tech tips • readers’ cars • readers’ survey • miniature … · although i will probably...

1964 Mk1 owned by Troy Smith

• TECH TIPS• READERS’ CARS• READERS’ SURVEY• MINIATURE SPITFIRES• SPITCAT: PART 5• ON THE TRACK

• TECH TIPS• READERS’ CARS• READERS’ SURVEY• MINIATURE SPITFIRES• SPITCAT: PART 5• ON THE TRACK

5 Spi t f i re & GT6 Magaz ine • “ for enthus ias ts , by enthus ias ts”

New PartsThe Roadster Factory stocks a full range of new mechanical, hydraulic,

and electrical components for Triumph Spitfire and GT6 models. Manyparts have become hard to find, but we scour England to maintain avail-ability. TRF is a major manufacturer of replica parts, and we are one ofthe few companies worldwide which actively manufactures Spitfire andGT6 Components...

Body Sheet MetalTRF stocks all components manufactured by British Motor Heritage,

including new components manufactured on original tooling and replicacomponents. Availability of new components includes bonnets, rockerpanels, front valances, and more. Replica components include replace-ment floor sections which perfectly replace originals that have been shotfull of rust holes. Many other replica repair panels are also available.

Interior ComponentsTRF supplies carpet sets, interior panels, and seat kits with related

items from a British Motor Heritage approved trim factory in England.Most of these components are available for all Spitfire and GT6 modelvariations.

Rebuilt ComponentsThe Roadster Factory has its own rebuilding factory, known as C.A.R.

Components. Items rebuilt there include engines, gearboxes, diffs, rearaxles and hubs, steering racks, and carburettors. It is best to send your oldunits for rebuilding, but we can supply exchange units in many cases ifnecessary.

Technical AdviceThe Roadster Factory offers technical support on a special phone line,

which is open from 12:30 till 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. CallTech Support at 814 446-4491.

Summer PartyTriumph Spitfire is the featured model at The Roadster Factory

Summer Party to be held August 9, 10, and 11, 2002. We will have somewonderful Spitfire surprises on hand, and every Summer Party includesdrag racing, autocross, TSD rallye, parties, and much more. Camp onTRF grounds, and keep event cost to a minimum. Registration is just$89.95 for each adult until June 30th, and camping is just $10.00 per fam-ily campsite. Plan to come to our Summer Party for the time of your life!Please phone for free Summer Party brochure...

Parts Specials, Good through May 31, 2002—You must mention this ad...

Part No. Description List Price SPECIAL

612962 Cone/bolt, bonnet locating, all Spitfire, GT6 3.90 1.95REP312 Gearbox cover, black plastic, Spitfire 69.95 49.95REP345 Gearbox cover, black plastic, GT6 69.95 49.95823381 Sun visor, black, driver’s side, no mirror, 22.95 14.95

Spitfire mks. 3, 4, 1500, GT6+, GT6 mk.3XKC2949PA Sun visor, black, passenger’s side, with 27.95 16.95

mirror, Spitfire mks. 3, 4, 1500, GT6+GT6 mk.3

RFK147 Windscreen trim kit, chromed plastic, incl. 10.95 6.95trim strip and clip, Spitfire mks. 1, 2, 3, GT6 mk.1, GT6+

Visit our Web site, Phone, or Fax to be on TRF’s mailing list...Request our “Aftermath” sale catalogue.

Good through May 31, 2002!

The Roadster FactoryP.O. Box 332 • Armagh, PA 15920Tel. 800 234 -1104 • Fax 814 446-6720www.the-roadster-factory.com

Spitfire& GT6

at

The Roadster Factory

Spi t f i re & GT6 Magaz ine • w w w . T r i u m p h S p i t f i r e . c o m 3

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EDITO

R’S NO

TE

4 Spi t f i re & GT6 Magaz ine • “ for enthus ias ts , by enthus ias ts”

Spring has Sprung!It is finally top-down

weather! Birds are chirping,flowers blooming and thesound of “free flow”exhaust is in the air.Unfortunately it is Tom’s

exhaust I am hearing. My Spit is anxiously waiting in thegarage for the next sunny weekend so I can finish the com-plete hydraulic overhaul. I was getting tired of the constantlyleaking master cylinder and now left rear cylinder. And withthe new baby I am now more safety conscious than ever! Evenif it will be years before he gets a ride it would not be good topre-pay his college tuition with my life insurance payout.

Oh yes, I said new baby! I had many good guesses on hisname; Austin, Morris, Morgan, Riley, and heaven help us...Lucas, to name a few. We named him Cooper (my mother’smaiden name). Naming after a family name is a very commonpractice here in the “good ole South”.

If the wife and Cooper will allow, we plan on visiting mayshows this year. The highlight will probably be the 2nd AnnualNASS “Spit-Together” in June. This is one not to miss. I havealways had a fascination for racing Spitfires (and GT6’s) espe-cially Group 44 cars and this years event will feature a morethan one! And not just sitting pretty in a row... racing!Although I will probably not take my car I am sure I couldbum a ride with a fellow Spit owner around the track for aparade lap or two. The weekend promises to be a once in alifetime experience as it is also the 40th anniversary ofTriumph sportscars with many other Triumph related events.However possible, do your best to attend.

Thank you everyone for all the articles and photos andhope to see you at the an event near you!

John Goetherteditor

For everyone wondering about safety of the baby... the seat is tightly bungy corded ontothe luggage rack! ;-)

to order visit:

Products for the British Car Enthusiast parts, books, manuals, clothing, tools...

or call

865-690-1737

TUNE-UP TIME!Cap, points, cond., rotor 62-74 $15Cap & rotor 75-80 $10Oil Pressure relief valve & spring $8Fuel Pump $17Gas Tank Sending Unit $34Lucus Hi-output Coil $40Stromberg Mixture Adjustment Tool $10

Front Wheel Bearing Kit $18Rear Wheel Bearing Kit Major $27

Lucas DOT 5.1 Brake Fluid $13.75Brake Master Cylinder 67-75 New $195Brake Reservoir 67-75 $35Brake Master Cylinder 76-80 New $195Brake Master Rebuild Kit 67-80 $19PWD Valve + Switch 67-75 $75Clutch Master Cylinder OE $68Clutch Slave Cylinder 67-80 OE $65Front Rotor w/HD Pads $54Slotted & Vented Rotor set $68Rear Wheel Cylinder Set (2) $25Rear Shoe Set $18Brake Hose Set (4) $42Brake Hose Set Stainless $73Rebuilt Calipers 67-80 Ex $71Caliper Rebuild Kit 67-80 (2) $12

Robbins Top 71-80 $179Speedo Cable $17DGV Weber Carb (manual choke) $399DCOE Single Weber Carb $610

SPRING IS

British Marque Embroidered ClothingFourth Gear Ltd.1009 Whitney Springs CourtHolly Springs, NC 27540www.fourth-gear-ltd.com

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Look for us a British car show near you!

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CHILDREN’S SIZES

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POLO DRESSES

CONT

ENTS

6 MAILBOX

8 READERS’ CARS

14 LITTLE BITS OF SPITS

16 READERS’ SURVEY

17 READERS’ STORIES

28 A WOMEN’S PERSPECTIVE

30 MINIATURES

32 PICTURE PERFECT

34 ENGINE SWAP

40 TECH TIPS

52 ON THE TRACK

58 RACERS’ CARS

60 SHOWING OFF

62 EVENTS LISTING

i n t h i s i s s u e . . . CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

CORRESPONDENTSHoward Baugues– Illinois/Ohio Correspondent

Laura Gharazeddine– Southern California CorrespondentGregory Hertel–Canadian CorrespondentStephan Sieburg–Swiss CorrespondentUS ADVERTISING SALES

Tom Brobergtom@magaz inepubl i sher . com

1-800-487-3333 (US)EUROPEAN ADVERTISING SALES

Michae l Hancockeurosa les@tr iumphsp i t f i re . com

01246 583261 (Eng land)PUBLISHER

Pro f i l es Marke t ing GroupPRINTING

Newman Nat iona lDESIGN & PRODUCTION

Magaz inePubl i sher . com1-800-487-3333

The staff of Spitfire/GT6 Magazine expresses its sincere gratitude to the many supporters and suppliers of stories, photos and technical

information. Spitfire/GT6 Magazine is published quarterly at a rate of $12.95-US, $15.95-Canada & Mexico and $22.95 (£16)- the rest of the world.

To subscribe, call 1-800-487-3333 or write Spitfire/GT6 Magazine, P.O. Box 30806, Knoxville, TN 37930-0806 USA,

In Europe (£16): Spitfire/GT6 MagazineBeech Croft Cottage, School Lane,

Baslow, Bakewell, Derbyshire, DE45 1RZ England. © 2002 Profiles Marketing Group. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. Because the stories are reader written, please be careful and use good judge-

ment while working on your car. We accept no responsibility for damages or personal injury. It is not our intent to breach any copyright or offend anyone with this

magazine only glorify Triumph name and their wonderful cars. This magazine is in no wayaffiliated with Triumph, Leyland Motor Corp. or BMW, although that would be nice!

Correspondents wanted for Spitfire & GT6 Magazine!email [email protected]

for more information❖

To send anything Spitfire or GT6 related [email protected]

orP.O. Box 30806,

Knoxville, TN USA 37930-0806

Tony AdamsSteve BridgeBrett BrobergTim BurtonLou ByerJames CooperRocky EntrikenMark Fisher

Philip FleishmanJoe GarrisonLaura GharazeddineDouglas GuentherLivia I. HaasperGregory HertelDave MackMike Nelson

Gary PanarottoAndy PreveligMike RoeTed SchumacherJim SechrestKeith SmithBob SpruckJohn H. Twist

M A G A Z I N EVolume 2, Issue 4

Photo by Greg Hertel

6 Spi t f i re & GT6 Magaz ine • “ fo r enthus ias ts , by enthus ias ts”

MAILB

OX

found a comment youmade in the letter from theeditor to be very funny. You

mentioned how you've heardmany stories of people sellingtheir Spitfires the day they findout about their upcoming addi-tion (baby). Just the oppositehappened to me. A week aftermy wife and I found out wewere expecting, my neighborswere relocating to another stateand decided not to take their '77Spitfire with them. Knowingthat I had previously owned aSpitfire and that I had beenadmiring theirs for many years,they made me an offer I couldn'trefuse. That was almost twoyears ago. The car sits in theback of my garage waiting to berebuilt. I've been slowly tinker-ing with it and collecting newparts, but at this rate, it'll beback on the road just about thetime my (baby) daughter getsher license.

The magazine is great!Cheers,Dennis FitzpatrickFranklin, MA

Hi JohnJust received latest issue of

the your mag. Good as ever andon real paper too, marvelous.Received it on 31st December,delivery times haveimproved dramatically too.

I promised a report sometime ago on my attempts atkeeping the heat at bay in myGT6. The radiator insulation I

used certainly helped, but aftertwo years exposure to heatalong with the lousy weather wehave over here in winter has ledto it disintegrating. I had toremove the gear box tunnel lastweekend to fix the overdriveagain (wiring fault) and spent acouple of hours scrapping offthe remainder of the foil and theadhesive. I am now definitelynot going to bother with thatapproach again but am going totry the heat reflective bandageapproach to the manifold andexhaust. I was wondering ifanother idea would work, MK3GT6's have pipes attached to theair filter which are routed nextto the radiator. I am thinking oftrying this with longer pipesfeeding cool air into the gapbetween gearbox and tunnel.What do you think?

regards, Terry CollinsEast Yorks, England

Hi John. I just received the latest

issue this morning. WOW!Glossy stock no less - The mag-azine looks great! I don't knowif this change in stock will havean effect upon subscriptionrates, but I for one don't mindpaying more. What a differenceit makes to have the the maga-zine printed on glossy paper.The photographs are so muchclearer. Bravo!

As well, thanks so muchfor using Dick and Val's car onthe front cover of this issue.(I'm truly flattered and I knowthat Dick and Val will be too. )It's a very attractive image and Ireally like the layout you used.The images you selected for thestory also work very well asdoes the layout. You've got agood eye for this.

Bye for now!Greg

Hi,I finally received the latest

issue (Volume 2, Issue #3) andcan now I can understand why ittook so long - the USPS totallydestroyed it!

Can I get a replacementcopy? If so, to whom should Isend my request and payment?By the way, have there been anyother complaints about thisproblem? This is the secondtime I've received a torn anddamaged copy. I know it's notthe fault of the magazine, buthave you ever considered send-ing it in an envelope or plasticprotector? I'd be willing to paya higher subscription rate for

this if it meant I'd get the issuesin good shape.

Thanks,Sue Snyder

John,I’ve received the recent

magazine---WOW---very nicelydone! I like the improved print-ing.

When is the next deadline?With lots of luck, my (RX7engine) swap could be done bythen, and you can print mywhole story, start to finish. Itwill include lots of blood, sweatand tears (and cash). I’ll startcomposing the story, but I’m notsure exactly how to tell it. Youradvice is greatly appreciated; Idon’t want it to be too awfullyboring. There should be readerinterest in (1) the finished proj-ect, and how it got there, engi-neering-wise, (2) the firstattempt that was scratched, (3)the problems I had with shopsthat started but never completedthe project, and (4) the legalissues I’m still learning from.Choosing the shop and legalissues could be an entire articlein itself. What format is best foryou—I have MS Word, thisOutlook word processor, WordPad, plain text, and everythingin the MS XP Office SuiteProfessional.

Honestly, I’m not disap-pointed that my story wasdelayed, now that you havesuch a gorgeous magazine toshow it off. We’re still settingup the front half of the chassis,I’m about to pick out wheelsand tires, and the body workneeds to be done (radical fenderflares). We’re putting heightadjustable Koni Sports allaround, and a racing cage. Istill have to get it to the engineshop, and this may delay gettingit into the next issue. I talkedyesterday with the guy who willcomplete and tune the engine.We will go with a completeengine management system, byWolf (www.wolfems.com ), thatwill allow complete control overevery engine function. He willsupply me with two enginemaps: the main map pro-grammed on the dyno, the otheron emission equipment, I haveto pass Colorado smog.

You may want my story intwo parts, the first being theproblems with auto shops andlegal stuff, and the second beingthe actual car engineering. Youlet me know how you want.

See ya,Ric Gibson

Hi John,Yep, my Spitfire is as much

fun to drive as a barrel of mon-keys. We have about 4,000(monkeys) here and actually alot of their “playthings” includelarge, swinging polyethylenebarrels with holes in them. Sowe have real barrels of mon-keys. I have a 76 with originalpaint and I believe all theoptions (hardtop, overdrive,California model) (also, it isCOMPLETELY stock except ithas aluminum wheels). I haveput in a great rebuilt transmis-sion but I still have not wired upor tried the overdrive. I amalmost afraid I will blow theoverdrive up!

Take care,Tim DuvallToxicologistCa. Regional Primate

Research CenterUniversity of California

John,Just got my Magazine yes-

terday! It was great to see mybaby in there. It is now a veryclassy looking magazine withthe glossy pages throughout.The Magazine continues toimprove, and I'm hoping yoursubscription numbers do aswell.

I took about 24 photos ofthe GT6 and will send them. Itwould be neat if we could do aseries of articles on this car,from finding it in the dealer's lotto its final restoration. I willNOT be the one doing the restowork however. I want to con-tinue to focus on my Spitfire,and I can't afford the time or themoney or the space it will taketo do a GT6 right now. I hopeto find a buyer that really wantsto restore and drive the car.

I purchased the car to res-cue it. The dealership wasgoing to let a salvage yard takeit. It was too nice to let some-one strip the valuable parts andcrush the rest. Let me know ifyou hear of anyone interested ina good restorable GT6!

Sincerely yours,Joseph L. GuinanPresidentNorth American Spitfire

Squadron

Dear Sirs: I enjoy your magazine and

the new layout is great... I likethe picture of the dog in theGT6 on page 12 and it remind-ed me of a picture I took whilein the process of restoring mySpit (see page 16).

Doug Pratt

Story Requests“What about adding a section that was

dedicated to racing Spitfires in SCCA andHSR? This could really be helpful for peopleto use who are trying to race prep a stock carand let them know what modifications areallowed etc. I’m sure that there are racerswho would be willing to contribute.”

–Keith May

“I would like read about how to stiffenup the rear suspension. Shocks and springare OK, but when my wife and I get in it, thewheels deflect up almost as far as they can.Hitting certain bumps sometimes causes it to"bottom out". Plus, I think it simply looksbetter without the rear camber. Any sugges-tions?

–Greg McMillan

“Is it possible to supercharge a 1300MK3?

What supercharger will fit, and howmuch more power would it give me?

–Martin Verity

“How about a story that details floor/rockerreplacement?”

–Steve Reilly

34¢

United States Postal Service

34¢

United States Postal Service I


Hi John,I intended to write you re-

the latest Spit & GT6. I wasexcited again to receive my lat-est copy, early in the new year.(mail's slow up here in Canada!)Magazine is getting nicer all thetime. You can consider this aletter to the editor if you wish. Icertainly hope you don't try togo to monthly. I don't thinkthere will be sufficient materialof diverse interest if you do. Isuspect the magazine wouldbecome simply a vehicle foradverts, like most other specialcar mags, in my opinion. (Iknow adverts are what paysyour salary.)

As it stands, I wonderabout the balance between the"see my car, isn't it beautiful"type of articles, and the realtechnical, historical, restorationwork. I found one article par-ticularly long and not so inter-esting, mentioning housemoves, career changes etc. Ialso suspect the "Dating" articlegot slightly chopped to fit thepage.

I do have another articleready if you want it. This timeits a step-by-step Horn Rebuildarticle, with a lot of closeupJPG files. They probably aren'tall necessary, but I'd let youdecide. If you want it, I'll mailit on disk - there are too manyJPG files to email.

Keep up the work.Cheers, Fred Griffiths

Dear JohnThank you for the latest

edition of the magazine. Ishowed it around when we hadthe last meeting a week ago andeverybody said how much bet-ter it looked now! The photo-graphs come out much betterand it is a pleasure to read themagazine.

All the best for your baby!I also have two little girls and itis (mostly) a lot of fun.

Best regards, Stephan SieburgSwiss Spitfire Club

Hi John,First of all, let me congrat-

ulate you on the current Spitfiremagazine. As a “bookworm”,not so much a magazine fan, Imust admit that this magazine isthe nicest I've come across in along time. The quality and sub-ject matter is outstanding. It willfind a permanent place on mybookshelf for sure. I will alsoorder all the back issues that areavailable.

You have one of my littleessays, "the belated weddingpresent", there for your consid-eration, and I have also sent yousome pictures via snail mail. Ihope everything got there OK.I'm always writing essays, andhere is one that I think is quietnice. If you like to use it, feelfree to do so.

Good luck with the birth ofthe baby.

Cheers,Liv, Spitting into the snow

in cold Ottawa.

HalloMy name is nik,30, i'm

from croatia, europe, and i havea triumph spitfire mk3, witchwas total mess before i took itfrom some looser, anyway, nowit's finish in red color, and whati want to ask you, i'd like to dointerior in beige color leather,seats, doors, actually every-thing, sorry for my poor knowl-edge of english terms forparts...so, what i'm interested in,can i put dashboard and centreradio console in beige leathertoo, to look a like austin healeydashboard, was it before anoption,' because it will looknice, but is it original???...don'twant to see some other spitdrivers to have fun with me, orit is all something personal...anyway, i'm most grateful foryour time and understanding...

Nik OrosiZagreb, Croatia

I am writing you to thankyou-all for showing the pic ofthe Rumble-B Express in thelast issue I will try to send moreinfo. soon and some more pic-tures and may be a story, lov themag. and read it straightthrough from cover to cover.

Thanks again,Otto & TotoRumble-B Garage

John and Tom,On page 11 of the current

issue you show an unusualSpitfire bonnet fromSwitzerland. I found pictures ofother cars with this bonnet onthe French Spitfire club’s web-site, Amicale Spitfire(www.amicale.com). You canuse the Altavista translation siteto convert the text to readable-enough English.

They have a page of alter-nate hardtops that cover thetrunk as well making it looklike a GT6 fastback-type. Someare called "Apal" and"Ashley" and others. On the"Apal" the picture of that hard-

top had a link next to it for bon-nets also. I have never seenhardtops like this before.

I don't care much for theApal bonnet, but the hardtopwould be cool. I wonder if anyof these ever made it to the USmarket? I don't like the othervariation on page 11 either, butthat's my opinion.

Thanks for a great maga-zine!

Mike A. JappPensacola, FL

Dear Enthusiasts,Hear me! If you own a

GT6, hold on to it. I have had aplethora of sports cars in mylife, but became particularlyfond of British coachmanshipand that special Grrrrr... onlyBritish cars seem to possess.

A friend of mine convincedme to buy a poor, beat up GT6+so I could join the TriumphClub of San Diego with him.WE subsequently spent the nexttwo 2 years, painfully but joy-ously restoring her. The car andI became inseparable. I drove iteverywhere, to road rallies, toshows even round trip acrossthe USA. I also drove herwhile dating. Well “Maisy”, as Iaffectionately named her, was abetter judge of character than I,as she always seemed to haveproblems when my now ex-wifewould come along for a ride.Honestly, I never had even aLucas blackout when I wasalone with Maisy.

