When pushed, the back wheels on early cars go through wild camber changes and tuck under, resulting in an unscheduled trip into the weeds
Triumph’s diminutive Spitfire sports car was named for the Battle of Britain-winning fighter plane the Supermarine Spitfire and showed up in the nick of time for another life-and-death struggle.
By the late 1950s, when the Spitfire was conceived, a different battle of Britain was going on. Instead of battling Nazi bombers, Britain’s carmakers were fighting to export cars to survive.
Standard-Triumph was still independent of, and a competitor to, BMC. It needed a basic sports car to compete with the Austin-Healey Sprite and the MG Midget, and the Spitfire 4 (unofficially referred to now as the MK I) was Triumph’s answer. WWII hero and Standard-Triumph chairman Air Marshal Tedder negotiated with Vickers for the name.
Small sedan underpinnings are often the basis for volume-produced sports cars. In the Spitfire’s case, Triumph’s Herald was the starting point. The Herald donated its 1,147-cc engine and independent rear suspension. Referred to optimistically as a “1200,” the little four made 63 hp in Spitfire tune-about 963 hp short of the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine in its namesake.
ONE OF THE BEST-STYLED SPORTS CARS
Styling was farmed out to the prolific Giovanni Michelotti. In one of his best efforts, Michelotti designed a diminutive car that doesn’t look like a toy. In fact, it may be one of the best-styled small sports cars ever. Where a “Spridget” is slab-sided and utilitarian, the Spit is curvaceous, almost like a miniature E-type, complete with rollup windows-a real upmarket touch in those days.
With optional 13″ wire wheels, an early Spitfire is very attractive. Although they were inexpensive, early Spitfires had the same cloisonné bonnet badges and chromed “TRIUMPH” lettering of the big Triumph sports cars and sedans. These are much cooler than the vinyl decals that British Leyland’s bean-counters mandated for the later cars.
As with most sports cars developed from sedan platforms, there were compromises, the most significant being the swing-axle independent rear suspension. While few people were inclined to drive a Herald at ten-tenths, a small sports car was another matter. When pushed, the rear suspension-which had a link only at the differential-went through wild camber changes that ultimately resulted in the rear wheels tucking under. An unscheduled trip into the weeds was the result. Later models would include a camber compensator. It’s a good retrofit and required if you want to autocross a Spitfire.
PERFORMANCE IS MODEST
As one would expect from the displacement, performance is modest. Most tests reported 0-60 times of around 15 seconds and a top speed of about 90 mph. But as others have said before, there are joys to be found in driving slow cars fast. If you thrash a Spitfire, actual performance numbers aside, it will keep up with modern traffic, and you’ll feel like you’re going much faster than you are.
But interstate travel is not what these cars are about. Steering is go-kart quick and the car is phenomenally easy to place in a corner. A Spitfire can be enormously entertaining on back roads. Incidentally, Spitfires ruled SCCA F Production racing in the late ’60s.
Getting into the Spit, which sits extremely low, is interesting. I find that grabbing the top of the windshield and lowering one’s backside works as well as anything.
Once inside, you get a sense how low and small these cars really are. There’s plenty of legroom; however, wrap your arm over the cut-down door too far and you can get a pavement manicure just like in a TR3.
The interiors of early Spitfires are charming in a utilitarian sort of way. The two-spoke steering wheel looks like something out of a boat or a tractor, there’s no glove box, and just a few plastic knobs and four attractive Smiths gauges adorn the dash. That’s about it. But the seats are nice-looking buckets with rounded backrests and contrasting piping. And the Spitfire was available in the same pleasant color choices as a TR4, including blue or red interiors in addition to the usual black.
ONE-THIRD PRICED LOTUS ELAN
Although the car was updated for 1965 as the Spitfire MK II, little changed other than slightly more comfortable seats and another four horsepower, which made little difference in performance. Overdrive, wire wheels, and a hardtop were new options. Standard Triumph also offered a competition kit consisting of a more aggressive cam, bigger SUs, a camber compensator, and tubular headers. A car so equipped starts to look more like a one-third priced Lotus Elan.
Early Spitfire advertising was among the more memorable from the period. My personal favorite featured a famous (and by then portly) Battle of Britain ace, “Ginger” Lacy, stuffed into an RAF camouflage-painted Triumph with a real Spitfire fighter plane behind it.
The best early Spit I’ve seen was done in Wedgwood Blue with a blue interior, white piping, wires, and wide whitewall tires-the same colors, incidentally, as the $90,000-plus TR4 sold at Barrett-Jackson West Palm Beach in March. The car was just about as attractive as any one of the gaggle of MGAs at the same show, and a Spitfire owner won’t see himself coming and going.
Rust and the disposable nature of the car explains why early Spits are so rare. Like most other cars of the period, they simply melt. The semi-unit construction is a tin-worm farm. Nearly every panel, including the deck lid, is suspect. Scarce or not, buying a rusty old Spitfire should not be on anyone’s to-do list.
At least parts are dirt cheap. Whenever you see an ad for British car parts advertising “generators as low as $39.95,” you can bet that the Spitfire part is the loss leader. Across the board, nearly everything is cheap, although trim parts unique to the early cars are more difficult to find than the later 1500s.
Mechanically, the cars are reasonably durable. Rear suspension half shafts can be an issue, as in any IRS Triumph. Just listen for the “clunk.” In Portland, where rust is not a problem, at least one owner has pressed his ’67 Spitfire into use as a daily driver in response to Oregon’s $3-plus fuel prices. Not a bad strategy, as Road & Track reported an amazing 32 mpg during hard test driving.
As collectibles, early Spitfires will probably follow other third-tier British cars like the Sunbeam Alpine and MG Midget and enjoy modest appreciation. They’re cute enough that a brilliantly done example in great colors could probably break the twenty grand barrier at the right auction, although you’d probably spend more than that doing the car to the requisite standard (unless you’re a fluff-and-buff guru like SCM’s favorite magician, Dave Martindale).
An early Spit with wires and good cosmetics can provide three-quarters of the
looks, performance, and fun of an MGA for a third of the price. As the pool of entry-level sports cars shrinks, that may be the most compelling reason to seek out one of the few survivors.