• Hey Guest!
    British Car Forum has been supporting enthusiasts for over 25 years by providing a great place to share our love for British cars. You can support our efforts by upgrading your membership for less than the dues of most car clubs. There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Upgraded members don't see this banner, nor will you see the Google ads that appear on the site.)
Tips
Tips

Spitfire Quirks

Share this page

Don_R

Don_R

Jedi Warrior
Country flag
Offline
My truck was hit broadside 3 weeks ago. Have been forced to use the Spitfire as a daily driver since..
It is amazing the little things that you find having to use a 40 year old car so much. Like the way the soft top leaks in the rain, the wiper switch that turns in its housing or the way that the middle fuse likes to screw up on your way to nightshift.

But **** its a fun car to drive...
 
Consider this the shake-down stage, Don. You can fix about all of the "little things" except the leak. The English engineers went thru a lot of time and effort to get those leaks to work properly, y'know.
 
DrEntropy said:
Consider this the shake-down stage, Don. You can fix about all of the "little things" except the leak. The English engineers went thru a lot of time and effort to get those leaks to work properly, y'know.
Click to expand...

:highly_amused: Untold engineering hours went into determining the EXACT location for the leak to occur to cause the maximum amount of irritation to both driver and passenger with the minimum amount of expense to Triumph!! LOL
 
doc,
drove home in a downpour laughing the whole time. top don't snap cause it shrunk but I'll drive it anywhere. it has been a very reliable car
 
I drove my old 1500 as a daily driver while in college. I put probably 60,000 miles on the old girl and she ran great most of the time.
 
In high school and college I had the fortune/mis-fortune to be driving a very tired 62 TR3-B. I remember thinking how great it was the day I got a new top and side windows. No more drowning in the car. Wrong! The side skirts would move outward with increrasing speed and the "new top" was so tight it actually lifted the windscreen enough for water to make it under the frame. After one or two dowsings I found that I could stay drier by leaving the top and windows off and just driving faster. Miss those days.
 
I drove my 78 Spit from Indiana, PA to my girlfriend's house in late October a few years ago. She lived in Silver Spring, Md. It was damp and cold in Indiana, snowy and icy going down Cresson mountain near Altoona, and raining from Bedford on. Stayed dry until Frederick, Md when a truck in the slow lane sped up next to me making it hard to pass in a driving rain and blasting the nose of the car with the water that the front wheels of the truck were pounding through. That's when the seal on the top of the windsheild gave up and started leaking. My girlfriend took one look at me and asked why I had a soaked lap before she would hug me. Upon being told I had brought the Spit she was totally dumbfounded... "Why the **** did you drive that here in this weather!?!!" Was still a really fun ride.
 
For several years my '64 Spitfire was my daily driver. What fun. One day the throttle cable broke. I was able to get some cord and drove the short way home with a hand throttle. It was a year or two before I got a top. If I drove quickly enough I didn't too wet. In the winter if I used the tonneau, there was so much heat coming from the engine through the rotted transmission cover I cold wear a cap and a sweatshirt and I was plenty warm.
 
Back
Top