Well 6 years later Iobtained custody of my 4 chil-dren and fool that I am, tradedher for a (uhhhgggg, yes Iknow!) minivan. I truly neededthe space, so I convinced myselfthat parting with my mechanicalbetter half was the responsiblething to do.

Now, however, I rarely seea GT6 and when I do, I remi-nisce up to the point where thepain of the loss, overwhelmsme. There was something sospecial, so unique about theGT6. A masterpiece in artisticdesign, the roadster feel and theconstant inquiries. I always feltlike I was driving a "Renoir".Because of the rarity of themodel here in the US, mostpeople would ask me admiring-ly..."what type of car is that?"

If fate permits, one day I'llown another!

Sincerely,Joseph DrewInverness, Florida

Hello, My name is Drew Brown

of Danbury, CT. I noticed thelast photo (on the website onthe Racing Engine Photospage), titled, Another Highlymodified GT 6 engine. The pic-ture is of my race car I pur-chased fromtheWidowof theLateJohnLehmanof Ohio.The car isa 1968GT 6SCCArace car,racing since 1972 and now livesin CT. John passed away sud-denly in 2000 and I was luckyenough to purchase it. TheEngine is a 2.0, forged pistons,11:1 comp, custom cam, msdwith crane ignition, customcrank fluid damper, customheaders and a lot more. The car is a blast. I also own a 1971GT 6 and a 1972 GT 6 projectcar ready for paint. I love theweb sight, thanks a lot.

Best regards Drew Brown

HiJust thought I would write

to you and say hi.I have owned a Spitfire

1978 for 3 years now and it hasbeen endless fun. UnfortunatelyI am a bit of an attention seekerand have changed it some what.I have installed a Bore exhaustsystem/Kenwood stereo andalarm that talks to you if youget to close!!

The car is now very wellknown around North London -the kids seem to get a lot of joyfrom it ... and the ladies :)

The only incident I havehad (where my stomach was inmy mouth) was when the rightfront suspension broke at 60mph - the car swerved all overthe place, narrowly missed avan and ended upside down in aditch. That was NOT fun. Theyhad to crane it away - but I amstill driving it - and now that Ihave taken the hard top off Ishall enjoy it even more.

James CooperLondon

MAILB

OX

Send us anythingSpitfire or GT6 related!

[email protected] or

P.O. Box 30806, Knoxville, TN 37930-0806


READER

’S CA

RS

Chuck Dommer, Colorado, USA, 1968 GT6+

Ree Gurley, Maryland, 1978 1500

George Brown, Nevada, USA, 1979 1500

Dave Hale, Ohio, USA, 1975 1500

James Davis, Wisconsin, USA 1970 Mk3

Y. Race, Wisconsin, USA 1979 1500

Rachel Dixon, England, 1965 Mk2


READER

’S CA

RS

Steve Hauser, Florida, USA, 1972 MkIV

Randy Cardoso, North Carolina, USA, 1979 1500

Robert Corbishley, Alaska, USA, 1977 1500

Joe Guinan, Nebraska, USA, 1972 Mk3 GT6

Scott Nevin, South Carolina, USA, 1976 1500I've just got this car on the road after a years worth of renovation. Frame off (replacement), fully deseamed hood and rear quar-ters/trunk/rear fascia and painted it in PPG Indigo Blue. Twin HIF 4's with 10:1 cr, fast road cam and much porting work.Removed all electrics to under dash, Removed heater/wipers/door glass.

Paul Geithner, Maryland, USA, 1978 1500AE 9:1 flat-top pistons, twin HS-4s using ABD needles and "red" piston springs, Lucas 45DM4 distributor with Crane Cams amplifier andLucas sport coil, UK/euro spec intake manifold and 4 into 1 "Monza" type header, 1 3/4 inch I.D. GT-6 intermediate exhaust pipe and 4x8inch oval twin outlet muffler-straight back.

10 Sp i t f i re & GT6 Magaz ine • “ fo r enthus ias ts , by enthus ias ts”

READER

’S CA

RS

Jerome Azuara, Chaville, France, 1978 1500

Vincent Eweb, Paris, France, 1977 1500

Jim Rogers, New Hampshire, USA, 1972 Mk4“Quit smoking a year ago and when off the pipe for 4 months; bought the wire wheelswith the money I saved”

Tim Burton, New York, USA, 1973 Mk3 GT6

Roger Thomas, Iowa, USA, 1971 MkIV

James Robbins, Solihull, England, 1968 MkIII


READER

’S CA

RS

Chris Campbell, Virginia, 1971 Mk3 GT6

John-Paul Keohane, England, 1972 MKIV “The wheels are made by a company called Avon (not sure if that is the same company that makes tyres) and they are known as Safety wheels asthey have a metal insert that goes around the wheel (under the tyre) that apparently prevents the tyre from coming off in the event of a blowout!”

Louis DiPasquale, Ohio, USA 1980 1500

To have your car featured in next issue

and on the TriumphSpitfire.com

website, e-mail us at

[email protected] mail to:

P.O. Box 30806Knoxville, TN 37930

Doug Pratt, New York, USA, 1976 1500

Gary Roberts, Ohio, USA 1980 1500

Dan Parrott, Georgia, USA, 1980 1500

Jim Willems, British Columbia, Canada, 1976 1500

Jack Hamilton, Michigan, USA, 1976 1500


READER

’S CA

RS

James & Michelle Gerritson, Washington, USA, 1977 1500

Greg McMillan, North Carolina, USA, 1975 1500Jim Lawrence, Nebraska, USA, 1970 Mk3“I rescued her from a farmer who was using her tub as a garbage can.When I inquired about the car he told me he would sell it for $300.What a deal! She started up right away but the body was rough.”

Todd Luchette, California, USA, 1979 1500

John Higgins, New York, USA, 1980 1500Thor Svaboe and members of TSSC Norway recreate a LeMans Paddock

To have your car featured in next issue

and on the TriumphSpitfire.com

website, e-mail us at

[email protected] mail to:

P.O. Box 30806Knoxville, TN 37930


Race-winning

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Performance Research IndustriesP.O. Box 61Umpqua, OR. 97486

LITTLE

BITS

OF SP

ITS

A STITCH IN TIMEWhile surfing the web recently, Tom Broberg found this British site offering

Spitfire cross-stitch patterns. They are available as a kit for £19 or pattern for £7. Visit www.crafts-unlimited.co.uk for more information.

TOPLESS SPENDINGJeanne Bushchbach recently re-subscribed to Spitfire & GT6 Magazine with one of these

cool checks. To get you Spit on your checks visit call Real Life Products at (800) 386-2432 orvisit www.FunChecks.com. The first box of 200 checks is $30 with additional boxes $20 each.

WHAT A DRAGJoel Yeagle has been tearing up the drag racing strips in his

highly modified 78 Spitfire. Joel has won class titles in the IDRCImport Drag Racing Circuit’s B&M Challenge. How quick is heand his Spitfire? An example of one of Joe’s winning quarter miletimes was 12.390 seconds at 104.07mph.

IT’S A BOMB!At this years British Wings and Wheels Laura Gharazeddine showed how seriously she takes the Spitfire mystique.

“All the markings on Nigel are static cling decals that I (painstakingly) made myself for theevent! I arrived at the airport dressed in flight jacket, helmet and goggles!”

SOLD! TO THE GUY IN THE FLAT HATJanuary this year a Triumph Spitfire was auctioned off at

the Barrett-Jackson Auction... but not just any old Spitfire, abrand new one! The Barrett-Jackson program called it “a remarkable example of ‘Time warp’”.

From the “Max of Switzerland” Collection this flawless1980 Triumph Spitfire (VIN-TFVDW6AT009157) was neversold at a dealership or driven with the odometer reading only 19 miles. It still has a copy of the original window sticker showing that it has an optional overdriveand had a retail price of $8,506 (plus tax and license).

So how much is a “new” Spitfire worth? When the gavel dropped the going price was $13,500.


TV STAR SPIT FOR SALEThe following classified ad was added to the “Spitfires & GT6s Only” Classifieds on

TriumphSpitfire.com recently.“Cars for sale:1974 British Racing Green. For sale due to lack of space. Mk4 spitty. Mot August, 5 monthstax. Car has just been used in TV series “Bad Girls” for the 2nd time (nice earner) and may possibly beneeded again in the future. It had a body off restoration a couple of years ago (photos & loads of paper-work to prove) however, she now needs a few bits and bobs done to her. She looks quite nice and will

make a smashing car when these bits have been done. Drive away for £1500 ovno.”For more information contact Dave at [email protected]


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SHOULDN’T IT BE TITLED “BRITISH BLISS”?Nick Vass was flipping through a copy of the January issue

of Night & Day Magazine when a photo caught his eye. An early70’s Spitfire is clearly shown buzzing through French countryside“on the wrong side of the road” as Nick was quick to point out (Nicklives in England). The article entitled “French Bliss” welcomes readers to

romantic chateaus available for weekend get-aways.

AT LEAST THEY KNOW WHAT A SPITFIRE IS!In a recent issue of Truck World Magazine a reader, when discussing a trip in his

International Scout says “This Scout is shown going down a trail which has lots ofbody-squashing ruts and high-centering rocks the size of Triumph Spitfires.”

ANOTHER MAGAZINE CALLS THE SPITFIRE A CLASSIC“I just picked up a copy of the January 2002 edition of Classic & Sports Car Magazine and there is an informative, four-page

article on the Spitfire 1500. The article is worth checking out. Your web address, www.triumphspitfire.com, is also mentioned inthe article - Bravo!—Greg Hertel

CHAMPION ENDORSEMENTObservant Nick Vass also spotted this article in an insert to his weekend paper, the Daily Mail. Alexandra

Bastedo, the star of the 70’s TV show “The Champions”, tells of the cars she owned throughout her life. She states that of all the cars she has owned, her baby blue, two-toned Spitfire was her pride and joy.

“I absolutely adored that car!” She mentions that her Spitfire was much more reliable than the next car sheowned; a Capri. Imagine, a Triumph more reliable than a Ford!

WANTED DEAD OF ALIVEJeff Webster of Buyer Services International LLC named the Triumph Spitfire #7 on his list of The Top 10 Most Desired Cars

in America. “This was a surprise! It's nice to see these cars beginning to be appreciated, in production for almost two decades, theTriumph range of cars won some of the greatest motor sports events in the world. In America it's 'TR' rangethat folks are most familiar with, but it seems that even on this side of the pond American are realizing whatEuropeans have known all along, and that is that these Spitfires equal cheap top-down fun motoring!”

Spitfires’ ranked second only to MGB’s (ranked #6) in the import category.

“Dad, How come you never take me for a ride in this car?““Where does a 100lb dog sit.....?”“Dog-car-restorers often become confused as to how to proceed after the teardown stage.” “Never give a concours GT6 to a dog as a chew toy.”“But, you promised me a ride!”“Now just put your foot on the middle peddle and then we'll be done bleeding the brakes.”“Dad, ya done yet?”“Your laughing now, it'll be complete soon!!”“I'll go to the Vet but only in this car!”“I tried, but there were all these extra parts.”“Ooops, I did it again! ““My dog loves his new kennel, I think not!”“And he says I make a mess!!”“After 2 years, let go man”“So after she found out how much he's spent on the rebuild, he sleeps in the doghouse and I get to bed

down in here.”“Man, when me and 20 of my buds hit the Iditerod in this baby, we are gonna be the team from hell!”“Come on dad you said I could drive it today”“This is proof that the world has gone to the dogs!”“Luckily, Bob was a small man, so when it came time to set up his suspension his dog filled the driver’s

seat perfectly!”“Your only saying I can’t drive this 'cause I’m a dog aren’t ya?”“Man, after 3 years or 21 dog years, lets go!” “Dedicated Triumph Fan ready for the open road, if only he could make his owner hurry up with that

small modification of the light switch that he started 5 years ago.”“Some guard dog.”“Not yet triumphed”“Some dogs are born with fleas, others are destined to acquire them!”“What a strange way to test the strength of floorboards!”“Will it ever be finished?”“My name is Revere and it looks like my ride will be a little late.”“Are we there yet?”“Just look at that-MAN’S BEST FRIEND FIXED IT AGAIN!!!”“Are we ever gonna get to go for a ride?”“Anyone seen my bone?”“Where will we be going today then?”“Hurry up and finish this thing so I can pick up the poodle down the street!”“No horses just dog power for now”“DOGGY STYLE”“Spitfire wiv a woof!!”“Look! What can possibly take this long?? I want to go for a ride NOW!!”“A new meaning to mans best friend. ““Junkyard dog school didn't cover reassembly”“My owner said he was coming back to take me for a ride”“Welcome to my PAD”“After many failed attempts using the "Self-Brake-Bleed" kit, Harold recruits the help of a willing paw.”“I didn't do it”“You don't drive it, so I thought I would!”“And you said if I ate that brake hose you where gonna take me to the vet.”“I knew we shouldn't have parked in Liverpool”“One dog will always be a dog. The other could become a tiger one day”“He usually just chews my slippers!!”“When the little car heard itself being described as a ‘baby E-type’, it just fell to pieces laughing!!!!”“Some dogs like to fetch a ball or chase cars, this one likes to restore Triumphs!!!”“Crikey, I piss on his tire ONCE and this is what he does??? ““I’m sorry... I know you told me to guard the car, but I only fell asleep for a second...”“I was just a pup when he started on this thing”

Last issue I asked readers to sug-gest a caption to the photo sent by JohnGray showing his dog "Growler” in hishalf restored GT6. John states “giventhe opportunity, an open door, and adog’s innate ability to see the forrestthrough the trees, Skyler let us knowhe’s not getting left behind on the maid-en run. Gotta love a dogs’ blind faith inhis owners. You can bet he'll be on thatride too!”

Below are a few of the suggestions.

Bob Spruckand I wererecently dis-cussing mynew son’sname andrealized weboth knewmany otherpeoplewhose chil-

dren were named after British Car com-panies.

For next issue, send us your“British Car” kids photos.


WEB Q

UIZ

Man's Best Friend

NextIssue...

Other Friends

“Skyler” - Doug Pratt, New York, USA, 1976 1500

“Finnbar” - John-Paul Keohane, England, 1972 MKIV

“Cessy” - Michael Dutzi, Enzesfeld, Austria, 1977 1500

Cooper ready for his first ride in Daddy’s Spitfire

In August of 1999, I regret-fully put my 1968 Olds Cutlasson the front lawn with a for salesign on it. I had her for four-teen years and put a lot ofblood, sweat and new parts inher. She was my pride and joy.I had purchased a house threeyears earlier and it only had aone bay garage. Well, the planwas to sell the Olds because itwas wearing out it’s winter wel-come, as the only occupant inour one bay garage. My 1989Bronco II was more than happyto spend the winter months inthe driveway. Unfortunately,my girl friend’s Grand Prixwasn’t so use to the cold win-ters of upstate New York andwas eyeballing the Old’s hang-er. The Grand Prix won. Or soit thought.

The Olds was lookinginviting with it’s maroon paint

and blackracingstripe sit-ting withthe forsale signon thefront lawn.

It wasn’t there 20 minutesbefore prospective buyers wereinterrupting my house painting!Darn! (Anyone who has doneexterior house painting teeteringon a ladder in 80-degree weath-er knows they don’t like to beinterrupted). Sure….

By the end of the day I hada deposit and had to move heroff the front lawn to keepprospective buyers from slow-ing down the painting progress.

Yeah right!The Cutlass had fetched a

nice little purse. I was planningon putting a new garage door onthe lonely garage bay as dis-cussed with my girlfriendJamie, the owner of the GrandPrix, with a good portion of theloot that was getting warmer bythe second in the depths of mytattered wallet.

If the readers of this maga-zine have the same sick sense ofreasoning when it comes tocars, as I do, maybe they cansympathize with my nextprocess of thought.

Something a good friend ofmine, Derek, had said to memany times over the yearsregarding my Olds was, “Whydon’t you sell that beast and geta real sports car like mine.” Hewas the proud owner of a LotusEuropa, which I had ridden inmany of times and had to admitthere was something to thoseLBC’s.

Later that evening, I had torun down to the local conven-ience store. While cashing out, Igrabbed a local want ad digest.What the heck, it can’t hurt tolook… A friend on my blockhad a Triumph TR6 when wewere in high school and Ithought I would look at theTriumph section to see whatwas available “just for the heckof it”!

Wow!, was I surprised atthe price a running example wasfetching. $6,000 to $10,000was way more than the money Ihad for the new garage door.Just when I was thinking that it

was probably best that theywere all out of my price range, Inoticed under the miscellaneoussports cars column, a TriumphGT6 for $3,900.00. Strange, Ihad never heard of one of those.Well, you know what curiositydoes…

The owner had explainedover the phone that he had total-ly restored the car and rebuiltthe motor 8 years ago. He hadgiven it to his daughter for ahigh school graduation present.She had clocked only 2,000miles on the rebuild and hadsince lost interest. He alsoinformed me it was a six cylin-der. Ah ha!

I had to take a peek. Goingfrom an eight to a four cylinderwould have been too much of ashock to the right foot!

I had driven Spitfiresbefore, but the owner had saidthis one was a hardtop. I foundthe owner’s home after an hourdrive and pulled into the drive-way. There it was, sleek, whiteand already set up with MiniLite wheels and new CooperCobra tires. That was it; hookline and sinker, before I evenheard it run. When he fired itup, the SU carburetor conver-sion and Monza exhaust just set


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New NavigatorBY TIM BURTON, NEW YORK, USA

the frosting on the cake with asilky smooth sound that was better than the last CD I had purchased.

The next thing I knew, I washeading home with a receipt and alot of explaining to do.

When I brought her home,things went a little better thanexpected, due in part to the irre-sistible charm and spell that aGT6 can weave upon an innocentspectator.

Here is where I can get to thepoint of the story. Three yearshave passed since I bought theGT6 and have clocked around7000 very enjoyable miles. Ohyeah, did I mention that the GT6found the Old’s ex-stable quitecomfortable during the wintermonths. The Grand Prix was losing patience!

The one thing that was missing was my navigator. I hada very faithful one when I ownedthe Olds. Jake was a greatAiredale Terrier (British breed)that loved to cruise with me andwas always ready for any adven-ture and then some. I lost Jakeafter 14 wonderful years and hadn’t thought much of lookingfor another navigator.

This past September I wasout for a country cruise in theGT6 and stopped in a local dinnerfor a bite. While indulging insome (real food) diner cuisine, Ibegan chatting with an old farmerwho shared some stories that hadme in stitches.

One of which started with aquestion, “you’ll never guess whatmy son is doing today”?

I knew there was suppose tobe an Airedale Terrier breeder inthe area he promptly directed meto a farm a few miles outside oftown.

What the heck, it can’t hurt tolook…

The next thing I knew I washurling downthe highwaywith a ball offur in the navi-gation seat andsome moreexplaining todo.

Nigelenjoyed his firstever automobileride in the GT6and has becomequite the navi-gator into thetwisty roads ofthe AdirondackMountains ofNew York. Nothing like a wiryBritish pal to enjoy the ride with!

It is now January and theGT6 is in it’s winter hibernationin the new garage bay that wasadded this past summer. Nigeland Jamie have become best bud-dies. The Grand Prix has claimedthe Old’s-ex stable and life isgood.

Nigel is now 6 months oldand has gained 35 pounds, severalinches in height and shows nosigns of leveling off since thesephotos were taken last fall.

My only question is this:Will my navigator fit in the GT6when spring arrives? ■


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Your Source forAutomotive ShopManuals and BooksTRIUMPH SPITFIRESpitfire & GT6 ‘A Collector’s Guide’ by Graham Robson. Indepth information about Spit/GT6 models, racinghistory, and tech specs. 128 pgs. hardcover $ 28

Guide to Originality by John Thomason. This book isa concours Spitfire owner's/restorer's must have book.;

160 pgs, hardcover $ 35

Triumph Spitfire by Michael Cook. Covering Triumph Spitfire & GT6 history; 144 pgs, $ 22

62-80 Spitfire Gold Portfolio by Brooklands Books. Almost every magazine review of the Spitfire from Oct.1966 to 1973, 180 pages $ 24

Mk3 Owners Handbook glovebox sized reprint $ 11

Mk4 Owners Handbook glovebox sized reprint $ 13

1500 Maintenance Handbook glovebox, reprint $ 38

62-81 Spitfire Haynes Manual $ 17

69-80 Spitfire Workshop Manual glovebox sized

owners workshop manual 185 pgs. $ 15

Spitfire 1500 75-80 Official Repair Operation Manual step by step repair/troubleshooting 216 pgs.$ 38

Mk4 Official Repair Operation Manual $ 38

Competition Preparation Manual by Triumph for all Spitfires MK1-1500; 64 pgs. $ 11

Mk1-3 Official Workshop Manual, reprint of factory manual, incl Herald 1200, 12/50, 13/60 Vitesse 272 pgs $ 40

Mk1 & 2 Spare Parts Catalog $ 50

Mk3 Spare Parts Catalog Official 224 pages $ 38

SU Carburetor Tuning Manual, 168 pages $ 18

TRIUMPH GT666-74 GT6 Gold Portfolio, 172 pgs of old magazine articles, compiled by Brooklands $ 25

71-74 GT6 Parts Catalogue official Triumph $ 28

GT6 Mk1-3 Shop Manual, Factory Official, $ 48

Mk1 Owners Handbook glovebox size, 72 pgs. $ 11

Mk2 & GT6+ Owners Manual glovebox 64 pgs $ 11

Mk3 Owners Handbook glovebox size, 66 pgs. $ 11

Competition Preparation Manual for Mk1 & 2 $ 11

SU Carburetor Tuning Manual, 168 pages $ 18

add $3.20 shipping for each US order.

