Bert Mooijekind
I've owned the
Southern Cross now for about 5 years and till the
end of 2006 I had also a Triumph Roadster 1800. This
car I had for about 12 years and I did in the first
years a full restoration.
The Roadster is now in Italy. I also did a full
restoration with the Southern Cross, but the owner
before me had done already the difficult work on it.
I
learned about the pre 1940 Triumph Owners Club when I was in England for
the Annual Rally of the Triumph Roadster Club in
1999 or 2000. At the same time the pre 1940 club
there also their annual rally so I could see all
kind of pre war Triumph's and I liked it very much.
From that time I was very interested in the pre war Triumph's and hoped to own someday one of them. Triumphs were always a dream of mine and when I was young I had no money (enough) and when I had children there where other things more important but when they were older and I could buy as first a Triumph Spitfire, very happy with it but after a restoration and some years driving I got a Triumph TR250. Another restoration and driving for some years there came a Triumph Roadster 1800. A very difficult restoration and many years later I learned the summer of Triumph. The pre war cars!!
As I was (and still am)
very active in the Triumph Club Holland as register
secretary for the roadsters and pre 1940 cars and I
heard that the son of Mr Frans Smeets wanted to sell
the pre war triumph cars they owned (A few months
before Mr Frans Smeets died). So I could buy one of
the Triumphs. One Triumph is still in the family and
two other Triumphs are still in Holland and will be
restored by the new owner.
The Southern Cross has a long history in Holland. In 1952 it was transported to Holland and the owner lived in Amsterdam. It got one of the first (central) license number 'ND-87-37'. The first number in Holland was ND-00-01. Mr Frans Smeets was the owner since 1977 and after a long storage and searching for several missing parts he started with the restoration in 1995. When I became the owner in 2003 a lot of work was still to do and I did not like the Bugatti Blue colour there was again a (little) restoration. (see the photo's)
Since 2005 the Southern Cross is fully ready and from that time I drive in summer and in winter I take care of the car and renew things. It is now in a dark blue color and I think that is a nice color for a Southern Cross.
Kind Regards,
Bert Mooijekind, Holland
