It all started with an advert in the Manchester Evening News
Graham Lomas and his pride and joy – the 1968 Triumph Vitesse.
It is a love affair which has endured for 50 years. Graham Lomas was smitten at the age of 21.
His devotion remains unflinching and the partnership continues to draw admiring comments – and accolades across the North West and North Wales.
The latest compliments came at the annual Prestatyn Classic Car Show where, with 400 vehicles on display, Graham’s beloved blue Triumph Vitesse not only won its class for the sixth time but was judged as Best in Show.
It is a remarkable record for Graham, a 71-year-old former council gardener from New Moston, Manchester, whose bladder cancer almost prevented him from attending the popular show.
Never miss a story with the MEN’s daily Catch Up newsletter – get it in your inbox by signing up here
Organiser Tim Williams was, however, determined that Graham should once again display his pride and joy, so made special arrangements to ensure that help was at hand if he was taken ill and that he was parked in a convenient spot.
“Tim’s a lovely chap and he went out of his way to ease the way for me,” said Graham.
Graham Lomas and his pride and joy – the 1968 Triumph Vitesse.
As a teenager he had originally fancied buying a Ford Cortina, but the insurance was too expensive. He could hardly believe his luck when he spotted the two-litre 1968 Vitesse advertised for sale in the Manchester Evening News.
It cost him £350 in 1975 and though he was offered £20,000 for it a couple of years he has no plans to sell it.
A Triumph Vitesse sold new in the UK in 1968 would have cost approximately £839. This price was for the Triumph Vitesse 2-Litre MkI, a model produced between 1966 and 1968, with 10,830 manufactured during its run.
Join the Manchester Evening News WhatsApp group HERE
The Triumph Vitesse was a desirable car that combined a compact body with a more powerful six-cylinder engine.
Graham said: “I was the third owner and it had done 39,000 miles when I bought it. It now has 214,000 on the clock, though I have rebuilt the engine twice,” he said.
Graham Lomas with two more trophies for his Triumph Vitesse.
It was his main car for many years and he travelled widely across the North of England and North Wales, but he now owns a Rover and so the Vitesse is for display only.
“I have won numerous prizes over the years but didn’t expect to win the Best in Show in Prestatyn,” he said.
The journey from New Moston to Prestatyn and back was not straightforward, not only because of Graham’s health concerns – in addition to the cancer he was diagnosed in 2009 with Type 1 diabetes, which has to be managed – but because the Vitesse tends to overheat in queues or at very slow speeds.
“I’m very wary about it, so I tried to avoid queues and getting boxed in on the way home, adding an extra 20 miles by taking an indirect route,” he said.