Order online at BritishToolbox.com

phone:(865) 690-1737P.O. Box 30806

Knoxville, TN 37930

FALL 2001This is a story on the histo-

ry of Triumph GT6 MKI, com-mission number KC8849, whichis currently undergoing restora-tion by yours truly.

The car came into my wifeJanet’s possession in 1981 whenit was purchased by her father,Ron, as her high-school trans-portation. I won’t say whethershe was a sophomore, junior, or senior to keep myself out oftrouble. Janet drove her GT6for about 8 months, until Rongot tired of rescuing her and fixing the ‘6, at which point itwas relegated to his garage.

It remained in her dad’sgarage for the next 10 years,until I met Janet in 1991. Uponlearning that I had a TR6 shetold me of her long-neglectedTriumph, and we decided to getit out of her dad’s garage.When we pulled it out of Ron’sgarage it was rough, to say theleast: a previous owner had cutout most of the roof and cov-ered it with a snap-fit top, thedash had been cut to accept acheap digital clock, three differ-

ent wheels were fitted, andBondo showed through crackingpaint on most body panels. Onthe plus side it was mostly com-plete, straight, and relativelyrust-free.

For the next 4 years itaccompanied us through 2 hous-es, once throwing a wheel whilebeing flat-towed from house #1to house #2 (amazingly, thewheel spun off and did not hitany other vehicles as it rolled toa stop 300 yards later in thecenter median). House #3 hadinsufficient garage space, so Imanaged to drive it the 30 milesfrom our house to her brother’sfarm. There it sat for anotherfour years, during which time itwas moved to a local auto repairshop to pay off a bill on my in-law’s truck.

With my own TR6 in prettygood shape, I decided recentlythat there might be room in ourlife for another Triumph, sowith Janet’s blessing I set offone Sunday morning with abuddy and his trailer to fetch theGT6. After buying my ownGT6 back for the price of the

repair bill we proceeded to loadit onto the trailer. During theloading process, both my buddyand I learned why car is mucheasier to push onto a trailer ifit’s not in gear, but that’s foranother issue.

After spending the first fewevenings staring at it in disbe-lief, I have begun the restorationprocess and I hope to haveJanet’s GT6 ready for next sum-mer’s show season. Any advice,parts, prayers, etc. are greatlyappreciated.

THE STORY CONTINUES –WINTER 2001

It’s been a busy winter inmy garage: since rescuingJanet’s GT6 from the auto shopI’ve completed the following:• Rebuilt Front Suspension (re-built my TR6’s front suspensionthis winter as well, and canattest to the fact that the hoodconfiguration of the GT6 is agodsend compared to the TR6’slayout!) • Recovered Dash Pad • Cut-out, Stained, Sealed andInstalled a Solid Black Walnut


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Janet’s GT6BY MIKE ROE, INDIANA, USA


Dash (gorgeous!) (Only attemptthis if you have a pretty straightoriginal to use as a template,and have access to a scroll saw,drill press, circle cutters andboring bits).• Replaced lower windshieldseal. • Replaced windshield rubber(I’ve also done this on my TR6,and can now say that the TR6 ismuch easier in this regard). • Pulled transmission, madeand installed new bushings forthe remote control (having alathe and scrap aluminum rodavailable at work helped greatlyhere). • Replaced transmissionmounts (which were MISS-ING). • Rebuilt Clutch Master andSlave Cylinders (tried to honethem myself, but probably justboogered them up enough soI’ll probably have to invest inre-sleeving anyway).• Replaced all hoses. • Changed oil, anti-freeze, oil& air filters, temperature send-ing unit, and oil pressure send-ing unit. • Started the engine! Killed allrust on the floorboards andbody (at least for now)• Reinforced floorboards withfiberglass, which did a great jobof filling the holes and strength-ening the wafer-thin metal thatwas left after 34 years. • Added heat shield materialand aluminum sheeting abovethese to further reinforce thefloors.• Rebuilt rear suspension (if thelower trunnion bolts are seizedinside of their metal sleeves,you’ll probably have to resort tousing a Bridgeport Mill to cutthem out). Fortunately I wasable to do this without damag-

ing the trunnions or verticallinks.• Replaced driveshaft and half-shaft u-joints. • Replaced steering column,steering wheel, turn signalswitch, and horn contacts.• Disassembled, sandblasted,and painted heater box, motorand heater core. • Replaced rear brake pads. • Cleaned and sealed gas tank.• Obtained MK3 wheels andcenter caps on e-Bay. • Got a bunch of obscure partsfrom Mark Pelham inCharleston, IL.• Got a hood badge from TomBeaver (thanks Tom!) • Selected the color, with helpfrom my 4-year-old daughters(no, not Barney Purple). It’sgoing to be New Beetle Yellow,because they like yellow cars.

I’m just about to the pointwhere I can drive it (SLOWLY,in my neighborhood) to seewhat expensive sounds emanatefrom the hub bearings, differen-tial, transmission, brakes, orengine. If all goes well, I’llstart filling in all of the dentsand rust holes with Bondo, thenhopefully have it painted intime for the 2001 TRF summerparty.

PAINT! – JUNE 2001In late May I was driving

through Whitestown with thegirls when I happened to see aGT6 with new paint sittingbehind a house. I pulled up inthe driveway and discoveredthat the owner of the house hadjust painted the GT6 for a cus-tomer. Sensing an opportunity Iasked him if he’d be interestedin painting MY GT6, to whichhe said yes.

So the next day I droveJanet’s GT6 up to his place sohe could look it over and giveme a price. We agreed on aprice, so two weeks later (June11) I dropped the GT6, nowdevoid of any trim, off at hishouse. Less than 4 days laterhe calls me to say the paint’sdone! It looks like we might beable to make the 2001 TRFSummer Party after all! Thecolor is for an ’81 Toyota, but itlooks awfully close to NewBeetle Yellow!

The next month or so con-sists of re-assembling the carand hooking up all of the lights,now made a little more chal-lenging since all of the wiresare now yellow!

On July 4th I tried to fire itup for some friends, and noth-ing happened. Turns out thecoil had gone bad (one of thoseLucas things) so I get a newcoil, then drive it to work thenext day. On the way home theignition light comes on, while atthe same time a new noise start-ed coming from under the hood.This time the generator hasdecided to shed a couple ofcommutator segments, so thenow very lumpy commutatorquickly shredded the brushes.Time for another call to SpitBits(Nigel and I are now on a first-name basis) to see if I can get agenerator in time for TRF. Thegenerator shows up shortly, butit turns out Triumph put twodifferent kinds of generators onMK1 GT6’s and I’ve got the“wrong” one. It can be made tofit, just not tonight. Running tothe auto parts store (whereelse?) the next week, I lose thethrottle linkage vertical link as Itry to pull out into oncomingtraffic. Amazingly, I don’t get

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hit, and upon inspection learnthat the original GT6 linkage,which has plastic ends, hascracked. Imagine 30-year-oldplastic cracking? Fortunately Ihad a spare TR6 vertical link,which is metal.

With the generator in place,it’s time to install seat belts forthe driver and passenger. Withseat belts in place, Janet drivesthe GT6, with one daughter andour dog, out to the lake house

(about 50 miles). I follow withour other daughter in the TR6.Amazingly the GT6 made it outthere and back without incident,though it still need some “finetuning”.

It’s now August 8 and weleave for The Roadster FactorySummer Party tomorrow morn-ing. Through the magic ofeBay I have found a MK1 frontbumper and overriders, whichare in transit from Athens, GA

via my little brother (Universityof Georgia undergrad) toEvansville, then via my Momfrom Evansville to Terre Haute.At 6pm Wednesday night, Imeet my mom in Terre Haute,give her my two kids to baby-sit, and pick up the bumper(pretty fair trade, I think). Thebumper goes on that night, thenit’s off to Armagh the nextmorning. Both Sixes (TR andGT) made it out to Armagh andback with NO problems, whichis especially amazing for theGT6 after sitting idle for nearly20 years! Since the GT6 ismostly complete, this might bethe last installment for awhile.I have placed a bid on a Stag,though, so stay tuned! ■


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The Club for All Triumphs• Meetings Each Month

• Magazine• Newsletter

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• Spares Service• Shows

• Motor Insurance• Technical Advice

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website: www.club.triumph.org.uk email: [email protected]

Membership Secretary, Freepost (SWB 20389)Christchurch BH 234ZZ, Tel/Fax: 01425 274193

Join the oldest and largest all-Triumph Club in North AmericaVTR Members enjoy:• Free classified advertising• Free technical advice• Membership card and decal• Discounts on books and regalia• Four issues of our award-winning magazine

and six issues of our newsletter• Access to classic car insuranceJoin today: $25 US, $30 Canada, $35 elsewhere (US funds only)

The Vintage Triumph RegisterDept. SG6 Membership

PO Box 655, Howell, Michigan 48844-0655For more info, send a SASE or visit:

www.vtr.org

It was said to me a numberof times, but I never gave itmuch thought. “You can’t just

own one British car.” I heardthat said somewhere around1993 or 94. Certainly this did

not apply to me. After all Ihad my hands full doing afull frame-off restoration onmy newly acquired TR6.Of course I did not intendfor it to be a full frame-offrestoration, in fact I did noteven know what frame-offmeant back then. I was justgoing to fix some of thoselittle ugly looking rust spotsand be quickly on my wayto enjoying the pleasures ofopen top motoring.

Well, after purchasing fournew fenders, two newfloors, two new sills (rightand left), new front valance,new rear valance, new Bpost repair, new wiring har-ness, sandblasting andpainting the frame, and hir-ing a local fellow to comein and weld everythingtogether with the Migwelder I purchased but did-n’t know how to use, amaz-

ingly the rust spots were gone!Incidentally this took approxi-mately four years. A full enginerebuild was thrown in just forfun. Never ever, let me repeatthat, never ever say the words“how hard could it be?” Forthat matter never ever say theseas well “how much could itcost?” Don’t forget now, neverever!

Finally everything was fin-ished and I was actually able todrive my practically brand newBRG TR6. Was it worth it? Ofcourse you know the answer.What a great feeling drivingthat open top roadster. All themore satisfying knowing that Iwas responsible for much ofthe work myself. I don’t knowprecisely how long it took butit wasn’t very long before Iwas asking the question, “nowwhat?”

To make a very long storyat least somewhat shorter, a 78Spitfire 1500 soon made it’sway into my possession alongwith a Morris Minor 1000, a

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Stripping begins on the Spit with TR6 frame in the foreground

I had my fingers crossed on this one. The body tub hangs sus-pended from the garage rafters after loosing its frame.

How Hard Could it Be?BY GARY PANAROTTO, NEW YORK, USA

TR7, and most recently a GT6.All these more recent acquisi-tions are of course somewhatshort of concourse and havehad or will require completerestorations. The Spit was aframe-off and I couldn’t resistdoing a Rover V8 conversionto the TR7. All cars have hador will get new paint, interiors,and just about anything neces-sary to make them very pre-sentable if not concourse.

Oh, by the way, one inter-esting note, when I startedwork on my original TR6 proj-ect I quickly realized that mygarage just wasn’t up to thetask. What to do? Simple,build another one. So a newtwo bay garage was added tothe back of my house. I decid-ed to build it myself, after all Ihad built the deck on the backof the house so “how hardcould it be?” What did I sayabout saying those words?This was done of course inbetween the work on the cars.I’m not sure when I was initial-ly inflicted with this sicknessbut I think it just grew fromadolescence at about sixteen orseventeen years of age and isobviously incurable. It is asickness that manifests itself inthe adoration of automobiles.At age 53 it shows no signs ofletting up.

Back to my newest acqui-sition the 73 GT6. I hadknown about this car for over ayear but continuously tried toput it out of my mind, all be itunsuccessfully. It was for saleand was almost sold a number

of times but each time forwhatever reason the dealfell through and there it sat.Most recently there seemedto be a real interestedpotential buyer who lookedat the car at least two orthree times and I thoughtfor sure it was finally goingto be out of my sight.However, it was not to beand I finally succumbed tothe desire that I attemptedto suppress for over a year.The GT6 was all mine withall that it entailed. Thesickness obviously persists.

I must say this hasbeen a tremendous learningexperience. Since I did nothave any prior auto repairexperience at all, just a loveof cars and a lot of desire.I cannot end this little storywithout thanking andacknowledging Nick, ofNick’s Auto Repair inSaddle Brook. WithoutNick’s help and expertise Icertainly would not havemade the progress that Ihave. Nick seems toalways be able to diagnoseproblems that arise and findthe cure. He has alwaysbeen willing to literally gothe extra mile in order tohelp. For example, Nicktook it upon himself to driveup to my house to diagnose theRover V8 I was going to trans-plant into my TR7. After someinitial checks he gave it a cleanbill of health and I was able toproceed. Mind you I live inNew York State and it was on a

weekend. That’s just the wayNick is, and only part of thereason Nick has a very appre-ciative and loyal group of cus-tomers. I can’t thank youenough Nick. Well it’s on tothat GT6, “how hard could itbe?” Oops! ■

READER

’S ST

ORIES


The 73 GT6 as found at the local garage.

The Strip-down begins back in Gary’s garage.

The GT6 now sports a nice, burlwood dash.

“Enclosed are photos ofour pride and joy. This is a1974 Mk IV 1300cc manualwith overdrive. We have hadownership for the past 5 1/2years and over this time I havefiddled and made variousimprovements in various areas.The car was purchased inChristchurch (about 1 hourdrive north from where I live)and it had been there since

new.In this coun-

try we keep anownership listwhile in posses-sion of a vehicleand the one thatcame with theSpitfire is handyin enabling one tocontact previousowners.

The main purpose of own-ing such a car is that our chil-dren have left home so Dianeand myself have been able toenjoy just getting out and aboutwith other like minded people.The trouble is that most otherpeople own TR’s. It does keepme busy keeping up.

I look forward to establish-ing contact with other Spitfireowners and learning moreabout such a fun vehicle.” ■

READER

’S ST

ORIES

Cruising...BY TONY & DIANE ADAMS, SOUTH ISLAND, NEW ZEALAND


READER

’S ST

ORIES


I had been lounging in mypajamas, watching the “telly”,when the truck arrived, pullinga trailer with the precious loadof a 1967 Triumph Spitfire. I had been waiting for this dayfor a very long time. At first,never in my wildest dreams,would I have thought that Iwould have the opportunity ofowning a little British sportscar. Then, one day, it happened,out of the blue. Someoneoffered the little beauty for sale.This day was going to make mydreams come true. It was des-tiny.

Now, there she sat, on atrailer, while the heavens wereopening up to a grand deluge,flooding the earth below, andpouring it’s wet gift of life uponthe old car’s once flaming redbody. The beautifully designedlittle automobile had seen betterdays. The first owner had givenup on her, and had passed heron to a kind Italian Gentleman,who had found love for the littlecar, and had started to restoreher lovely body. His work,unfortunately, had never beencompleted. Mario passed awayleaving behind his little beauty.

She was left abandoned ina garage corner, and the reasonfor this is, I know this now, shewas really meant for me. Overthe years dust and grime slowlysettled on the little car, as theyears passed by ever so slowly.The once shiny paint faded anddulled. Her heart and themechanical parts had been

removed. The engine sat aban-doned by her side, and most ofthe other components werepacked somewhere in boxes.There was nothing but empti-ness under her bonnet.

When the Spitfire arrived,the gloomy fall evening instan-taneously and miraculouslyreverted itself into a wonderfulhappy occasion, a festivity, areason to celebrate. I do believe,even the rain subsided just a lit-tle bit as I ran for a flashlight.There she stood in the dark,waiting for me, and I only hadeyes for her. It was love at firstsite. I let the rays of light glideover her glistening body whererivulets of water were tricklingdown, creating streaks of darkmud. I climbed onto the trailerto take a look at her interior.Her darling old fashioned

wooden dashboard and theinstruments reminded me ofdays gone by, when I learnedhow to drive in an rattely oldVW bug. This little car had thesame charming look and thequiet elegance and grace. Twoblack vinyl seats had been care-lessly thrown onto the car’sfloor and were now floating inpuddles of water. Some peoplewould have probably not giventhe car a second look, but forme, this meeting was meant tobe. The great master in the skyhad arranged this get together oftwo spirited souls.

My loving husband, whohad driven the car home for me,was waiting for his supper andwanted me to join him in thehouse. “ Honey, get of the trail-er, don’t hurt yourself on thatthing. You’re in your pajamas,

ArrivalShe Came to Me on a Cold and Rainy November EveningBY LIVIA I. HAASPER, OTTAWA, CANADA


for goodness sake, put someclothes on”... Now, with thatpleading tone of voice “Whereis my supper?” Who wants tohear of food when one has toattend to more important things.“ In the microwave, press num-ber one...” I yelled back. Now,more desperately, and yes, heknows all the tricks, “ You’rehair will get wet!” This com-ment usually results in a dashfor cover by the author, for thereason that unnecessary curlswill appear when my hair getsdamp. A conditions to be avoid-ed at all costs. “Today I amgoing to tough this out “ Ireplied, as my head disappearedunder the bonnet. Well, Ithought, if I have to drive thiscar today, I’ll go like FredFlintstone, as there was a gap-ing hole in the floor where theengine and transmission used tobe, never mind all the othermissing mechanical parts. Theboot was the next object of myexplorations. I noticed rightaway that there wasn’t evenenough space for two grocerybags, considering all the toolsand spare parts plus the sparewheel, I am planing to carry onboard on my outings. All for-given, who needs groceries...The next thing that caught myattention was the location of thefuel cap. Strange location, I had

never seen a set uplike this. “I guess it will be selfserve from now on, no morelaziness here” I mumbled tomyself. Can you trust a dopeyteenage attendant to aim care-fully when dropping the petrolinto that hole. With my luck, itwould spill all over the soft topand into the rest of the car.

Admiringly I gazed at mynew little friend while my imag-ination took me to summeryoutings in the country, drivesalong shady lane ways, picnicsby a stream, romantic drives tothe lake. I never felt the rainthat now had soaked my paja-mas, and had glued my thinclothing to my skin. My hair, awet mess of curls, black mas-cara dissolving around my eyes,rain running down my forehead,and now little rivulets of waterhad started dripping annoyinglyfrom my nose. But these littledistractions were swiftly elimi-nated with an unladylike wipeof a finger and a good dose ofdetermination. I wasn’t payingmuch attentions to unimportantthings, I was absorbed intoanother world. The beam of mysmall light found it’s way to thecute little chrome bumperswhich seemed to have comealive, shining brightly and hap-pily in the reflection, millionsof small diamonds, too many to

count.The rayof lightmovedacrossthe deli-cateroundedfenders, atiny stripof chromeaccentuatedthe perfectdesign. Thecute grill

under the bonnetseemed to smile at me saying”Yes, I’ve made it, I’m finallyhome”, and the headlights seemto nod in agreement.

Her name “Firely” came tome then, an unspoken pact wasagreed upon. I’m going to bringher back to life, she is going tobe free, I’ll breath the spiritback into her, I’ll take her tonew places, higher grounds.And yes, both of us are not theyoungest anymore. We will bothhave our struggles, we will fail,but we will also prevail. Therewill be times when we will bothof us want to give up. We willbe patient with each another,but in the end we will get up,go again, try again. But, hey,there is a whole big world outthere to explore. Let’s getgoing...

And this is where the storyof the restoration begins. This iswhy I’m totally, out of my ele-ment, out of my comfort zone,an artist learning mechanics,body work and painting. I willlearn, with the help of my part-ner, to put the Firefly backtogether again. She will be onthe road this summer, come hellor high water. She will be red asfire and, I will make her fly.■

READER

’S ST

ORIES

It’s subscription renewaltime so what better than toinclude a letter.

My Triumph connectiongoes back to the sixties riding aTriumph motorcycle, and theinterest carries on to the pres-ent-day, I still have a 1968

Bonneville 650 and a recentmodel 955: Daytona. It was apainless transition to Triumphcars. I acquired a TriumphHerald from my father when hebecame ill twenty years ago,and it’s still going strong. So acouple of years ago I was look-ing for a project and was

offered a Spitfire!! I went tohave a look, it had been stand-ing for several months afterdeveloping brake problems. Itstarted easily with no smoke ornasty noises. There was somerust in the boot lid, sill, wheelarches and passenger floor. Thegear change was like stirringsoup, some lights, tacho, locksdid not work....but a deal wasstruck.

