	Gregor's Diamond Underdogs

The Triumph Spitfire

It's hard to believe that the now much loved Spitfire was very much an underdog in the eighties. "Pansy", "underpowered", "a hairdresser's car"... so the motoring press said. It didn't help that a reputation for bad handling lived on long after the problem was cured.

I remember every little thing as if it happened only yesterday (cue for a Meatloaf song). I was sitting in a teacher training lecture, the relevance of which was hard to identify. "I'm going to reward myself for putting up with this," I vowed. The reward was to be an open car when I started working.

I bought and ruined two Spitfires. One I crashed on black ice. The other's engine I blew in an act of crass immaturity. I decided one day to see if it would do the "ton". It did, but not for very long. It began to shake and rattle the way the Starship Enterprise does when Scotty announces "Ma enjins cannae tak much mair o' this, Captain!" and the big ends went into melt down.

When I decided to get back into classics, I chose a Spitfire again. Unfortunately, I chose the wrong one. It was one of those cars that turned out to be a loose collection of holes held together by a thin web of rust. Still, buying it encouraged me to join the owners' club, where the friends I made and the advice I got made it all worthwhile.

The Triumph Spitfire makes an excellent first sports car for the newly qualified professional.

The Triumph Spitfire also makes an excellent heap of scrap for the naive would-be restorer.

Read about a successful restoration in Sandra's Spitfire Story.