the past. As for me, I kinda like the Triumph TR 7/8. As well as Mercedes-Benz convertibles.

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Ref.

1. Wikipedia. Triumph Spitfire (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph_Spitfire).

2. Left Coast Conversions ( www.leftcoastconversions.com )

Biggest Dust Storm for Lubbock in Decades!

I could not believe what was about to strike us - a huge, old fashion Dust Storm. One that I have not seen since the late 1970s. In my younger days (i.e the 1960s-70s), I remember these big brown dust storms - but never lived through one that turned the sky literally 'black.' I remembered my parents telling me about that part of the dust storms from the 1930s.

Looking out one of the garage doors at Ricky's Auto Repair this afternoon, I was amazed. We had to close the doors and get everyone inside before the dust storm hit.

A strong cold front hit Lubbock county about 6pm. Visibility dropped down to between zero to less than a quarter of a mile. That zero visibility at the garage lasted about 2-3 minutes. Wind gusts as high as 74 mph.

The FAA had to evacuate the control tower at Lubbock International Airport and air traffic was directed from a backup control cneter on the ground floor.

Trees were toppled, roofs lost shingles. Rail road crossing gates bent. A small cargo plane was overturned at the airport.

The dust cloud was a by-product of the persistent drought in West Texas. Back on October 6th, the National Weather Service in Lubbock reported that there was a "high likelihood" that 2011 could be the driest on record across the South Plains.

With this blog post are some images that I took with my cell phone camera.

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Ref.

1. News.yahoo.com. "Dust storm roils through Texas South Plains" October 17, 2011. (http://news.yahoo.com/dust-storm-roils-texas-south-plains-023536510.html). ***Yes, the article's title was mispelled by AP.