As I went to drive awaythe previous owner called“mind the hand brake it maycome off in your hand, anddon’t wind the window right upor it will fall out.” It turns outthat there were many minorfaults which were mainly badearths, rotten rubbers, or wornout brushes. I started by replac-ing all brake seals and shoesand checked all wiring connec-tions, renewed all suspensionsand steering rubbers. The handbrake just had a part missing,and gear change was cured

with a brush kit for the remotecontrol. These jobs were alldone while enjoyed summerdriving, then last winter (June)the Spitfire went to the expertsfor the rust to be removed, anda nice spray paint.

Now its all back togetherand legal on the road. It driveswithout rattles and bangs. Allthe locks have keys and every-thing works. The major job leftis the hood, soft top, for whichI need to get some prices. ■


READER

’S ST

ORIES

Keep the Hands Offthe Hand BrakeBY KEITH SMITH, NELSON, NEW ZEALAND

I was lookingthough the lastissue of this publi-cation the otherday, just flippingthrough the pages

and the title of an article caughtmy eye: “Dating Your Spitfire”.And for an instant, I thought itwas a humour piece about dat-ing your Spitfire. Courting it.Offering it little tibits andmorsels to seduce it into goingout with you and coming homewith you and not with the AAAtow truck!

And it occurred to me thatNigel and I have enjoyed a par-ticularly smooth period of timetogether, since last August!Last August being the last timeI had to call AAA. I rememberthat day-the day after theVentura British Car Day; a gor-geous day on a green, grassyfield next to the harbor with allthe little boats bobbing in thewater. Sunny, balmy-theessence of a SouthernCalifornia summers day.

Usually, when I take Nigelto Ventura, we do come homewith problems. It’s like a“Ventura Curse” and I mustadmit that day, being just a weebit worried about getting thelad home under his own power.Not to worry, though therewere some strange rear noises,we made it home. But the nextday-POW! Just after pulling

out of the drive way, the rearend broke and I had to callAAA. Turned out to be a sim-ple fix-the drive flange hadfallen apart. (Quite amazingactually.) And since then,we’ve lived under a sort oftruce, a cease fire as it were. Icourt him, “date” him, coddlehim and coo to him above andbeyond the call of normal carowning duties. And he gets methere and back.

On our latest “date” thestarter motor was changed, thecap on the “new” rebuilt dis-tributor was changed and newspark wires, new thermostatand radiator cap, tune up andvalve adjustment, and an oilchange. Nigel is not a cheap oreasy date.

So, “dating” your Spitfiremeans something a little differ-ent to me.

—As is usual for Southern

California this time of year(Jan-Feb-Mar)-the British Carsocial calendar sadly lacks;there’s just not much going on.A few scattered events, hereand there. But otherwise, anice, quiet time to just enjoydriving the Spitfire. And agood time to go out of townand not worry about missing anevent. Which is what I’m get-ting ready to do-go to Texas toparticipate in the Great RaceTexas. Looking over the entry

list, I see there’s 85 entries-butnot one Spitfire! In fact, theonly British cars are a ‘53 MG,a ‘54 MG, an MG *Midget*(!)and the only Triumph-TeamScrappy’s 1957 TR3. When Irally on Friday nights, there’snever Spitfires. When I’m outdriving around, doing errands,a Spitfire sighting is almost asrare as, if not rarer than aFerrari sighting. I know there’slots of Spittys out there.There’s all the ones listed inthe club registers. And there’sall the times people stop me onthe street and tell me aboutknowing someone with aSpitfire.

So, where are they all hid-ing? I wonder...

I did see on the street theother day, in Long Beach, aforlorn 1500. It was white andit’s paint had seen better days.The boot lid was off an Incayellow car. But it was parkedthere.

I want to make an appeal-not just to all the Spitfire Girlsout there, but to anyone andeveryone with an LBC-don’twait for British Car Week todrive and promote your hobby-make every week a “BritishCar Week”-or maybe everyMonday? Twice a month? Theywant to be driven-honestly! So,come on everyone-let’s seemore LBCs on the road!

The challenge has beenmade. ;-)

—A few days ago, a gentle

Spring-like shower sweetly


A WOM

EN’S

PERSP

ECTIVE

Dating My SpitfireBY LAURA GHARAZEDDINE, CALIFORNIA

arrived in Southern California. Last night wasbeautiful-the lights of the city reflecting off theclouds. But for the rain slickened streets, it was aperfect night to be out, driving along PacificCoast Highway. Fellow gearhead and generoussoul, my friend Craig came over and handed methe keys to his brand new BMW M5. (Told youhe was generous!) Now, you all know by now thatI am a sportscar purist. I don’t even approve ofengine swaps. To me a new car is a car built whileCarter was still in office. Well, I have been cor-rupted. I take back everything I previously feltabout so-called “sports sedans”. (How can a sedanpossible be a sportscar!?) This car was so seduc-tive in it’s handling, so smooth in it’s responseand yet, it still felt like a sports car! (It has a fea-ture that changed the character of the transmissionso that instead of smooth, wimpy sort of shifting,you get a true sporstcar sort of kicky shift!) Thehighlight of the evening? Being told, “Wow, youdrive like a guy! Cool!” Hey, I try.

Then, for a little contrast, we took my Spitfireout. It was a very damp night. Soft rain falling.Top down, engine revving. A man who owns aBMW M5 was impressed and delighted. So,maybe I wasn’t the only one who was corrupted?I went a little to the “Dark Side”, but maybe Ibrought someone, one person back, even a little,to The Light!

We drove up to Long Beach. Now, this is thebeginning of March, but when we got to LongBeach, and I turned down Shoreline Drive, what awonderful surprise! The barriers and grandstandswere set up for the Long Beach Grand Prix whichwill take place in mid-April. The Spitfire wasreally humming, the pavement dry. I couldn’tresist-acceleration!!! Through the straight, passthe grand stands, ever accelerating, ever faster!“Wave to the fans!” I had my excuse if any policehad stopped me: “I was testing the course”?

2AM, in a little open Spitfire, shootingthrough the famous Long Beach Grand Prixheaven! It doesn’t get much better than this! ■


A WOM

EN’S

PERSP

ECTIVE

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“So, Mr. Hertel, accordingto my file it’s been about a yearsince your last visit.”

“Yes doctor. Things havebeen going quite well actually.The monthly meetings ofV.S.S.A. (Very Small SpitfiresAnonymous) have helped.Unfortunately, I was walkingpast Autophile recently, thebest store for enthusiasts offine cars and motor sports inToronto, and I was drawn in,like a magnet. Autophile’sselection of books,maga-

zines,and fine-

ly crafteddie-cast metal

cars was too much. I couldn’tresist...”

“Mr. Hertel, please. Justbreathe. Remember what hap-pened during your last visit.No more climbing on my deskplease. Just tell me what hap-pened when you went intoAutophile.”

“In the main display case,right by the cash register, there

was another one, a new one,one that I’d never seen before.Another very small Spitfire...”

What a difference a yearcan make. In Volume 2, Issue1 of Spitfire & GT6 Magazine,I lamented about the fact thatso little attention had been paidby die-cast model builders toSpitfires. (The type of die-castmodel [or toy] to which I’mreferring, is mass-produced,stamped out of a soft metalsuch as magnesium, spraypainted, and then assembled by

hand including theplastic interior

and rubbertires.) Bysheer coinci-

dence, theBritish firm Lledo

Collectibles, hasrecently introduced a

new model of a Spitfire MkII,and what a beauty it is!

Lledo manufacturers a lineof precision die-cast replicaBritish sportscars and salooncars from the 1950’s and 60’sunder the Vanguards name. Inlate 2001, the VanguardsVA06703, 1:43rd scale,Wedgewood Blue, LimitedEdition, Triumph Spitfire MkIIwas released. The attention todetail on this modestly pricedmodel (Apx. $20.00 Cdn.) isbreathtaking. It’s as if some-one managed to shrink a realMkII.

The attention to detailbegins with the colour and fin-ish. If you compare theWedgewood Blue finish of themodel with the colour schemesof real Spitfires, as found onpage 64 of John Thomason’sbook Triumph Spitfire and GT6- A Guide to Originality, andyou’ll see an identical match tothe Code 26 Wedgewood Blue.As well, the wheels are acreamy white and the hubcapsa gleaming chrome.

All of the brightwork onthis model is brilliantly precise.The louvered front grille, theover-riders on the front andrear bumpers, the headlightrings, the bonnet latches, doorhandles, windscreen wiperarms, fuel filler cap, boot lidhinges, boot handle and rearnumber plate lamp all shinewith confident accuracy.

The front and rear badgingon the model is correct with thedistinctive Triumph Shieldbadge centered above the TRI-UMPH letter set which runsalong the bottom of the bonnet.On the rear deck, above theboot handle, the other TRI-UMPH letter set balancesabove the scrolled Overdriveand Spitfire badges. The head-lights and tail lights are accu-rate, as are the front side/flash-er lenses which are amber andwhite. The rear flasher lensesare also amber.


MINIA

TURES

Another Very Small SpitfireSTORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY GREGORY HERTEL

The cockpit is com-missioned in a dark navy bluemolded plastic. The hand-brake, gear selector, dashboard,and large two-spoked steeringwheel are all faithfully scaledin black plastic. The onlydetail missing in the cockpit isthe white piping on the low-back seats.

The model also comeswith a removable black con-vertible roof and tonneaucover. You can select the cor-rect top for the weather condi-tions in your display case...

Enclosed in the attractivered and yellow Vanguards boxthat the model comes in, is asmall certificate noting that thisLimited Edition model is oneof only 6400 distributed world-wide. On the flipside of thecertificate is a round, replica,12 month licensing tag for a1965 Triumph Spitfire MkII.Also included in the box is acard with a photograph of themodel and the following infor-mation: “The Triumph SpitfireMkII was introduced in 1965and was available until 1967.Production reached 37,409.Main changes from the MkIversion were mainly concen-trated under the bonnet.”

If you’re looking to obtainone of these models for yourcollection it may be a chal-lenge, given the “LimitedEdition” status of this model.At press time, all my inquiresto Lledo regarding the modeland its availability in North

Americahave gone

unanswered.Therefore, if you don’t have astore near you who carriesLledo products, try and find atyour local newsstand, a Britishtoy collector magazine, such asModel Collector. ModelCollector has numerous adver-tisements for large toy shops inthe U.K. who carry theVanguards line. They might beable to help you as all of themajor shops accept “plastic”and will ship anywhere in theworld. You might also try con-tacting Lledo at the followingaddress:

Lledo CollectiblesPark HouseMeridian EastMeridian Business ParkLeicesterLE3 2WZGreat Britain

With so few 1/43rd die-cast models of Spitfires havingbeen manufactured over theyears, and with 2002 being thefortieth anniversary of theSpitfire’s introduction, it’s veryexciting to find another modelfinally available. Maybe all ofus MkIII and 1500 owners willone day find a die-cast modelof our Spitfire? (Thus faronly MkI’s,MkII’s andMkIV’shave beenmade intodie-castmodels)Maybe

other die-cast manufacturerswill jump on the bandwagonand finally honour a muchignored marque?? Maybe thisis the start of a renaissance ofdie-cast Spitfires??? MaybeSpitfires will finally be recog-nized by the British car com-munity for the true classicsportscar it is???? Maybe...Naw, it’s just coincidence.

“Your time is up Mr.Hertel. Please see my secre-tary to arrange your next visit.”

“Thank you doctor. Doyou think there’s any hope?”

“No. None whatsoever.You are a Spitfireaholic Mr.Hertel. You can only hope tomanage your condition, notcure it. Just try and limit yourexposure to anything that hasto do with Spitfires.”

“But what about my sub-scription renewal to Spitfire &GT6 Magazine?”

“Renew it immediately!!!You might be disturbed andobsessed with Spitfires, butyou’re not crazy. Anyone whodoesn’t renew their subscrip-tion, is definitely crazy! Goodday Mr. Hertel.”

“Good bye doctor.” ■MI

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The handbrake: On manycars, converting to rear diskbrakes means that you no longerhave a handbrake. But using theE-type rear end assembly meantI had rear brakes which includ-ed two smaller calipers mountedahead of the hydraulic ones, andthese are operated by mechani-cal means from a handbrake.The angle-bar rail whichmounts the shift mechanismwould also hold the handbrake.A Spitfire 1500 hand brake wasused here, complete with itsratchet lock and push-buttonrelease.

Since the rear end unit andthe hand brake were so close toeach other, I began designingvarious lever systems to elimi-nate the use of a cable, as I haddone with the shift mechanism.I tried a bell-crank system andthen a series of levers to pullthe two caliper levers towardeach other, but both of theseseemed so much more compli-cated than the cable system thatI opted for that simpler idea.

I used a short unsheathedcable running over a roller onthe left-hand lever and attachedto the right-hand lever. This

functions to pull the two brakelevers toward each other as thehandbrake is operated. Eyeboltson the clevises at each endserve for adjusting the cabletension.

Now, for the hydraulicbrake systems: I would use theGT-6 brake master cylinder, andone from a Spitfire. Since thefront and rear disk brakes wereso different, I wanted a mecha-nism that would alter the biasbetween front and rear and pre-serve the option of substitutinga different bore cylinder for oneor both of the originals.

A ‘balance bar’ is used tocouple a single brake pedal totwo master cylinders. As in thepicture below, the plunger rodsfrom each brake master cylinderare clevised to a shaft which isthreaded in its center area. Thisshaft extends through a threadedhole in a spherical bearing. Thebearing, in turn, is housed in asteel tube which is welded tothe brake pedal. By turning thethreaded shaft, although theends and rods stay in the sameposition, the bearing is movedwithin the tube, changing theamount of pedal leverage,applying more pressure to onecylinder and less to the other.Pretty neat. A simple cable sys-tem allows the leverage ratio tobe adjusted from the driver’sseat.

The pedal ratio determineshow hard you have to push onthe pedal for any given pressureto the brakes, dependent on themaster cylinder bore diameter.This ratio is the distancebetween the center of the brakepedal foot pad and the pedalpivot center, divided by the dis-tance between that pivot centerto the upper pivot center whichconnects to the master cylinderpushrods.

The standard pedal ratioseems to be about 5.5:1 to6.5:1, but the Spitfire pedalmeasured 10" from pedal pad topivot, and 2.375" from leverpivot to pushrod pivot. Thisgave a 4.2:1 ratio... not verygood. Because I was using abalance bar on my system, theupper pivot is the steel tube thathouses the spherical bearing.Since the tube needs to be weldto the brake lever, it would besimple to just weld the tubecloser to the lever pivot, thusincreasing the pedal ratio.

Lowering the tube centerby 0.75" would bring the upperportion distance to 1.625". for aratio of 6.15:1 ... a much betterratio. Because the upper pivotwould be lower, three thingswould change: First, the brakepedal travel would be increased,


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The Making Of A SpitCat Part 5BY ANDY PREVELIG, FLORIDA, USA

which would be no problem. Iwould be using the originalSpitfire pedal bracket, and aslong as the pedal travel distance(as limited by the bracket)allowed the pushrods to movefrom fully retracted to fullyextended within the cylinderbores, the design would be fine.(You must ensure that thepushrods are not preloading thecylinders. At the fully retractedposition, the pistons must notblock the fluid bleed-backholes, or the brakes will dragand lock up. Even when youreleased the pedal, the fluidpressure would still remain inthe lines, eventually expanding,locking up the system!)

Second, the pedal effortwould decrease, which is what Iwanted. Third, the pushrodswould also be lowered, andtherefore would enter the cylin-der bores at an angle - not good.Too much of an angle and youget premature piston/cylinderfailure. To prevent this, thepedal assembly would have tobe raised relative to the mastercylinders so that the pushrodswere properly aligned.

I thought about using twoof the original master cylinderbrackets, but they are designedto mount the cylinder at anangle (hence the tilted orienta-tion of the fluid reservoirs),whereas the Tilton cylindersneed to be mounted horizontally

if I didn’t want to remote thereservoirs.So, while redesigningthe alternate bracket for a dualcylinder system, I could providefor a horizontal mounting aswell as lowering the cylinderpositions to better match thepushrods. This change, plus theraising of the pedal bracketallowed proper alignment of thepushrods. The pedal bracket andthe cylinder bracket were joinedtogether into a single unit, ascan be seen below.

This unit would sit atop thethe footwell box, firmlyattached by eight bolts at thetop and two at the front. Again,a bit of overkill for safety. Thelateral position of thepedal/cylinder assembly wasdetermined by the space neededfor the accelerator pedal to theright, and a ‘dead pedal’ to theleft. (A dead pedal provides afoot rest to brace against duringdriving maneuvers at speed.)The remainder of the brakingsystem would include steellines, and stainless braidedhoses at the front calipers. Therear calipers do not require flex-ible lines since their inboard

location meant they do notmove with the suspension.

Now, for the cold air intakesystem: Perhaps the term ‘coldair intake’ system is misleading.Unless you are icing down orotherwise refrigerating theintake system, the best you canachieve is air of the outsidetemperature. Still, while notalways ‘cold’, the cold air sys-tem does provide air to theengine quite a bit cooler thanwhat is under the bonnet, since

that air has come throughthe hot radiator and is fur-ther heated by the engineand its exhaust manifold.Why do you want coolerair? Cooler air is denser, soyou can get more oxygeninto the cylinders on eachintake stroke; more oxygenmeans more power (Gee...I sound like Tim Allen!).

The obvious way toobtain cooler air is by run-ning the intake ducts for-ward, right up to the grill. Iwas still toying with theidea of variable-lengthplenums for the intake sys-tem, but for the present I

would install just simple fixed-length ducts.

The intake manifolds onthe V-12 are 2 1/4” inside diam-eter, so ducts of this size woulddo for now. I bought two coni-cal K & N air filters fromPegasus Auto Racing Supplies.You might think that a companywhich specializes in racingequipment would be over-priced, but the filters I boughtfrom them were 30 percent lessthan the identical items at alocal auto parts store.

Because the conical filterstake in air around their sides, Ididn’t want to mount them fac-ing straight ahead and have the


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incoming air just rush pastthem.. A 45 degree elbow at thefront end of the ducts angleseach filter to the grill opening,and a wide semi-circular fiber-

glass collarcatches andfocuses themaximumamount of airto the filter.The collarswere prettyeasy to fabri-

cate, using a plastic Cool-Whipcontainer as a mold and thencutting away one half of theside walls from the cured fiber-glass shell and drilling a 2” holein the bottom.

Although they look likechrome pipes, these are paintedlengths of PVC tubing to spanthe 4+foot run from grill tointake manifold. A flexible cou-pling links the front and rear

sections of the tubing to allowfor any slight movement of theengine, (although I had installedtorque limiters between engineand frame, there might still besome minimal movement) andthe front sections are held inplace by one bracket to theshock towers and one to thefront radiator strap bolts.

That should provide forgetting cool air into the V-12;now it was time to make thethrottle system. The throttlepedal lever is shaped like thenumber “7” and pivoted in abracket at the bend, so pressingthe pedal forward pulls down ona sheathed cable which iswrapped around a capstan onthe V-12.

I had a Spitfire throttlecable and the housing was theright length, but the cable itselfwas way too short and was ter-minated by a very small spheri-cal end. I bought a replacementcable from the local bicycleshop which was much longerand featured a 1/4” X 1/4”cylindrical end, at a right angleto the cable. That cylinderwould fit perfectly into thethrottle capstan on the engine.(The cylinder/end slides downinto an opening in the topflange of the capstan and isturned 90 degrees,locking it in,

and the cable now is positionedin the groove around the cap-stan drum. Pulling on the cablerotates the capstan. As the cap-stan turns, push-rods extendingtowards both sides open the but-terfly plates in each intake man-ifold. Although the capstan hasits own return spring, I put asecond return spring on thethrottle pedal mechanism itselffor added safety.

Now back to the fuel sys-tem: One disadvantage of a fuelcell is that you can’t use thestandard type of sender unit tohook to your fuel gauge. Thestandard type uses a pivotedfloat arm to vary the senderresistance which controls theneedle position of the gauge. In

a fuel cell, the foambaffles preclude thistype of sender, so theusual alternative is aspecial electronicsender which cancost over $100.00.

Since the SpitCatis not the type of caryou want to take longtrips in, a fuel gaugeon the instrumentpanel is not reallythat necessary, as

long as there is some way toknow the fuel level.

A problem I’ve had whenrefueling our Spitfires is tryingto avoid spillage of the fuel asthe tank nears its capacity.Since the SpitCat fuel cell isfilled from inside the boot,avoiding any fuel spillagebecomes critical. Shining a lightinto the cell while fueling, orperiodically using a dip-stickduring the fueling to gauge howfull the cell is getting, seemedimpractical. The third option ofwatching a dash-mounted gaugewhile refueling meant I’d have


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to keep the ignition on to acti-vate it...a bad idea at the petrolpumps.

What I needed was a non-electric gauge which could bemounted right on or near thefuel cell. This would also freeup one of the openings in thedash, which could then house avoltmeter as an adjunct to theammeter, for a truer picture ofthe condition of the chargingsystem and battery.

