The specialist
This Cambridgeshire firm became one of the UK’S most respected TR experts – once things got serious
Few are as dedicated to the Triumph TR cause as TRGB owner Gary Bates, a certified car nut who has been fettling Canley-built roadsters for as long as he can remember. What started as a hobby, and then a one-man-band business operating from his home, has now grown into one of the marque’s leading specialists, a mainstay of the Triumph community that has been selling, servicing and restoring TRS from the same sprawling site near Huntingdon since 1992.
The catalyst for the firm’s growth came in the late 1980s, when Bates and a friend saw an opportunity to import rust-free California cars and rare parts from Los Angeles to the UK, boosted by a booming world market for classics and a favourable exchange rate. “The cars easily covered the cost of shipping the containers, and we filled what space was left with parts,” explains Bates. “We were buying things such as window frames for as little as $20, and in the UK they were selling for £75 and later as much as £100.”
Bolstered by the success of the parts runs, the business finally had the finances to expand. “We were working from home when the current site became available – it was a mushroom farm that went bankrupt,” says Bates. “We were lucky because Maggie Thatcher decreed that redundant farm buildings should be made available for light industrial use. She did a lot of bad things, but that was one of the good ones!”
Bates was able to buy the entire farm in Somersham, renting out vacant buildings to local businesses. But as TRGB has grown – last year hitting a record turnover of £1.7m – it has expanded, taking over most of the space available. The firm now boasts a growing parts department with online and telephone sales,
several workshops, plus an engine shop and a spray booth. Not to mention an attic packed to the rafters with secondhand spares, with mountains of carburettors, body panels and all manner of Triumph parts accumulated over decades in business. There’s also a tunnel-shaped building stuffed with four- and six-pot engines, which are used as a source of components and as the basis for rebuilds.
In recent years TRGB’S engine services have become particularly sought after, its focus on useful torque and usability over headline power figures proving popular with customers. Jason Wright, who has been with the company since 2011, is the resident specialist. “We get through at least 12 engines per year, everything from TR2S to TR6S,” he says, “but we also take care of other marques, too. We’ve recently worked on Austin-healeys, Jaguars and even Ferraris.”
A number of E-types have passed through the shop, in addition to a Ferrari 308GTBI currently on the forecourt, but Triumphs remain TRGB’S bread and butter. Known for its high-quality turnkey restorations, the company achieved a sale price of nearly £60,000 for a TR5 at last year’s NEC Classic Motor Show.
Current projects include a TR3 that had been rolled over, flattening the rear deck by 6cm, and a TR5 that came in more pin cushion than car, plus a Peerless-based Macari in one of the back rooms. “I’d love to restore it,” says Wright. “We just need the right customer!”
With the business in rude health and the order books bursting, TRGB now employs a dozen fulltime staff – a number that is soon set to increase. “I’m advertising for a mechanic at the moment – someone old-school,” says Bates. “They don’t need to be a computer technician; we want someone who knows their way around a set of points and plugs.”