Ditch-finder PI

It was with great interest that I read the article in the April edition about the rediscovered Triumph 2.5 PI (Lost & found). I enclose a neverbefore-published photograph of its sister car, as driven by Brian Culcheth and Johnstone Syer, in a most precarious position in a waterfilled dyke on Romney Marsh.

Having competed in the World Cup Rally and the Cyprus Rally, the car returned to the factory and then embarked on a promotional tour of UK Triumph main dealers. One such was Martin Walters in Folkestone, Kent, where the sales manager was a good friend of mine and was persuaded to borrow the car for us to have a test drive.

We chose the infamous rally route known as the Ivy-church White for this test and enlisted the help of another friend, a professional photographer. The entire team consisted of three rally drivers and one racing driver, and it’s not difficult to guess who put the Triumph into the ditch…

This was on Saturday night, and on Sunday morning a lorry-mounted crane plus tow car and trailer were sent to recover the car, which was full of duckweed. Fortunately, though, the engine had not ingested any water.

A driver from the factory was due to arrive on Monday, but a phonecall to say that the car had developed a misfire and was in the workshop gave us the time we needed to clean and dry it out. The factory driver collected it on the Tuesday, and to the best of my knowledge no one ever suspected anything.

Terry Lynch

Canterbury, Kent