Going through my catalogs,I found that the Surplus Centeroffers a direct-reading gauge for$8.00. It consists of a screw-down cap housing the face ofthe gauge. Unlike most fuelsender units, this does not havea float at the end of a long pivotarm, but uses a float which iscaptive between two parallelguide bars, as in the photobelow.

A spiral shaft runs throughthe float, and as the float movesup or down between the guides,it rotates that shaft, which isdirectly connected to the gaugeneedle. Simple but effective!

But... how to install thisneat little device? Since the fuelcell consists of foam bafflesinside a polyurethane bladderhoused in the steel outer con-tainer, I didn’t want to cut holesin the cell for installing a direct-reading gauge. Fortunately theremight be another way.

There is an old truism that‘water seeks its own level’, andthis of course applies to all liq-uids, including fuel. Borrowingan idea from the water-levelindicator on a coffee maker, Icould mount the gauge atop asmall, separate tank which wasconnected to the fuel cell, andread the fuel level from thatwhile refueling. Fortunatelythis gauge had the same verticaldepth as the fuel cell, whichwould simplify getting accurateempty-to-full readings.

A potential problem withthis idea was that, unlike thecoffee maker example, the fuelcell outlet was not at the bot-tom. This means that, while finefor a system incorporating thesuction of a fuel pump, the ver-tical lift required might be toomuch for the syphon-type sys-tem the gauge canister woulduse. The planned configurationwould have the gauge canisterbetween the cell and the fuelpump, avoiding the pressurizedsection of the system, as shownin the diagram below.

Atmospheric pressure getsto both the cell and the canisterthrough the vent line, and sinceatmospheric pressure (p.s.i.) isapplied evenly to all surfaces,the difference in area sizebetween the canister and thefuel cell would not matter... orwould it? Looking at the canis-ter diagram, I couldn’t helpnotice how similar this was to ahydraulic pump system, as used

on jacks. In those systems, thedifference in area is what givesthe mechanical advantage to letyou lift a car with a few pumpson a handle. So, it might bethat, in the canister system Idesigned, the large differencebetween the canister and fuelcell areas would only permit theflow of fuel in one direction. (Ishould have taken physics inschool.)

Beyond this, I was con-cerned that, because of the liftrequired between the canisterand the fuel cell, the fuel in thecanister might not syphon backinto the cell as the cell’s fuellevel decreased, giving a falselyhigh reading. Time for akitchen experiment: Using a 12oz. glass, a narrow plastic vialand a length of tubing, I putwater in the glass, primed thetube and set up a mini versionof the cell/canister system. Idrew some water out of theglass with a baster syringe, andwatched as the water level inthe vial decreased until it wasagain at the same level as in the

glass.

Now that the concept hadproven itself, I could constructthe actual system. Polyesterresin has been used in severaltypes of fuel storage tanks, so afiberglass version would work



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fine without being eaten by thefuel or reacting with it. I usedsections of two 2-liter plasticsoda bottles, slit, rolled and duct-taped into a smaller diameter as a‘buck’ or male mold. Several lay-ers of fiberglass cloth and resinwere wrapped around the moldand other slit sections of sodabottles were placed around thatas a female mold to give smoothinside and outside surfaces.

Once the resin had cured, Ipeeled away the inside and out-side plastic bottle material —- tofind a problem:

I had used ginger ale bottlesfor the canister cylinder molds,and apparently that green colorof the bottles is not in the bottleitself, but in a very thin layerapplied over the clear plastic.What happened was that the heatof the curing resin had loosenedthis color layer and fused patchesof it to my canister wall, on bothinside and outside. So much formy getting smooth surfaces!With a bit of #300 sandpaper theoffending crud was finallyremoved.

Now, at least, I had thecylindrical wall of the canister. Iwould be using A-N fittings forthe fuel system connections. (‘A-N’ stands for the Army-Navystandard developed during WWII and is based on increments of1/16", so AN-6 is 6/16" or 3/8").

Three AN-6 male fittingswere molded into the side of thecanister (I used bulkhead typefittings here because they featurea flange that would allow a leak-proof seal when molded into thecylinder wall); one near the topfor connecting back to the fuelcell’s vent line, and two on oppo-site sides near the bottom for thein and out lines between fuel celland pump/filter. Inside the canis-ter, the ‘in’ and ‘out’ fittings are

connected by a steel pipe with a3/16" hole drilled at the center.This hole allows the fuel to bleedinto, and out from, the canisterlevel, but offers more resistancethan the flow of the straight-through pathway of the pipe.This should prevent the pumpfrom sucking the canister leveldown instead of drawing fuelfrom the cell.

I did have one concernabout this bleed-hole idea, how-ever: It might be that, if the flowof fuel through the canister pipewere swift enough, a Venturieffect would cause the canister’sfuel to be sucked along with themain stream until it eventuallybegan sucking air. I finallydecided that if this did happen, I could simply install a valve toclose off the canister vent line.This would essentially isolate thecanister from the rest of the sys-tem until I opened the valve for agauge reading while refueling.

Once the AN fittings weremolded in, I could close the bot-tom of the canister with severallayers of fiberglass mat, cut intodisk shape. As luck would haveit, (through no planning of myown) when I had cut out the 2"holes in the fiberglass air-filtershrouds, the surplus disks were aperfect fit to the cylinder ends. Icut a circle of fiberglass matabout 1" larger diameter than thesurplus disk, for a 1/2" overhangall around and then closelyspaced 1/2" deep cut slits in theoverhanging areas. After beingcoated with mixed resin, the cir-

cle was laid over the disk and theoverhang areas were folded backto allow fitting the disk into thecylinder bottom. This of coursehad to be done very quicklybefore the overhang sectionsstarted to unstick from the cen-tral area and fold back outward.Most of the overhang sectionspeeled off the central area to layagainst the cylinder side bythemselves, and a long 1/4"dowel helped the rest, until thefiberglass overlapped both theinside cylinder wall and the bot-tom, forming a smooth seal.

I wanted the gauge to beremovable for any future adjust-ments or repairs, so simplymolding the gauge into a topwould not do. This gauge fea-tures an aluminum collar justbelow the dial face, and a 1 1/2"diameter threaded portion belowthat. A coat of mold release onthe threads and some fiberglasscloth wrapped around it formed athreaded neck. (Mat was notused herebecause itwould pullapart as itwas wrappedtightlyaround thethreadedmold.) Thisneck was‘glassed intoa flange(made fromthe secondsurplus disk)which servedas the top forthe cylinder.

Mounting brackets wereadded for securing the canister tothe fuel cell sub-framing.

Now to assemble the fuellines: These are Aeroquip’s stain-less steel braided variety for


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safety. I had heard that cutting this type of line to theproper length and affixing the connector ends was pret-ty tricky business. First, if you try to simply saw orgrind through the line, the braid unravels and flaresout. This of course will prevent it from fitting into theclose-tolerance fitting A-N collar of the connector. Therecommended method is to tightly tape the line prior tocutting it, then remove the tape before inserting it intothe collar. Well, I taped it and used a cut-off wheel toslice off the proper length. So far so good, but when Iremoved the tape, the braided sheathing still flaredout... not much, but enough to prevent it from enteringthe collar. What was needed was a ‘shoe-horn’ or fun-nel setup that would guide the braided hose into theconnector. I cut a 1 1/2" diameter disk of thin alu-minum from a soda can, then cut it as shown belowand rolled and taped it into a shallow cone shape.

This was held as a cap overthe braided hose end and insertedinto the connector collar. With thehose end pushed into the collar,guided by the cone, I pulled thecone back out. A bit of twistingand the hose was properly seated.

Once the line has been insert-ed enough to seat against thethreaded area of the collar, youmake a mark on the hose. This willtell you if, while screwing on theconnector assembly, the hose hasbeen pushed back at all. (If the

hose is not flush against the threaded area after thefinal assembly, the connection may leak - or worse yet- separate under pressure (the Jag fuel injectionrequires around 35 psi fuel pressure).

As far as the safety of the gauge canister, it onlyholds about as much fuel as the pump and filter will,and is on the non-pressurized side of the fuel lines.

Before I would install the rest of the fuel lines, Ihad to find an electric fuel pump capable of therequired pressure.

Meanwhile I would finish the front brake lines,design, fabricate an anti-sway bar for the front, and rollthe SpitCat out for a few photos, comparing it to ourmore original sized Spitfires.

Remember, don’t try this at home! ■

NEXT ISSUE: THE COMPLETED SPITCAT!

Curve and tape into shallow cone

Cut out this area

Diagnostic tools are inex-pensive and readily available. Ifyou read my article on tools inthe last issue, just buy what waslisted - test light, fuel pressuretester, vacuum gauge and com-pression tester. In addition, abasic understanding of how asystem works is needed.Example, you need to know thathydraulic components operate bya master cylinder moving fluidto a remote cylinder which inturn operates a push rod, movesbrake shoes, etc. No need forhigh tech, just a basic under-standing.

If you picture your car ashaving a few major systems, itbecomes easier to visualize. Thefuel system involves everythingfrom the gas tank to the devicethat puts the fuel into the engine- carbs or injection. Thehydraulic system involves themaster and slave cylinders,caliper, wheel cylinder and lines.The electrical system takes cur-rent from a battery, passes itthrough wires and return it to thebattery via the charging systemwhich is an alternator or genera-tor. The ignition system providesspark to fire the fuel that comesfrom the fuel system. The engineinvolves all the internal compo-nents such as crankshaft, cylin-der, block, pistons, etc. The lastsystem is the driveline. This iseverything that passes motionfrom the engine to power thewheels. Related to this is the sus-pension - steering, axles, springs,shocks, wheel bearings, etc.

OK, now you now the basicsystems. Let’s go to each systemand give you some basic diag-nostic tests. FUEL SYSTEM: First, checkthe gas, you may be out.

Next, check to see if fuelflows from the tank. Raise therear of the car and disconnect the

fuel line at the pump. Gravityshould let fuel run out of theline. Fuel in tank but not fuelcoming out - bingo, the line isblocked (I told you this wasbasic). If you have fuel and youhave a mechanical fuel pump -most Spit/GT6 do - disconnectthe fuel line from the carbs.Have someone crank over theengine and see if fuel comes outof the line. If not, it could be abad fuel pump. If you have fuelto the carbs, check to make surethe fuel is going into the floatchamber. If not, the needle valveis stuck. While you are crankingthe engine with the line discon-nected, you can check the fuelpressure. It should read about 2 - 3 psi. Anything significantlyhigher has the potential to over-come the needle and seat andflood the car.HYDRAULIC SYSTEM: Smallsystem first - the hydraulicclutch. Check to make sure youhave fluid in the clutch mastercylinder. This is also the firststep for the brake system. Ifthere is fluid, is there resistancewhen you depress the pedal? Ifnot, it could be a bad master orslave cylinder. If there is pres-sure, raise the car so you canwatch the slave cylinder fromunder the car. Have someoneoperate the pedal by pumping itslowly while you watch the rodgoing from the slave cylinder tothe transmission. It should moveabout 1/2" when the pedal isdepressed. If not, you may needto bleed the system to get rid ofair in the line.

Now the brakes. Use thesame approach as the clutch sys-tem. Raise the rear of the car andhave someone operate the brakepedal. Spin the rear wheel whilethey are doing this. The wheelshould stop and not be able to beturned. If not, you may need to

adjust the rear brakes. Do thisthen recheck by spinning thewheel. If the wheel still doesn’tstop, remove the wheel andbrake drum. Have someoneGENTLY push on the brakepedal while you hold your fingertips on the face of the brakeshoes. You should feel the shoesmoving. If not, you may have astuck wheel cylinder. If there issome movement, try bleeding thecylinder. Start with the cylinderfurthest away from the mastercylinder.

This same theory works upfront. You should see the brakepads move when the pedal isdepressed. Be sure to check thefront flex hoses for swelling,cuts or even collapsing.ELECTRICAL SYSTEM: notincluding the Ignition system.This is the most difficult to diag-nose because of all the placesthat power can go - or not go asthe case may be.

Start with the heart of thething - the battery. Make sureconnections are clean and bright.Make sure the battery terminalends are tight on the batteryposts. It is EXTREMELY impor-tant that the ground wire has agood connection to the chassis aswell as the battery. Is there waterin the battery? Charge the bat-tery, then take it out and have itload tested. Any competent serv-ice facility can do this. If all isgood, continue to the alternatoror generator. Is the belt tight?Are the wires firmly attached? Ifyes, have the alternator/generatortested. You may want to havethis done at a service center -just take them the unit. You cantest it yourself with a good VOMmeter. Just be sure to read thewiring diagram so you knowwhich wires to test. If the batteryis good, the ground connectionsare good and the alternator/gen-


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erator is working, the onlything left is to hunt. A bat-tery that “loses charge”over a period of a fewdays has a current drain,perhaps a brake lightswitch is not fully releas-ing or the headlamp dim-mer switch, especially thetype incorporated in theturn signal switch has aproblem. Your only choiceis to take your test light, awiring diagram and andstart following each cir-cuit. Sometimes you canunplug a circuit and see ifthe problem goes away. Ifso, you have at least nar-rowed it down to a specif-ic area. On this one, goodluck. There is no magicfix!!IGNITION SYSTEM:This is much easier todiagnose. You should havean old spark plug in yourtool box as a diagnostictool. Attach the old plug toa plug wire. Rest thethreaded part of the sparkplug against a headstud/nut. You may have tohold it in place with ablock of wood (keeps youfrom getting shocked).Have some one turnoverthe engine with the key.You should see a nice,sharp blue spark. If thespark is yellow or appearsweak, check the points orcoil. If the spark is good,you have a problem otherthan the basic ignition.This could be plug wiresinstalled on the wrongcylinders or wrong ignitiontiming. If there is no spark,you need to go back towhat generates power forthe spark - the coil. Testthe wire going to the coilto make sure it has powerwith the key on. If not,why not. If it does, test tomake sure power is leav-ing the coil headed to the

distributor. Both of thesetests are done with yourtest light on the smallwires attached to the coil.You can test the spark plugwires and coil wire byusing your VOM meter onthe ohms setting. If allthese are good, use thesame setting on the VOMmeter to test the rotor andthe distributor cap con-tacts. If you have points,use the test light to makesure the point wire, insidethe distributor is gettingpower. Also make sure thepoints are opening andclosing when the engine iscranked over. Recheck thepoint gap. If you have anelectronic ignition, followthe manufacturer’s troubleshooting chart. You shouldstill test the coil, cap, rotorand wires.THE ENGINE: Now youget to spend the big bucks.Why do you think youneed to check it? Is itdown on power, hardstarting, smokes, has ahole blown in the side (nodiagnostics needed on thisone)? Pick a category,they all start with thesame test. Run a compres-sion check. The cylinderreading should vary 15%max between high andlow. If it’s good, check thevalve adjustment. If thecompression is not good,rerun the test as a “wet”check. Squirt 3 or 4 shotsof oil into the low cylin-der and immediatelyretest. If the compressioncomes up, you have wornrings. If it doesn’t thevalves are probably bad. Ifyou have good compres-sion, then the power losscould be a fuel problem oreven an exhaust problem,especially if your car hasa catalytic convertor. The


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CONTINUED ON PAGE 43

An air/fuel ratio meter canbe quite useful when tuning yourfuel system. It is also easy toinstall and use. I will cover theo-ry of operation, components, andoperation.

THEORY OF OPERATIONAir/Fuel describes the

amount of air in the enginescombustion stream compared tothe amount of fuel (by volume).The theoretical correct ratio ofair to fuel is 14.7 parts air to 1part gasoline by volume. This isknown as the stoichiometric

ratio.The air fuel ratio can be

detected by measuring theamount of oxygen left in theexhaust pipe after combustion.To do this we use an oxygensensor, also known as a lambdasensor. The oxy sensor providesa 1 volt signal if there is very lit-tle oxygen left in the exhaust,and a 0 volt signal if there isexcessive oxygen in the exhaust.

The oxygen sensor output isnot linear. I will attach a signalcurve, but it is easiest to think ofit as a switch.

• The output is near zero fromvery lean to near ideal.• The jumps to near 1 volt from

slightly rich to very rich.• At stoichiometric (14.7:1) theoutput is .5 Volts

ComponentsSENSOR MOUNTING NUT

In order to measure air/fuelratio, you will need to install anoxygen sensor into your exhaustpipe. Typically, this is done 2-4inches downstream of the collec-tor. An easy spot is in theexhaust pipe just below theexhaust manifold. On V-typeengines, you may want to put thesensor after the Y pipe betweenthe banks.

The closer that you can getthe sensor to the exhaust mani-fold, the better, as the outputdrifts when the sensor gets cold.If you must install it much far-ther downstream I recommendthat you use a heated sensor (seesensor descriptions below).

Standard oxygen sensors usea metric thread, which happensto be the same as a VolkswagenRabbit Axle nut (18mm x 1.5 ifmemory serves). You can useone of these nuts as a sensormounting bung. It also is thesame as a large dia. spark plug.

It is important that that ifthe bung is installed in a hori-zontal section of exhaust pipe,

that the sensor be located so thatany exhaust moisture cannot col-lect on the sensor. The sensorshould be level with the groundor pointed slightly up.

Once the bung is installed,you should clean the threadswith a spark plug tap, especiallyif you hope to remove the oxysensor later!!

OXYGEN SENSORMost standard oxygen sen-

sors have the same signal output.The differences from one sensorto the next are the wiring con-nections.

The sensor may have 1, 3,or 4 wires. Any of them willwork for this application. I rec-ommend the 3 or 4 wire sensors.They are several times as expen-sive as a 1 wire sensor, but theyare heated, and the signal ismore reliable, especially at idle.

1 Wire: sensor signal output (black)

3 Wire: sensor signal output (black)heater + (White)heater – (White)

4 Wire: sensor signal output (black)heater + (White)heater – (White)sensor signal ground (gray)With any of these sensors,

the signal wire is tied to theair/fuel ratio meter signal input.The heater + wire is tied to keyswitched 12V+, and the heater –and sensor ground are tied toengine ground.

I do not recommend usinganti seize compound on thethreads, as it can poison the sen-sor.


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OK

OK

nono

downexhaust

pipe

1.0.92

0.5

0.08 Best fuel economy

Max. power

0Lean

Stoichiometric

Oxy Sensor Signal Voltage

Out

put V

olta

ge

Rich

12.6:1 mixture

15.4:1 mixture

14.7:1 mixture (ideal)

High Tech on a British Car?Installation of An Oxygen SensorBY MARK FISHER

AIR/FUEL RATIO METERMost of the popular air/fuel

ratio meters are of similardesign. The air/fuel ratio meteris nothing more than a voltmeter. In most cases, it displaysfrom 0 to 1 volt in 8 or 10 equalincrements.

• 1 volt represents rich operation • 0 volt represents lean operation • .5 Volts represents stoichiomet-ric operation

In fact, a DC Volt meterwith a 1 volt scale could be usedas a cheap air/fuel ratio meter.However, I find that the LEDtype air/fuel ratio meters aremuch easier to use. They arequite compact and can beattached in a viewable locationwith zip ties or Velcro.

The air/fuel ratio meter +supply is connected to keyswitched 12V+.

The signal wire is connectedto the signal output wire of theoxy sensor.

The ground wire is connect-ed to engine ground.

OPERATIONOnce the sensor warms up,

it will begin to generate a volt-age under rich conditions. Thiswill occur in 15 seconds with aheated sensor, up to a minute fora 1 wire unheated sensor.

Typically, 8-10 lights willbe illuminated while the engineis operating rich. As the mixturesare made leaner, a point will bereached where the lights cycleon and off, hovering around themiddle. This is stoichiometricoperation.

Do not expect the lights tosit exactly in the middle, as theoxy sensor acts more like aswitch than a linear outputdevice.

When most or all of thelights remain out, the engine isoperating lean.

Under perfect conditions,we would like the engine to be:

• stoichiometric at idle (or slight-ly lean if the darn think wouldidle nicely!!)• lean under light loads andcruising• Slightly rich under accelerationand load

If you intend to remove theoxy sensor after tuning, you canplug the hole with a spark plug,or an 18mm x 1.5 bolt.

You can purchase oxygensensors, mounting nuts, andair/fuel ratio meters throughyour local auto parts store, hotrod catalog, or contact me [email protected] ■


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other problem area could be theignition system. If the enginehas a knock, you can isolate thisby using a stethoscope to findthe area of the noise. Once youhave found the knock area, use apair of insulated pliers toremove each plug wire while theengine is running. (You can buyspecial pliers meant for thisoperation - they are worth it).reattach the plug wire and go tothe next. Continue on until theknock stops. You have nowfound the cylinder. By detachingthe plug wire, you have takenthe load off the cylinder and theknock stops. Now you knowwhere it is and you can figureout what - lifter, rod bearing,piston, etc. You may not be ableto fix it yourself, if it’s a seriousproblem , but at least you knowwhere it is and possibly what.Makes it a lot easier to go toyour mechanic.

Engine noise can also comefrom the alternator or water-pump and fool you into thinking

it’s an internal problem. Theeasy way to check is to unhookthe belt and start the engine. Ifthe noise goes away, it’s some-thing that is belt driven. Removethe alternator or generator andspin the pulley by hand. If youfeel movement, hear noise or itdoes not spin freely, you havefound the problem. If thischecks OK, repeat the processfor the waterpump or anythingelse that spins.DRIVELINE AND SUSPENSION: This includes the driveshaft,transmission, axles, wheel bear-ings and everything that moveswhen the car is in motion.

If you have a noise in thedriveline, always supported onstands. Start the car and put it ingear so the wheels are turning.Use your stethoscope and checkthe differential, outer rear wheelbearings and transmission. Onceyou have found the noise areamake sure you are not getting afalse reading. Example, a bad u-

joint might transmit noise intothe differential so it sounds likea bad diff. Check the frontwheel bearings for movement bygrabbing the top and bottom oftire/wheel and trying to move itin and out. There should be asmall amount of movement.Spin the front wheel. Sometimesnoise in this area is nothingmore than some debris wedgedbetween the brake shield and therotor.

There you have it - somebasic DIY diagnostics that cansave you a bunch of $$$ inunneeded repairs. ■

BIO: Ted Schumacher has been30+ years in the British car busi-ness. A former Austin-Healey,MG and Triumph dealer, he is now runs TS ImportedAutomotive, a full-line parts and specialized service business. Tocontact Ted, call 1-419-384-3022or visit their web site at www.tsimportedautomotive.com

Diagnostics 101continued from page 41


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INTRODUCTIONThe Home model Spitfires

& GT6s were not plagued withthis imitation SU, we are.Canadian, Federal, andCalifornia specificationTriumphs were fitted with theStromberg. Emission specifica-tions were cited as reasons tomove to one carb (more easilykept in tune than two carbs).Despite all the assurances of themanufacturer that this singlecarb could lessen emissions, theZenith often runs dramaticallyrich. When it does run extreme-ly rich, and if the emission con-trol system (air pump and cat-alytic converter) is still in place,then the converter will glowcherry red hot. This carburetoris responsible for hundreds ofunderbonnet fires! Yet, with alittle regular maintenance, thiscarb will perform correctly andsafely, while offering relativelyhigh mileage compared to thetwin SUs.

ADJUSTING THECARBURETOR

To properly tune theStromberg, one must have theStromberg mixture adjustingtool (a 1/8" allen wrench withina pinned tube), a 10mm longopen end wrench, a smallscrewdriver, and a mediumscrewdriver. A tach/dwell isalways most helpful.

The engine is started fromcold and the choke is on, thespring-loaded idle screw isadjusted until the engine is run-ning at 1800 rpms maximum.Once the engine has fully heat-ed and the engine dropped to itslowest rpm (choke all the wayoff), then the locknut screw(hence the 10mm wrench) is

adjusted until the engine isidling at about 850-900 rpms.All further adjustments to idlespeed will be made again withthe spring-loaded screw later.

Now the mixture is adjust-ed. Lift the air piston ever soslightly and judge the change inrpm. If the idle speed continuesto rise as the piston is lifted, themixture is too rich. Turn themixture tool anti clockwise tolean it out. If, on the otherhand, the idle speed slows orstumbles when the piston isslightly lifted, then the mixtureis too lean. Turn the mixturetool clockwise to richen it. Aproper idle mixture allows therpm of the engine to rise andsteady, or rise and slowly falloff as the piston is slightly lift-ed. As the correct mixture isreached, the idle speed will rise,and several adjustments may benecessary to hold the idle at that850-900 figure. Be certain torev up the engine, to clear itout, between each adjustment.

RUNNING RICHThe most common com-

plaint is that no matter howmany turns anti-clockwise theallen wrench is screwed, themixture is still far too rich.There are five major areas ofconcern:1) The air cleaner is filthy andsooted. This is not uncommon,and any leaks in themanifold/exhaust, especially acracked exhaust manifold, willsoot up a new air cleaner in notime. This causes a much high-er vacuum in the venture, andmore gasoline is drawn into theair stream.2) The ELC (Evaporative LossControl) system is pressurized.

This is very uncommon, buteasily checked. Remove thevapour line, the vent line, theoverflow line from the carbure-tor. There should be NOCHANGE in the idling or oper-ation of the engine. If there isany change, then the ELC sys-tem needs to be cleaned, andchecked for blockages. It is farmore common for this system todevelop a vacuum which createsa lean running condition, in factthe primary reason for leanoperation!3) The automatic choke is themost common cause of rich run-ning. These problems are:• The choke assy has comeloose from the body of the carb.The vacuum from the carburetorthen draws fuel from the floatbowl around the valve whichshould is closed during warmrunning. Simply tightening thethree slotted copper colouredscrews eliminates this as a prob-lem.• The choke lever and cam havestuck in a partially-open posi-tion. A good tune-up requiresthat the choke assembly beremoved from the carb, that itbe well cleaned in spray carbcleaner, the pin nut tightened,and the unit well lubricated.• The bi-metal spring in the heatmass is not correctly calibrated.Simply place the heat mass in apan of boiling water, and waitfor the bi-metal spring to rotateclockwise to its fullest extent.The notch on the bi-metalspring should be in line with themark on the aluminum housing.If it does not line up, thenscribe a new mark with a hack-saw blade. The line on the heatmass, on the black plastic insu-lator, and the choke body

Those Darn Zenith StrombergsBY JOHN H. TWIST OF UNIVERSITY MOTORS


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should all be in line.• The small passageway fromthe carb throat (past the butter-fly) to the top of the auto chokeassy allows vacuum to pull offthe spring loaded enrichmentplunger. When this passagewayfills with soot (as it does afteryears of running), this plungerremains seated, holding thechoke ON. By cleaning thispassageway with a small wire,the vacuum can take its properroute. • The mating flange of the autochoke can become warped andallow petrol to by-pass thechoke valve. SURFACE thismating flange on a smooth blockwith fine grit paper and thor-oughly clean after the surface issmooth.• Only several times have weencountered a choke assemblywhose brass choke valve wasnot fully inserted into the hous-ing, so that even when the chokepin was moved fully down-wards, it was not seated in (andtherefore not closing off) thechoke. This condition can bepositively determined by remov-ing the automatic choke andcovering the screw holes andfuel passageways with a piece ofmasking tape, then checking themixture again.4) Should the rubberdiaphragm in the carburetor tearor perforate, then the engine willrun very, very rich, and the max-imum speed will be limited,until, at last, it can travel onlyten or fifteen miles per hour, allthe while spewing forth incredi-ble clouds of black, sooty,uncombusted exhaust. A torndiaphragm is easily found byremoving the top of the suctionchamber (four phillips screws).While the diaphragm is beinginspected, pay attention to thefollowing:5) Rarely does a needle disas-semble itself, but it does happen.

The metering needle is held in asmall barrel against spring forceby a very small pin. If this pinbreaks, the needle pops upwardsby 1/8" or so, and no amount ofadjusting can correct for such agross misplacement of the nee-dle. The shoulder of the needlecan always be seen on theunderside of the air piston. If ithas slipped up inside, and themetering needle has a lot of upand down (against the spring)movement, then the pin shouldbe check and replaced (paperclipworks wonderfully).

RUNNING LEANA leanness at road speed is

often described as a hesitation,as if a wind was blowing againstthe car. This can be caused byretarded timing or not enoughgasoline in the air/fuel mixture.There are several possibilitiesfor a lean running condition:1) The ELC System is pluggedwhich can place a vacuum abovethe gasoline in the float bowl.As noted above, remove the ventline from the carb and note anychange. A plugged charcoaladsorption canister (from dirt orfrom a previous overflowingcarburetor condition), or aplugged vent line from the bot-tom of the anti- run on valve arethe most common problems.2) The float height is set far toolow.3) The air cleaner is not fitted tothe carburetor. As unusual asthis seems, and for reasons thatare unclear to this author, theStromberg carburetted car willnot run well with the air cleanerremoved (or a vanity air filter toreplace the original). Oh, it willget to 2500 rpms or so, but thenflattens out — no good for anykind of driving.

CARB WILL NOT IDLE DOWN

Sometimes the carb will notidle at lower than 1000 or 1200

rpm. This is almost always amechanical problem, but thepossibilities include: 1) Throttle cable is stiff or incor-rectly adjusted. Leave this cableloose until the carb is complete-ly adjusted, THEN tighten thetwo nuts with 7/16" wrenches.2) The cam within the automaticchoke is not returning to a “fulloff” position, sometimes causedby a melted plastic plunger onthe bottomside of the unit.Melted? Remember that cherryred hot catalytic converter?Sometimes the levers are bent.They all work on nice, sharp, 90degree angles.3) The overrun valve is floatingopen at a very low manifolddepression. The spring loadedvalve on the throttle disc isdesigned to open only atextreme manifold vacuum —deceleration. If there has been afire within the carburetor, thespring may have lost its force.The valve is easily soldered shutobviating any further problem(and increasing throttle decelera-tion response). Heat the valvefrom the button side with apropane torch and flow solderinto the valve from the springside. The overrun valve can becompletely shut off by fullyunscrewing the small slottedscrew on the triangular shapeddevice on the right side of thecarb.

AIR LEAKS AT IDLEAny tuning or mixture

adjustment is impossible if thereare air leaks between the carbu-retor and the cylinder head. Thisis a very common occurrence,unfortunately, but the leaks areeasily identified. With a can ofaerosol carburetor cleaner, sprayinto areas where leaks are foundwhile the engine is idling. Ifthere is an air leak, the rpms willrise or fall (depending on thesize of the leak, the adjustment

of the carb, and the type ofaerosol spray). Areas the leaksmost commonly occur are:1) Between the cylinder head andthe intake manifold, most com-monly toward the front of the car.2) The tubing and fittings associ-ated with the smog pump (gulpvalve, line from the valve to the90 degree fitting, and the 90degree fitting itself).3) The EGR (Exhaust GasRecirculation) Valve located invarious locations of the enginedepending on year of car.Any leak MUST be correctedbefore tuning commences.

OTHER COMMONPROBLEMS

Oil in the dashpot is essen-tial for proper operation! If thereis no oil the engine will start withdifficulty and will not acceleratequickly. Use ENGINE OIL, anddo not worry, the dashpot(despite warnings to the contrary)

cannot be overfilled. If the oildisappears too frequently, thenthe O ring must be changed. Aneed for oil more than once perfill-up would certainly be aggra-vating.

The screws holding the heatmass to the choke assy arestripped and the heat mass willnot keep a proper alignment. Theholes in the choke housing can betapped out to 10-32.

The screws fixing the top ofthe suction chamber to the carbbody are frozen tight. They canbe freed by using Vise-Grips forthe first 1/10th turn (then use thescrewdriver), or smack the end ofthe phillips (posi-drive) screw-driver with a hammer to seat theend of the screwdriver and shockthe threads loose. Use new 10-32screws when reassembling.

The carburetor heater iscracked, broken, or not connect-ed. There is no concern here.

Everything works just fine with-out this piece of emission control.

A last warning. Do not spraycarburetor cleaner down thethroat of the carb. The aerosolwill attack and expand the rubberdiaphragm. Be safe — carry anextra diaphragm!

The Zenith Stromberg carbu-retor will work wonderfully wellon your Triumph — if you keepit clean, oiled, and adjusted.Refer to your workshop manualfor more details, and work with itBEFORE buying some foreigncarb to replace it. ■

BIO: John Twist owns and oper-ates University Motors Ltd, aBritish Motor Heritage®

Approved Workshop located inAda, Michigan (an eastern suburbof Grand Rapids). John can becontacted at (616) 682-0800 orwww.universitymotorsltd.com


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I’ve been a fan of Triumphsfor 20 years now. It wasn’t untilrecently that an opportunity of alifetime came about. A 1975Spitfire, in the Ohio snowbelt,with no rust, and a reasonableprice. The main problem was, aswith any 25 year old car with theoriginal engine, the small enginehad been robbed of horsepower.The solution was simple, rebuildthe motor. Can I depend on theidiot light to insure I don’t loosethe engine after all of the workrebuilding it? Simply put, no.The only thing to do was installan oil pressure gauge. Simplyhanging an aftermarket oil pres-sure gauge under the dash justwould not cut it. As a proponentof maintaining a car’s originalityas much as possible, I searchedfor a better solution.

Here were the requirementsof the “enhancement”. All partshad to be Triumph and the flowof the dash could not bechanged. The answer came whilesorting through a box of oldTriumph gauges at a Triumphjunkyard. An oil pressure gaugefrom a 1975 Triumph TR-6 wasa perfect match to my originalgauges.

The easy part done, nowhow to install it and not chop upthe original flow of the dash-board. Careful measurement andresearch showed that the area

occupied with the Spitfire head-light switch was the perfect sizeto accommodate the new gauge.In order to complete the installa-tion, the laminate has to beremoved, a circular hole was cutin the dash, new laminate cut andinstalled, and dropped in thegauge. In order to make thegauge work, an engine tap had tobe installed on the side of theengine. British Leyland hadalready contemplated this modi-fication and the tap hole was onthe engine block already. All youneed is the oil tap and line froma TR-6 and to run the linethrough the firewall by the accel-erator cable.

So now you have perfectlymatched oil pressure gaugeinstalled in line with the fuel andtemperature gauges at theexpense of the headlight switch.

Given the framework behindthe dashboard and the enormoussize of the switch, I was unableto find an acceptable new place-ment of the switch. The answeris yet one more modification.There was no doubt in mind thatI would need a push/pull head-light switch. I also knew therewas only one place to put it. Ihad to remove the center warninglight from the center dash; it wasbroken anyway. The only prob-lem is I could not find a Triumphheadlight switch that was a

push/pull except the TR2 andTR3. These switches are readilyavailable and relatively inexpen-sive. From here it is a simplewiring job and I was done.

There you go... the addition

of an oil pressure gauge that isall Triumph without disturbingthe original flow of the dash. Asan extra bonus, of the parts usedon this refit are all 1975 Triumphparts.

The gauge has worked welland has already saved me once.By the way, I left the idiot lightattached and when I had myproblem with the engine, thelight never went off. I guess itwas waiting for the engine toseize up.

Oh, one other thing. Theseveral times I’ve shown mySpitfire at local events, otherTriumph and Spitfire ownersusually don’t realize I’ve modi-fied the dash. I usually have topoint it out to them. ■


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IPSSave the Idiot Light....Why?BY PHILIP FLEISHMAN, OHIO, USA

Harnesses and Connectorsfor British Classic Cars

& MotorcyclesBritish Wiring Inc.20449 Ithaca Rd., Olympia Fields, Il 60461phone or fax (708) 481-9050www.britishwiring.com [email protected]


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Recently, there was a seriesof messages on one of theInternet Marque Discussion Listsstarted by a new owner who wascomplaining about a heavybumping sound coming from theengine compartment of his car.After a number of messages backand forth that eliminated enginemounts, universal joints, and theflywheel as the cause, it wasdetermined that the battery wasnot attached to the car in anyway, and was moving around ashe drove, banging into parts ofthe car’s structure. Although Iwas truly amazed that this 35pound potential bomb was notsecured properly, I was evenmore amazed at the suggestionsfrom the Listers about what hecould do to remedy this situation.There were many clever solu-tions, ranging from tying it downwith a bungee cord to jammingsmall blocks of wood betweenthe battery and the body. No onesuggested using the featuresdesigned into the car by the engi-neers. Nor did anyone mentionthe numerous safety reasons forproperly attaching this significantweight securely to the car. Evenif a loose battery doesn’t damageyour car, it can destroy itself.Batteries aren’t cheap and themoney saved by avoiding buyinga battery could be better spent ongo-fast or look-good items. Hereare some ideas for insuring thatthis time bomb does not leak,explode in flames, or break looseand ruin your day, not to mentionyour beautiful car.

SAFEGUARDING AGAINST DISASTER

Some nasty things can happen when the battery is notsecured as designed and isallowed to slide around with themotions of the car. An unsecuredbattery might be able to move

fore and aft as well as side toside. It can bang against parts ofthe car and cause damage to thesheetmetal or at least scratches inthe paint. If the battery is unteth-ered and the terminals are notcovered as they should be, notonly could there be dents andscratches when it hits the bonnet,but sparks will fly. If a battery isable to move around and impactthe surrounding sheetmetal, itsweight and mass can also causedamage to the case itself. Crackscan develop in the plastic casewhich could allow battery acid toleak all over that nice paint job oron top your passenger’s feet. Onsome cars, portions of the electri-cal harness are routed nearby,too. Many times the damage tothese items goes undetected untilthey fail.

To avoid a catastrophe consider these few simple precautions.

PROTECT THE BATTERYMake sure the battery is

securely attached to the car withsome sort of strong mechanicalarrangement capable of keepingits 35 pound weight where itbelongs. Consider the laws ofphysics as they work in conjunc-tion with the motions of anaggressively driven, firmlysprung sportscar. If the originalequipment isn’t in good shape oris missing, and a store-boughtbattery bracket doesn’t do it foryou, use your ingenuity and cus-tom design one. It could be assimple as a 1/2” x 1/2” piece ofangle iron long enough to fit thewidth along the center or edge ofthe battery plus a little extra toprovide holes on both ends for“J” hooks. Try to position theangle of the “J” hooks betweenthe battery bracket and the bodyso they hold the battery down aswell as against something

immovable. If the “J” hooks gothrough holes on the corner ofthe homemade angle iron brack-et, use large flat washers, a lockwasher, and double nuts to pro-vide a secure attachment. Makesure the angle iron or ready-madepiece you buy doesn’t contact thebattery posts. You might evenneed to cut out one leg of theangle iron to clear the posts.Depending on the design of yourbracket and how close it may beto the terminals, you may want toturn the battery around with theposts on the opposite side and thebracket a safe distance from theterminals. Reversing the locationof the terminals might requirelonger or shorter battery cables,however.

All Spitfires and GT6’s havea battery “bucket” in the enginecompartment located above thepassenger side footwell. The bat-tery shelf sits down in preventingthe it from moving from side toside and front to rear. There aretwo angluar supports welded tothe sides of the box. A pair ofstandard “J” hooks connect ametal bracket across the top frontedge or center of the battery to ahole in each of the tie-down tabson the body of the car. With thiskind of arrangement installed asdesigned, the battery is securelyheld back against the firewall anddown in to the bucket with someminor clearance on all sides.

AVOID ACID SPILLSTo prevent highly corrosive

acid from ruining the paint job(again!) due to seepage from anovercharged battery or a crack inthe case, use a marine batterybox as an additional precaution.You may need to cut it so it does-n’t interfere with the hold downbracket yet still protects the sheetmetal. Make sure the cell fillercaps are on correctly and tightly

Securing Your BatteryBY BOB SPRUCK, GEORGIA, USA

and be neat and careful whenrefilling with distilled water, or atleast wipe up any spills. Try notto tilt the battery too much whenyou remove it.

Make sure that there are nosharp objects that can puncturethe battery case. I have seenmany sheet metal screws used tomount things under the dash withcomplete disregard for wherethey end up on the engine com-partment side. Some have beendangerously close to the harnesswires, and the battery case. Thesharp end of a screw can scrapeor puncture a hole in the plasticcase very easily. Never drill ahole until you know what’s onthe other side.

Telltale white powder andbubbled paint indicates that bat-tery acid has reacted with metal.Neutralize the area with bakingsoda, wash it thoroughly withwater, and repaint it to protect it

from rusting. Determine wherethe acid came from and why,then fix it. Two of my parts carsare parts cars because of batteryproblems. The battery in one ofthe cars exploded, caught fire,and ruined the paint, whichallowed the sheetmetal to rust. Italso made all the wiring and plas-tic bits in the engine bay looklike a Salvador Dali painting.The other had a major acid leakwhich ate away battery box, andeventually the passenger floor-board.

PREVENT EXPLOSIONSConsider one of the rules of

most of the vintage racing organ-izations and cover BOTH batteryterminals with plastic or vinylboots to prevent them from com-ing in contact with metal andcausing sparks. I’m sure you’veread the warnings on batteriesand chargers about the fumes that

are generated by the battery,which can be ignited by sparks.There is absolutely no sense hav-ing a potential source of sparksaround explosive battery or gaso-line fumes. These covers are alsoeffective in preventing waywardtools from accidentally touchingthe hot terminal and causingsparks and damage to the car, thebattery, or the tool. The safestbattery installation should havethe terminals facing the directionthe factory intended them to face.If you do position the batterywith the posts facing the oppositedirection, it is doubly importantthat the battery terminals are cov-ered since they may now be clos-er to parts of the car they weren’tsupposed to be close to.

If you wouldn’t think ofleaving a bowling ball rollingaround in your boot, then don’tleave your battery loose in theengine bay. Think about it. ■


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I first got the idea aboutmoving my battery to the trunkfrom my Daughter. She calledfrom school crying when she leftthe lights on and drained the bat-tery on our Miata. None of thekids could find the battery!! (Of course, in the trunk!)

There are a few good rea-sons for relocating the battery tothe trunk. Batteries are heavy!Having it that far back helps bal-ance the weight in the car espe-cially if it is placed on the pas-senger side.

Another good reason, specif-ic to me, is my battery box wasrusted out.

It must be attached tightly tothe car so I welded up a rectan-gular frame for the trunk to fit aplastic battery box. It can be pur-chased from ‘Auto Zone’ (ornumerous other parts stores). I

situated it far to the right handside of the trunk so that there wasplenty of room to clear the sparetire. It is bolted thru the trunkfloor, and has little ‘legs’ to makeit sit level. The frame was madefrom 1/2 inch angle, notched thenbent to 90 deg. then welded. Thelegs were simple. I just proppedup the frame and measured itlevel in two directions, then tackwelded the legs, and cut off theextra. There were two plasticguides for the hold down strap. Imounted them on the side of thebattery frame by drilling and tap-ping holes for short machinescrews.

The box is vented at the top,and it is a good idea to run a tubeto the outside through one of therubber grommets in the floor.

Connection to the front ofthe car is make with #2 cable,

600 volt rated, and 150 amps.Wiring was purchased at LowesHome Improvement. It is incredi-bly stiff. I used hold downs tokeep it from moving. It will gounder the carpet. Pretty thickstuff; # 2 wire gauge. It was allblack so I marked (+) with redvinyl tape. Really good 3-M tapewon’t come off. ■

Move It or Loose ItBY JOE GARRISON, OKLAHOMA, USA

I was recently presentedwith a problem involving theoriginal steel wheels and tireson my Spitfire. The problemwas caused by one tire blowingthe sidewall out (impact relat-ed). Unfortunately for me, itwas a Yokohama A509 tire thatis no longer made.Consequently, I was left withthree nearly new tires, and noreplacement option for thefourth. As always, I saw this asan ‘opportunity to make lemon-ade out of lemons’ and startedconsidering my options, all ofwhich are dictated by monetaryrestraints. I thought about buy-ing two Yokohama AVSIntermediates, and running apair of them with the A509’s,however I was also aware thatmy stock steel wheels were bentand out of round. How should Iproceed?

When discussing this issueat a local LBC club gathering, aTR7 friend offered his older setof alloy wheels for a reasonableprice. They would come com-plete with tires already mountedand bargain priced as well. Thiswould solve my bent wheelproblem as well as my need fortires and stay within my afford-able money limits. I knew thewheels he was offering, likedthe look, and agreed to purchasethem. This is where the adven-ture begins.

I had nothing wrong withmy original wheel studs andlugs. However when attemptingto bolt on the TR7 wheels, Icouldn’t use the original Spitfirelug nuts as they didn’t matchthe TR7 wheels. I’ll detail thisproblem more in a minute. TheTR7 lug nuts were needed asthey are matched with thewheel, and were a 12 mm x 1.5lug which did not match the

3/8th wheel stud on the Spitfire.The difference between thewheel stud and nut on a TR7wheel and the Spitfire wheelstud and nut is significant, notonly in size, but function.

Let’s take a moment to dis-cuss the difference betweenLUG-centric and HUB-centricwheels. Using lug nuts that arerounded at the inward pointcenters a lug-centric wheelwhen the taper mates with thecounter-sunk taper of the wheelstud opening. Lug-centricwheel studs and nuts is the con-figuration the Spitfire uses.

Wheels that are centered bythe open center hole on thewheel’s hub are hub-centric.This is the method that the TR7uses to mount and center itswheels. The hub extends, inmost cases, into the open holeon the wheel center and match-es it’s opening. Additionally, thelug nuts are also matched withthe wheels, as the lug nuts areusually a longer cylinder shapethat inserts straight through thematching lug opening.

OK, since I was obviouslygoing to replace the lug nuts,why not consider replacing thewheel studs as well? Better yet,why not make them a morestandard, and somewhatstronger 7/16th inch stud with a20 thread? The end resultallows me to use the TR7wheels and easily find a lug nutthat matches as a larger selec-tion exists.

At this time I recalled see-ing one Spitfire related websitethat documented this alteration.I used this information as mystarting point, and now that myproject is completed, this iswhat I can share with others.

The wheel studs that close-ly match the Spitfire, (in my

case, a 1979 Spitfire) are actual-ly counter-referenced with a1971-1974 Mercury Capri II.Let it be known, the Wheel Tite#28020 part number given onthe webpage I referenced wasno longer valid. However theyoung man at my parts storespent a considerable amount oftime measuring my Spitfirestuds with a micrometer andthen looked through his supplierbooks until we found what weboth believed would work well.These studs are made byDorman, part number 610-175and are not easily available, butwere ordered and received intwo days. The lug-centric nutsthemselves were hanging on therack, which is precisely why Ielected to replace my wheelstuds. Now, I have easilyobtainable and sturdier wheelstuds in a more common 7/16thX 20 format.

Now before I detail theactual actions used to accom-plish this project, let me offerthese caveats:1. I am not a mechanical genius,and my methods certainly fallwithin “Shadetree Mechanic”standards.2. I do not hold myself out asan expert, your results mayvary, proceed at your own dis-cretion.

After putting my car onjack stands, and removing theold wheels, the first major stepin this project is to remove theoriginal wheel studs. I discov-ered that this could be accom-plished without removing anymajor moving suspension parts.The front studs are easilyremoved and the new studsinstalled without dismountinganything. The rear studs canonly be removed and reinstalledwith the brake drum off. See


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IPS Lug Nuts & TR7 WheelsBY MIKE NELSON, NEBRASKA, USA

your manual for removing thebrake drum. After the brakedrum is off, then the hub can berotated so the stud can be posi-tioned into an open area avoid-ing the brake cylinder andsprings. I was able to removeone hub, however, which madethis process a bit easier. It ispossible, as mentioned above,to complete the conversionwithout removing the hub.

Removing the studsrequires you to use your ownjudgement here regarding theproper method. My Shadetreemethod was to put some hard-wood against the end of the studand then proceed to hammerthem out after a presoak ofWD-40. Keep in mind, WD-40and brake pads/rotors do NOTco-exist well for obvious rea-sons, be careful. I had no diffi-culty removing any of the studsin this manner, however yourresults may vary as I mentionedbefore.

Installing the new studstakes patience, and again, themethod I used may be ques-tioned by some. I elected to pullthe lug through the hub using awasher(s) and a new lug nut.On the front hubs I inserted thenew stud to the shoulder wherethe knurls start to engage. I thenpositioned a washer over theend of the stud, tightened thelug nut finger tight, and thenslowly tightened the lug nutwhile checking the head in backto ensure it was pulled instraight. Note: you will want thewasher to be a matching 7/16thwasher to assist with aligningthe stud. (see Pic. A and Pic. B)This method worked for me,consistently with all sixteenstuds.

The rear studs require a bitof alteration to ensure the studhead does not come in contactwith the rubber boot of thebrake cylinder. I choose todefeat this problem by insertingthe threaded part of the stud

into a junk piece of radiatorhose with an inside diameter of1/2 inch that I had recently dis-carded. I could then hold thestud while I reduced the heightof the stud head on my benchgrinder. (The rubber hose alsokept me from burning my fin-gers on the heated up stud aswell as giving me some addi-tional distance between myknuckles and the grindingwheel.) The shape of the headresembles a mushroom. Theouter edge or dome of the studis the part to pay attention to. Imerely removed some height,and then rounded over the edgea bit to provide the proper clear-ance. (see Pic. C)

Installation of the rearstuds is the same as the frontstuds. Inserted from the rear,washers added, the lug nutspulled them in square. Spin thehub and ensure clearancebetween the stud and rubberboot. Additionally, after the jobis completed and the wheelshave been mounted, pleaseremember to once again removethe wheel and check clearanceonce again by removing thebrake drum and checking thebrake cylinder boot for rubbing.

There are a few items tonote with this project. If you arenot comfortable grinding on thestud heads and feel the studswill be weakened by doing so,then don’t do this project. Alsoof note, the heads of the studshave a 90-degree angle betweenthreads and base of the head.The originals are tapered at 45degrees, which fit into thebeveled hub in a countersinkposition more securely. Withthat understanding, use yourown judgement.

Lastly, if you have beentold that TR7 wheels are astraight bolt on, you have beenmisinformed. IF… the wheelhas the same backspace or off-set as your original, then over-coming the hub-centric vs. lug-

centric obstacle is the only hur-dle. After my stud replacement,I mounted my new wheels andpromptly discovered the TR7wheels have a different offsetand actually increase the widthof track. Not only that, but the185/70 tires were ‘too tall’ andwith the additional change in

offset I have significant wheelrub. Enough that the car cannotbe driven until I resolve thatproblem, but that is anther arti-cle altogether.

P.S. The 185/60 size tire seemsto work with no rubbing. Eventhough I have only a few milessince making this conversion,I’m very pleased and personallythink the work is worth theeffort. ■


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One of the biggest decisions you will have tomake after you’ve made “The Big One” (to vintagerace or not) is who to race with. Actually, the deci-sion may be easier than you think. Which vintagerace organization you decide to join is a function ofwhere you live, where the closest tracks are, andwhich organization conducts races there. Roadcourses upon which vintage races are held are notlocated in every community, but just about everylarge metropolitan area has one or more within areasonable towing distance. Many of the newerNASCAR tracks have road courses comprised of atwisty section in the infield and part of the bankedoval. And don’t forget, you have to get your racecarthere and back within the time you have availablefrom work and within the costs you have budgeted,so the location of your home track often becomesthe overpowering determinant of who you race with.

Most vintage racing organizations tend to con-duct races at numerous tracks within their chosengeographical area. Some groups may conduct asmany as a dozen events a year and visit the sametrack more than once. Some groups may range farand wide, holding races from Sebring, Florida toWatkins Glen, NY, to Mid-Ohio, for example.Others may be a bit more local. Racing at more thanone track broadens your experience, sharpens yourdriving skills, and affords you the opportunity tomeet other drivers and race with different cars. Italso increases your expenses and requires more timeaway from home and work.

The car you race and how yourprospective race organization allowsyou to prepare it are other significantelements in your decision of who torace with. Some vintage racers arelucky enough to live in an area that isserviced by more than one vintage rac-ing group. This may increase the number of racesand tracks you can race at, but consider that it mayalso result in increased car preparation time andexpenses. Setting up your car for one group maymake you uncompetitive in another group. If youcan relatively easily change things like wheels andtires, carburetors, and rear ends, it may be possibleto optimize your car for multiple groups’ specifica-tions. Some racers even change engines in order torace with two organizations. It all depends on yourcar and your race groups’ rules.

Who to Race WithBY BOB SPRUCK, GEORGIA


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“ONE OF THE BIGGEST DECISIONS YOU WILLHAVE TO MAKE AFTER YOU’VE

(DECIDED TO VINTAGE RACE OR NOT) IS WHO TO RACE WITH”


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HSRHistoric Sportscar Racing, Ltd.

- East Coast, Southeast257 DeKalb Industrial Way ,

Decatur, GA 30030(888) 477-599

www.hsrrace.com

SVRASportscar Vintage Racing Association

- East Coast, Southeast257 DeKalb Industrial Way,

Decatur, GA 30030 (404) 298-3323,

[email protected]

VSCCAVintage Sportscar Club of America

- NortheastAnthony Carroll

170 Wetherhill Rd., Garden City, NY 11530

(516) 248-6237www.vscca.com

VARAVintage Automobile Racing Association

- West Coast(800) 280-8272

SOVRENSociety of Vintage Racing Enthusiasts

- NorthwestJudy Buckingham

4465 W. Mercer Way, Mercer Island, WA98040

(206) [email protected]

RMVRRocky Mountain Vintage Racing- Denver

PO Box 2096, Estes Park, CO 80517

(970) 586-6366alder [email protected]

www.rmvr.com

CVARCorinthian Vintage Automobile Racing

- TexasArt Summerville

3818 Eugene Ct South, Irving, TX 75062(972) 258-1987

[email protected]

VARACVintage Automobile Racing Association

of Canada - Eastern CanadaGavin Ivory

49 Blue Ridge Rd, Toronto, On M2K 1S1 (416) 223-8669

[email protected]

VDCAVintage Drivers Club of America

- SoutheastAlex Quattlebaum, Jr. 1028 LeGrand Blvd., Charleston, SC 29492

(843) 856-0799www.vintagedrive.com

[email protected],

SCCA (VINTAGE)Sports Car Club of America

- National (Vintage in only someRegions)

(303) 694-7222

HSR WESTHistoric Sportscar Racing

-West, West Coast Ed Swart

2675 Skypark Dr, Suite 104, Torrance, CA 90505(310) [email protected]

www.hsr-westracing.com

CSRGClassic Sports Racing Group

- West CoastP.O. Box 825, Danville, CA 94526

(925) [email protected]

VSCDAVintage Sports Car Drivers Association

- Mid West3160 Thornapple River Drive,

Grand Rapids, MI 49546(616) [email protected]

IVRIntermountain Vintage Racing

- UtahPaul Watson

(801)967-7892

V i n t a g e R a c i n g G r o u p sBecome very familiar with your prospective raceorganization’s car classification process. If youalready have a racecar or have decided what you aregoing to build or buy, make sure you are comfortablewith that car’s position in the organization. Most rac-ing organizations classify cars into Groups by type,displacement, age, and equipment. Separate groupsare usually provided for large and small productionbased sports cars, such as MGs, Triumphs, Porsches,etc. Open wheel cars, e.g. Formula Vee, Formula A,Formula Ford, are usually all together in one Group,although some organizations will put FVs in with theSmall Bore cars, a dangerous combination. Big boreAmerican iron like Mustangs, Camaros, and Cobras,might be in another Group. Historic NASCAR vehi-cles of all types and years would be in a Group oftheir own. Pre-War cars are most often all in oneGroup, regardless of engine size, speed potential, orany other factors. Within each Group there may benumerous classes, again often based on year of man-ufacture, or equipment. For example, HistoricSportscar Racing (HSR) Race Group 2 includes vin-tage production sports cars (older than 1959) and his-toric production sportscars (from 1960 to 1974), allunder 1300 cc displacement. Within the vintage clas-sification, Class 1H is for cars under 1000cc andClass 1G is for cars with displacement between1000cc and 1300cc. Historic production cars up to1966 fall into Class 2L (under 1000cc) and Class 2K(1000 to 1300cc). Historic production cars between1967 and 1974 are in Class 3M if they are between1300 and 1000cc and in Class 3N if they are under1000cc. The Vintage Drivers Club of America, on theother hand, has a much simpler Class structure. Intheir Small Displacement (SD) Group, there are eightClasses. SD1 through 5 are for production-based carsup to 1967 with displacements of up to 500cc, 850cc,1000cc, 1150cc, and 1300cc, respectively. SD6 is forSports Racers older than 1967 and under 850cc whileSD7 includes Sports Racers from 1968 to 1972 under850cc. SD8 is for Formula Vee open wheel carsunder 1192cc displacement. Most other racing groupsutilize similar Group/Class structures. Some racingorganizations have fine print in their Rules andRegulations that states that the Race Classes are fixedbut Race Groups can vary depending on entry level,car mix, and track time availability. They also canreclassify cars in the interest of fairness and safety.This means that you may have a larger car in yourgroup if its speed potential is judged to be similar tothe smaller cars, due to the experience level of thedriver or the performance potential of the car. Thiscan lead to some strange grids at some events.

Make sure you know how your prospective race

organization conducts its race weekends. Some events are twodays long while others last three days. Many offer two thirtyminute practice sessions per Group on Friday, and then aqualifying session and a Qualifying Race on Saturday.Sunday, often cut short by the track’s “Quiet Time” in themorning to appease local residents, is when the final races foreach Group take place. Many organizations are now schedul-ing one or more endurance races during the weekend. Somecharge extra for enduros while others include them in the nor-mal registration fee for these typically hour-long events thatoften include all Groups and Classes, have two mandatory pitstops, and an optional driver change. Many enduros includesome type of gimmick, such as handicapping the startingpositions, inverted starts, and team scoring in order to offer adifferent kind of challenge and a little bit of fun. Almost allorganizations have sponsored meals and/or parties eachevening. These range from chips and beer to wine and cheese,from simple burgers to sumptuous buffets, or from barbecueto shrimp and oysters. Some organizations provide Timingand Scoring services whereby each car’s best lap time foreach track session is posted. Your best lap time from one ses-sion is often the basis for your grid position in the next ses-sion. Other organizations feel that keeping track of lap timesencourages serious racing instead of serious fun so they don’tdo it at all. Some organizations hand out medals or trophies toas many as the top three finishers in each Class, while othersprovide nothing but memories.

Some of the vintage racing organizations are run by vol-unteers while others are run by professional managers. Theformer usually charge for race events only and the latter usu-ally charge a membership fee in addition to the fees for theraces. Event fees can range from $100 to almost $400 perevent. Sometimes endurance races are an extra $100 or so,and track touring and concours are available, also for addi-tional fees. Many organizations offer driving schools or trackfamiliarization sessions before the race weekend, also at addi-tional fees. The evening parties are almost always free, as arenewsletters or magazines, and race momentoes (T-shirts, caps,or other nominal trinkets) if they are part of the organization’sprogram.

Whether the organization you plan to join is in businessto make money or is run by volunteers and just wants to covercosts is an extremely important issue. Which will you behappy with? What do you want out of vintage racing? Themain reason most of us get involved in vintage racing as ahobby is to have this particular kind of fun, given that we canaccept the commitment of time, money, and equipment. Therewards are self-satisfaction, pride, camaraderie, and a feelingof continuing the tradition of racing old cars as they wereraced in their heyday. It’s a great sport, with wonderful peo-ple, and, of course, some fantastic cars. ■


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Canvas Convertible Topsin Black or Tan

AUSTIN-HEALEYSprite Mk I, Mk II $219.00Sprite Mk III, Mk IV 209.00100-4, 100-6, 3000 2-seater 209.0057-59 100-6, 3000 4-seater 219.0060-64 3000, BJ7, Mk II 209.003000, BJ8, Mk III zipper window 239.00JAGUARXKE sewn rear window 219.00XKE or E-Type V-12, zipper window 239.00XK-120 Roadster or DHC 249.00XK-140 Roadster 249.00XK-150 Roadster 249.00XK-150 Convertible 259.00XJS (factory original only) 319.00JENSEN-HEALEYJensen-Healey 1973-75 259.00J-H Deluxe Carpet Set 169.00MG TD or TF 209.00MGA (1 window) 209.00MGA (3 window) 219.00MGC 215.00Midget 209.00MGB (through 1970) 219.00MGB ‘71-on, sewn window 219.00MGB ‘71-on, zippered rear window 239.00Convertible Top Boot ‘71-on MGB 109.50Convertible Top Boot ‘70-on Midget 109.50Deluxe Carpet set for 1963-on MGB 119.00Deluxe Carpet set for ‘61-on Midget 109.00Tonneau MGA or MGB with headrest 169.00Tonneau MGA or MGB w/o headrest 155.00MORRIS MINOR1950-1956 or 1957-1961 319.00SUNBEAM & TIGERAlpine Mk II, 1961-1963 239.00Alpine Mk III, MkIV ‘63-’65 239.00Alpine Mk V, 1966-on 239.00TRIUMPHTR2, TR3, TR4 or TR4A 209.00TR250 or TR6 sewn window 219.00TR6 zipper rear window 239.00TR7 or TR8 zipper window 239.00Spitfire MK I, II or III thru ‘69 209.00Spit. Mk III ‘70-on, Mk IV,1500 zipper win. 239.00Stag (specify 1 or 3 window) 279.00Herald 289.00Convertible Top Boot for TR6 139.00Convertible Top Boot for TR7 or TR8 139.00Deluxe Carpet set for TR3 119.00Deluxe Carpet set for TR4 139.00Deluxe Carpet set for Spitfire 139.00Deluxe Carpet set for TR250 or TR6 149.00Deluxe Carpet set for TR7 or TR8 159.00

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fax: (949) 770-0815orders only: 1-800 776-3136

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Ball Joint Set (2) $40.00Tie Rod Set (2) $18.00Front Trunnion w/kit $31.00Front Wheel Bearing Kit $18.00Rear Wheel Bearing Kit Major $27.00Heavy Duty Rear Spring $141.00Front Standard Shocks (2) $70.00Front Heavy duty Gas Shocks (2) $130.00Rear Standard Shocks (2) $45.00Rear Heavy duty Gas Shocks (2) $75.00Fully Adjustable Spax Shocks (4) $330.00Brake Hose Set (4) $42.00Brake Hose Set Stainless $73.00Rebuilt Calipers 67-80 Ex $71.00Caliper Kit 67-80 (2) $10.00Front Rotor w/HD Pads $54.00Slotted & Vented Rotor set $68.00Rear Wheel Cylinder Set (2) $25.00Rear Shoe Set $18.00Starter (exchange) $76.00Starter HD Gear Reduction $195.00Cap, points, cond., rotor 62-74 $15.00Cap & rotor 75-80 $10.00Alternator 73-80 (exchange) $75.00Crane Electric Ignition Kit $109.00Piston Set 1300cc 9:1 $155.00Piston Set 1500cc 9:1 $155.00Stainless Exhaust Valve Set (4) $30.00Tappet Set 66-80 (8) $30.00Hot Street Cam (exchange) $91.00Chain and Gear Set (3-pc) $60.00Full Gasket Set w/Seals $39.00Oil Pump Late Style $86.00Rocker Oil Feed Line $32.00Rockershaft w/8 arms $110.00Oil Pressure valve & spring $8.00Fuel Pump $17.00Header 67-80 $106.00Monza Exhaust System $186.00Top 71-80 $191.00Dash Top Cover 68-80 $38.00Carpet Set Deluxe w/snaps $148.00Door Panel Set (2) $84.00Full Panel Kit 7-pc $248.00Seal Kit 73-80 $248.00Transmission Tunnel $54.00Roll Bar $215.00Weber DCOE, DGV Carb Kits CALLRebuilt Transmissions CALL

SPITFIRE SPECIALS

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Lucus Sports Coil $27.00Ignition Switch 63-72 $27.95Ignition Switch 73-76 $44.00Turn Switch 63-76 $44.00Turn Switch 77-80 $54.00Headlamp Switch $10.00Rheostat Panel Switch $48.00Lucas DOT 5.1 Brake Fluid $13.75Brake Master 67-75 New $195.00Brake Reservoir 67-75 $35.00Brake Master 76-80 New $195.00Brake Master Rebuild Kit 67-80 $19.00PWD Valve + Switch 67-75 $75.00Clutch Master OE $68.00Clutch Slave 67-80 OE $65.00

POLY BUSHINGS:Rack Mount Set $9.00Sway Bar Bush Set (4-PC) $12.00Front dif., mount Set $16.00Rear Shock Bush Set (8-PC) $10.00Radius Arm Bush Set (4-PC) $17.00A-Arm Bushing Set (8-PC) $34.00

All those who found rea-sons for not attending the sea-son ending races on December7th- 9th near Savannah,Georgia, missed one of the bestrace weekends of the year. Alltheir excuses were unfounded.It was warm (in the 70s), notcold; it was dry, not wet (exceptfor a shower during the last halfof the enduro); it was well sub-scribed (over 60 cars all togeth-er); it was FUN (lots of closeracing with cars covered by thesmallest of margins); and, asexpected, Alex Quattlebaum’straditionally southern PigPickin’ and Oyster Roast wasgreat. Did I mention we all hadlots of FUN? And, of course,you all know we define fun bythe amount of track time weget.

VDCA was founded twoyears ago by four men whowanted to resurrect the true vin-tage racing experiences theyhad many years ago but thatsomehow had evolved into carsand equipment that were morecontemporary and into a styleof racing that was unlike theoriginal. The Club was foundedon the premise that there is agrowing group of drivers whowant to prepare their cars to aset of rules from a specific peri-od, race them in the style of thatperiod, and experience the satis-faction and excitement similarto that which they did yearsago. Over the past two yearsand dozen or so races, VDCAhas fulfilled those men’s (andwomen’s) dreams and hasattracted a healthy following offriends and new converts to theracing styles of an earlier andbetter period in time.

One of the biggest attrac-tions of the VDCA version ofvintage racing is the amount oftrack time you get for yourmoney. For a very reasonableentrance fee of $300, we gotover five and half-hours oftrack time this weekend! Thatincluded two 30-minute practicesessions for each of the fiverace Groups and one 30 minuteopen session for the combinedGroups on Friday. Saturday’sschedule was the same asFriday’s plus a one-hourendurance race. Sunday’s activ-ities included one 30-minutepractice session per Group, a30-minute handicap race for allGroups, and finally, a 15-lapfeature race for each Group. Itis not unusual to hear sometongue-in-cheek grumblingabout the more than expectedamount of race fuel and rubberconsumed during the weekend.

Good racing was had byall, with only a few minor andone semi-major shunt ruiningthe weekend for a few unluckyparticipants. Fortunately, onlysheetmetal and engines suf-fered, drivers did not. VDCAhas been successful in attractingsome of the more unusual cars,mostly because of their race andpreparation philosophies.People who had not been racingtheir unique and valuable carsfor fear of damage from overag-gressive driving, have nowbrought them out to VDCAevents and have put their treas-ures back on the track wherethey belong. Some of the mod-els you don’t often see at othervintage events are NTM (bothMk II and III), Honda S800, theflathead Ford Dreyer Special,


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Vintage Drivers Club of America SeasonFinale at Roebling Road RacewayDECEMBER 7-9, 2001, ROEBLING ROAD RACEWAY, GEORGIA, USA

Tuck Morse's 1974 Spitfire rests in the shade.

Richard Brown prays(?) for some extra horsepower in the racein which he won the HP Vintage National Championship

Bob Spruck’s 1967 MG Midget rests in the paddock before winning the FP Vintage National Championship

Mercedes Benz 190 and 230SLs, Austin Healey 100S, DevinErmini, Turner, Alfa Duetto,Fiat 124 and 850, Porsche 906,MGA Twin Cam, Ford Falcon,Elva Courier, Elva Porsche,Dodge Colt, Lotus Elite, 20Jr,and 23B, and Camaro. Ofcourse, there were also the ubiq-uitous Bugeye Sprites, Minis,and Formula Vees.

GROUP RACESThe lone Spitfire belonged

to Tucker Morse of Charleston,SC. It was a 1964 model withthe 1147cc engine and was verywell prepared. Despite somemechanical problems throughoutthe weekend, he managed to winhis class (G Production) in theHandicap Race with veryrespectable lap times and an11th overall.

ENDURANCE RACEThe one-hour endurance

race was scheduled for the lastsession on Saturday and was theonly race effected by rain.About half way through the 30plus laps, a heavy storm camethrough the area. Only four carsout of the 25 in the race came infor shelter and these were alleither special cars that warrant-ed not getting too wet or chanc-ing damage, or new drivers not

comfortable in the wet condi-tions.

HANDICAP RACEVintage Drivers Club of

America always tries to have agimmick race at each of itsevents. One time starting posi-tions were based on bobbing forapples with numbers on them.Another time winners at the“gaming” tables at the partywere able to pick the startingposition of one of their “bud-dies”. This weekend, we had afairly normal handicap racewhere the grid positions weredetermined by the times in apractice session and each entrantstarted with a time offset calcu-lated to have all the cars finishat the same time, theoretically.The time offsets and the mix ofcars with significant speed dif-ferentials enabled cars to racewith others not usually encoun-tered. The safe conduct of thiskind of race was a testament tothe gentlemanly race mannersand vintage attitudes of the racers.

VINTAGE NATIONALCHAMPIONSHIPS

A new promotional idea togenerate interest and participa-tion was initiated at this eventand was called the Vintage Open

National Championships. Theidea was to highlight the periodcorrect cars that compete in thefeature races. Only entries strict-ly prepared to the 1972 GeneralCompetition Rules andProduction Car Specificationswere eligible and the Class winners were crowned “VintageNational Champion”. The cham-pionship classes are based onthe traditional SCCA classes for production cars, sedans,sportsracers, and formula cars.In Group 1 for small displace-ment production cars, winnerswere Richard Brown in his 1960 Bugeye Sprite (HProduction), Mike Jackson inhis Shadowfax (FV), and BobSpruck in his 1967 MG Midget(F Production). Championshiptitles in the other Group 1 classes were left vacant due toDNFs and DNSs.

As we left the paddock tobegin our long trips home andsaid our good byes and HappyHolidays to our racing friends,the common thread was “had agreat time, see you next race”.That’s precisely the attitude thefounders wanted to foster whenthey started the group two yearsago. We all intend to continuethat attitude. Come join us nexttime and experience some vin-tage fun! ■


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DGV $399 1300-1500 only

Single DCOE $610 1300-1500 only

Dual DCOE $995 1300-1500 onlyKits include intake manifold, air cleaners and all hardware.

to order visit:

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already low prices.


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Rocky Entriken, Kansas, 1964 Spitfire “Li’l Blue”This car has competed in more SCCA Solo II NationalChampionship events than any other single car of anyclass or category (28)!“Li’l Blue is powered by an Able Co. engine built by Mid-Michigan Imports and GT6 gearbox West Michigan Imports. It has an Able rear suspension,Hoosier cantilever slicks on Revolution wheels, fiberglass bonnet and rear deck lid, ATL fuel cell,oil cooler, Kirkey seat, Autopower rollbar with a Kirk cage extension.”

Drew Brown, Connecticut, 1968 GT62.0 liter, forged pistons, 11:1 comp, custom cam,MSD with Crane ignition, custom crank fluid damper, custom headers, etc.

Beth Philion, California, 1965 Mk2

Doug Buchanan, Nebraska, 1971 Mk3 GT6“We have had to modify, for safety reasons, the rearsuspension using 280 ZX constant velocity joints andhalf shafts. We have used the original transverse leafspring, pumpkin and all the original pickup points toremain vintage legal. The car is still a 2 liter but Ihave gone to a TR6 gearbox due to the horsepower.”

To have your car featured in next issue and on the TriumphSpitfire.com website,

e-mail us at [email protected]

or mail to:P.O. Box 30806

Knoxville, TN 37930

Jim Sechrest (1999 VARA F Production Champ & Driver of the Year), 1965 Mk 2, 1147cc

Lanie Sechrest (2000 VARA Woman Driver of the Year), 1965 Mk 2, 1300cc

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Sechrest Motorsport’s Spitfire Racing stable

Daniel Martinez (2001 F Production Champ), 1965 Mk2, 1147cc


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All British Car Show SOUTHERN BRITISH CAR CLUB OF GREATER CHATTANOOGA

CHATTANOOGA TENNESSEE, NOVEMBER 2-4, 2001

PHOTOS BY BRETT BROBERG

Shane Hunt of Marietta Georgia brought his 1974 1500. Mike Flood’s 1969 Mk3 had a nice patina from much use. Paul Logue proudly displayed that his Spit now has an overdrive

Triumphest 2001 TRIUMPH REGISTER OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

VENTURA CALIFORNIA, OCTOBER 18-21, 2001

PHOTOS BY LAURA GHARAZEDDINE


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Triangle British Classic NORTH CAROLINA MG CAR CLUB

MORRISVILLE NORTH CAROLINA, OCTOBER 13, 2001

PHOTOS BY RALPH JANNELLI

Malvern Classic Car Show TRIUMPH SPORTS SIX CLUB

MALVERN, WORCS. ENGLAND, OCTOBER 7, 2001

PHOTOS & STORY BY DAVE MACKThe Malvern Classic Car show had an extensive display of cars of all types outside and there was a huge indoor autojumble. As

usual our Spitfire was on the Triumph Sports Six Club stand, the “hosts” on this occasion (the Worcester Area of the club). In addi-tion to the Spitfires and GT6's, there was also an appearance by a rarely seen Amphicar - which given the rain that set in at the end ofthe show was probably the best equipped car on the site to get home! I don't have any details of the cars I'm afraid, so I'll leave thepictures to do the talking. If you're in the area later this year, the next Malvern Show is on 5th & 6th October 2002. It is organized byGreens (UK) Ltd. For more information contact [email protected]

MAYCalifornia, Solvang, Royal Scandianavian Inn, May 2-52002 California Healey Week, [email protected], Lewes, May 2Lewes British Motorcar Show, Lewes Chamber of Commerce, 302 645-8073,[email protected], Lexington, The Springs Inn, May 3-5Bluegrass British Bash, Sterling British Motoring Society, [email protected], Hot Springs National Park, Clarion Resort on Lake Hamilton, May 42nd Annual Brits by the Shore, British Motoring Club of Arkansas,(501)372-8182, [email protected], Bakersfield, Buttonwillow Raceway, May 4-5Moss Motors/VARA British Extravaganza, (800) 235-6954,[email protected], Atlanta, May 4Ragtops to Riches Rally, Numerous British Car Clubs, (770) 804-9380 before 9PMNew Jersey, Succasunna, Horseshoe Lake Park, May 4M.G. Car Club Central Jersey Centre, Inc., 973-796-8116, [email protected], Wadsworth, May 4-525th Annual British Swap Meet and Car Show, The Northeast OhioAustin Healey Club, 800 334-6566, [email protected], Townsend (Gatlinburg), May 415 Annual Gathering, Blount British Cars Ltd., [email protected], Baltimore, May 514th Annual "Get The Dust Off" Rallye & Winery Tour, MGs ofBaltimore, 410 817-6862, [email protected] Carolina, Charlotte, Mint Museum, May 5Marques at the Mint, Carolinas Austin-Healey Club, (704)366-9808, [email protected], Dayton, RiverScape, May 10 @ 5 pmChildhood Cancer Benefit Concert and Car Show, (937)766-2669South Carolina, Charleston, Brittlebank Park, May 10 - 12Lowcountry Classic Jaguar Concours de'Elegance, Jaguar Society ofSouth Carolina, (843) 552-6555, [email protected], Oakland, May 11MG's at Jack London Square, MG Owners Club of NorthernCalifornia, (415)333-9699, [email protected], Fullerton, May 16-19Muckenthaler Motor Car Festival, Muckenthaler Cultural CenterFoundation, (714) 780-8382Indiana, Corydon (20 miles west of Louisville Kentucky), Old Capital Inn, May 16-19Springthing 2002, Bluegrass Austin Healey ClubMaryland, Gaithersburg, May 16The Original British Car Day (BCD), Chesapeake Chapter of theNew England MGT Register, 301-831-5300, [email protected] Columbia, Vancouver, May 17-182002 Vancouver All British Field Meet, Olde British Car SocietyPennsylvania, Carlisle, May 17-19Carlisle Import Swap Meet, Carlisle Productions, 717 243-7855Colorado, Montrose, May 18Sixth Annual-British Car Week "Wicker Basket Picnic, (970) 249-0163, [email protected], Braselton, Chateau Elan, May 18British Motorcar Day, British Motorcar Club, 770 804-9380Kentucky, Louisville, May 18Concours D'elegance at Churchill Down, JC&A, (502)241-6711,[email protected], Freeport, May 18-24Annual New England 1000 Vintage RallyCalifornia, Dixon, May 19Dixon British Car show and Swap Meet, United British Sports CarClub of Sacramento, 916 488-9628, [email protected], Columbus, May 19British Car Day XVIII at Easton, Central Ohio British Car Council,(614) 899-2394, [email protected], Richmond May 19British Classic Car Meet, Richmond Triumph Register, 804 527-1515, [email protected], Champaign-Urbana May 24-26Champagne British Car Festival, Prairie Octagon Club & the CITOA,309-662-3020, [email protected] York, Sag Harbor, May 24-26Concours d'Elegance and Auction, Kensington Motor Group, 631-537-1868California, Orange County, May 25-35Orange County Scottish Festival, (949) 581-1339Tennessee, Nashville (Opryland Hotel), May 25Eurofest Nashville, Nashville British Car Club and othersVirginia, Middlebrook, Wildwood Tree Farm, May 25Summerdean Tour, Shenandoah Valley British Car Club, 540-885-1757, [email protected]/Oregon, Fife, May 25-26"Run to the Gorge" Fife WA to Hood River, Puget Sound BritishAutomotive Society, 425-644-7874

Worldwide, May 25-June 26th Annual Drive Your British Car WeekMaryland, Saint Leonard, May 26Commencement of British Car Week in Maryland, DC/VA/DEL British Car community, [email protected], Put-In-Bay, May 31-June 2Shagadelic Island Adventure VIII, Southeastern Michigan AustinHealey Club- AHCA, (419)797-0027, [email protected]

JUNEFlorida, Havana, Nicholson Farmhouse Restaurant, June 13rd Annual British Car & Bike Day, Big Bend MG's, (850) 539-1104, [email protected], Louisville June 1Marques On the Green, British Sports Car Club , 812 923-7349,[email protected], Sandwich, Heritage Plantation, June 1British on the Green, Cape Cod British Car Club, [email protected], 508-888-3300 ext.122Pennsylvania, Fort Washington, June 1The Brits are Back at Hope Lodge, Delaware Valley Triumphs Ltd.,610 222-0180, [email protected], Lac Beauport, June 1 - 2Rendezvous British Quebec, [email protected], Virginia Beach, June 1Brits on the Bay British Car show, Tidewater Triumph Register,[email protected], 757-721-6732Connecticut, Waterford, Harkness Memorial Park, June 2British Cars by the Sea, Connecticut MG Club, 1-860-693-4249,[email protected] Jersey, Clinton, Red Mill Museum Village, June 24th Annual Britfest, Moss & MG Driver's Club of North America,908-713-6251, mgdriversclub.netNew York, Farmington, Finger Lakes Race Track, June 2Sports Car and Vintage Auto Festival, MG Car Club and Victor LionsClub, 585-234-0482Ohio, Perrysburg, Rte. 65, Fort Meigs, June 2The British Return to Fort Meigs Car Show, Lake Erie British CarClub, 419-855-8567, [email protected], Grand Rapids, June 6-812th Annual Vintage Sports Car Rendezvous, Minnesota AustinHealey Club, 651-388-7377Colorado, Denver, Glenwood Springs June 7 - 950th Annual Rallye, MG Car Club Rocky Mountain CenterOntario, Kingston, June 7-9GOOF 63, Ontario MG 'T' Register,Virginia, Alton, Virginia International Raceway June 7-9Gold Cup Historic Races, 50th anniversary of Austin-Healey, VIRVirginia, Luray, June 7-9Capital Classic 2002, Capital Area AH Club,[email protected], Carson City, 1206 North Nevada Street, June 8Street Meet, Reno MG club, (775)882-9441, [email protected] Carolina, Clemmons, June 8-922nd Annual British Car Days South, The Triad Austin Healey ClubNew York, Great River, Bayard Cutting Arboretum, June 9"The British are Coming!!!", MG Car Club, [email protected], Cincinatti, Ault Park, June 925th Annual Concours D'elegance, (513)321-1361,[email protected], Hellertown, June 9Ninth Annual British Motorcar Gathering, Keystone MG Club, 610 865-3419Ohio, Mid Ohio Race Track, June 13-1650th Anniversary of Triumph, Sports Car Vintage RacingAssociationOhio, Mid Ohio Race Track, June 14-162nd Annual "Spit-Together", NASS, 812-533-1676Maryland, Gaithersburg, Smokey Glen Farm, June 16Original British Car Day, New England MGT Register, 301-831-5300, [email protected]

Wisconsin, Sussex, June 16British Car Field Day, (262) 521-1072, [email protected], Dayton, June 20The Sunbeam Invasion II, Sunbeam Alpine Owners ClubNevada, Lake Tahoe, Horizon Inn, June 23-28OpenRoads 2002 Healey InternationalSouth Carolina, Charleston, June 27- 30Mini Meet East 2002, South Carolina's Ultimate MinisCanada, Halifax, June 298,000 km Canadian Discovery international rally across Canada,fax +1-416-466-3972, [email protected]

JULYNova Scotia, Wolfville, July 1-5Gathering of the Faithful Mk 73, New England MG 'T' Register,[email protected], Grapevine, July 3-611th Annual International Convention of the North American MGBRegister. NAMGBR, [email protected], Staunton, July 3-6, 2002Annual Morgan Sports Car Gathering, Morgan Car Club ofWashington, DC, 410 828-0818, [email protected] Columbia, Kelowna, July 5-7Rally in the Valley 2002, Okanagan British Car ClubPrince Edward Island, South Rustico, July 12-14,British Car Days across the Bridge, British Motoring Association ofPrince Edward IslandIndiana, Indianapolis, July 13London To Brighton Run, British Boots & Bonnets Car Club, 317 887-3867, [email protected], Poplar Grove, Poplar Grove Airport Museum , July 14Vintage Wheels and Wings 2002, Indiana British Car Union, (815)633-2256, [email protected], Cincinnati, Edgewater Sports Park, July 1416th Annual Greater Cincinnati British Car & Motorcycle Show, TheBritish Car Club of Greater Cincinnati, 513 752-8138Ontario, Manchester, July 14The 6th Annual European Interest Car Show, Britania Sports CarCentre (Pickering On), [email protected], 1-877-36-BRITSMinnesota, Redwing, July 16-19Red Wing 2002, Minnesota Triumphs & Vintage Triumph Register,715 425-2580, [email protected], Charlottesville, July 17-21North American MGA Register GT 27, The Central Virginia British Car ClubOntario, Linday, July 21Brits in the ParkConnecticut, Sturbridge, July 26-2830th Anniversary Concours, Jaguar Association of New EnglandIndiana, Howe, Howe Military School, July 27Tea at the Vicarage, Hoosier MGB Club, (260) 665-6476,[email protected], Pasadena, Downs Park, July 27Brits By The Bay, TRiumphs Around the Chesapeake, Ltd.,[email protected], Saugus, July 273rd Annual Cruz In, Bearing Burners Car Club of MA, 781-365-1322, [email protected], Bellevue, July 2714th Annual Western Washington All British Field Meet, Puget Sound British Automotive Society, 425-644-7874California, Ventura, Ventura Harbor Village, July 28The 12th Annual Ventura All-British Car Show, Central CoastBritish Car Club, (805) 482-9636, [email protected] Jersey, Lavallette, Barnegat Bay, July 285th Annual British Car Show, Positive Earth Drivers Club, 732-505-0778, [email protected], Toronto, Glendon College, July 28Annual Glendon Import Invitational Car & Motorcycle Show, MG Car Club of Toronto


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