Works Spitfires

I like this picture of my mate, and his then girlfriend stood next to my TR5. The print got water damaged when our garage roof leaked, and as a result it makes the picture look ancient (it was actually taken in the early 80's).

We have done thousands of motorway miles in our Atlas's (Atlas'i?). Our van was 'uprated' sometime earlier in its life with a 1147 engine, and I changed the diff ratio for a 4.11. It was this van that we nearly managed to complete a RBRR a few years ago (knackered halfshaft bearing 100 miles before the finish). It pulls 60mph on the motorway no problem. We built a 1660 engine for our camper (offset ground crank, TR6 pistons, federal head), changed the diff ratio to 4.11, and added overdrive. That cruises at 65-70mph on the motorway. We go away in it at least a couple of times a year, and it has been to Cornwall several times, Northumberland, Wales, etc.

https://www.canleyclassics.com/?archive=vitesse-rally-car

Clive. I am surprised at your experience with driving Stags. I have found that a well tuned bog standard Stag should pull like a train. I remember reading the Motor magazine back in the early 80's (even though the Stag out of production by then) when they still listed the Stags performance figures in the back alongside all the other cars available then. The overtaking figures were simply amazing, and beating all sorts of current (1980's) exotica. My experience based on owning them, and driving customers examples since they were nearly new is a lot of things conspire to dull there performance, including diff ratio changes, poorly tuned carbs, and dodgy 'modifications', amongst others.

No tuck under on 2B's lifted rear wheel. I'll ask Bill (Bill Bradley)when he next pops in to see progress, but I think by this time (1966 Nurburgring) it had its Chapman strut type rear suspension.

Here you go. Bracket welded to top side of tube, which is normally hidden when valance fitted (which it isn't here as you can see). I think if you simply bolted the spots through the tube they would poke through the valance too much, The brackets bring the spots back about a 1 1/2".

Colin. Its been a few years since I last looked. I'll take a picture for you later.

I got most of the way there a few years ago, but a dodgy repro front wing halted my progress (I have found an original OE one since), and it's sat waiting in the restoration queue since. Most recent picture here;

Mike. Nice. I took this picture of 5B next to TL5 (8166DU) a few years ago.

Mike Many thanks for the above. I have attached a picture of the car after I reinstated the through the valance 576's, and the RMS576 on the roof.

Any of the car I bought from you?

https://www.canleyclassics.com/?archive=blue-prints

It was a green plastic film that was easily pealed off after painting. We still have some NOS bonnet catches somewhere with it on.

Our 59 Herald as far as I can tell has all its original ignition components apart from spark plugs. However for last years RBRR we fitted all NOS ignition components to our GT6 apart from one of those fancy red rotor arms, and a set of new off the shelf Champions. The NOS condenser, contact set, and the rotor arm all failed one after the other. If it aint broke don't fix it!

They were pressed in one of the workshops on site so there was never a problem with monitoring fit, especially as we were probably using more than most back when we were supplying complete overdrive conversions.

We have sourced our clutches from the same supplier now for over ten years, never a problem. However we did occasionally have issues with well known branded types back in the day. All resolved by the manufacture, but problems never the less.

I have been racking my brain trying to remember what else we sold him thirty years ago that we should be thinking of buying back off him.

This is Richard Symonds (ex Classic Components) We sold him some of that stuff back in the 90's. That stilage full of green SD1 steering wheels came from a deal JK did with BL (or Unipart) when they were clearing Canley. JK bought about four lorry loads of stuff, some of which later ended up with Richard. Amongst some stuff I sold Richard were half a dozen cardinal red l/h 2000 MKII early pattern half cloth seats. Thinking who's ever going to need those I let him have them cheap to get rid. Scroll forward some decades to last year, and I'm restoring an important saloon that needs guess what? On the off chance I give Dicky a call, and he still has them, and better still he sells them back to me for what he paid me for them all those years ago on the condition that I buy them all back!

No there was always access to a spare wheel, and they were always carried. The circuit cars had a hinged flap in the rear valance, and the rally cars had a hinged flap in the roof below the rear windoiw.

No the factory circuit cars were only ever 1147cc. However Bill Bradley did go on to race some of these ex factory cars with 1296cc engine's, and in one case a prototype 1493cc.

We (Bill Bradley and myself) regularly have these original magnesium wheels professionally inspected (X ray), and to date only two have failed, but still deemed safe as spares. Not bad from five sets (4 x 4 1/2" sets, and one set of 5 1/2").

Kozo is it? He had some bits for his Spitfire MKIII recently from us.

When we imported ADU 4B back from the USA I applied to the DVLA for the V5 with the supporting paperwork. Imagine my surprise to find out when it came through that the registration had been applied for by a fairly well known character in the Spitfire racing scene back in the 90's, and had been tacked onto a Spitfire 1500 chassis number. This had occurred whilst 4B had been on display in a Swiss motor museum, but 'lost' to the UK experts, and historians at that time (pre Internet of course). Same sort of thing happened with a another well known car (not mine), but in different circumstances. This car had lain undisturbed since its factory days until its restoration in the 90's. When it came to MOT, and tax time it came as a big surprise to find out it wasn't registered to the owner anymore who then had to track down the 'tribute' car, and buy it to reunite the paperwork, with the actual car. Another one of my favorites occurred many years ago when a good friend of mine (who has an inordinate amount of first hand experience of racing/rallying history) and myself went along to a auction to view, and potentially buy a significant ex competition car. We asked to see the provenance only to find some of it consisted of letters, and receipts from the two of us from some years previously for a different car. I could go on (because similar stories surround a good proportion of the significant Triumph identities) , but you get the drift. What I would say is if you are ever in the lucky position of buying an ex factory competition Triumph take a good long look at its provenance. Any gaps in it's history at all, and its probably best to walk away, specially if it appears to have been re-registered in the period 1980 onward. It would be wrong to say that there was any collusion on the part of any organisation that lent any weight to these spurious applications for long dead, or off the radar cars back in the day. Back in the day they might not have had the value, or the interest they seem to have now so it might as have seemed relatively harmless, and as someone once said to me better for these plates to go to someone who is going to do a decent job of recreating these things, than some Tom, Dick or Harry. This subject has always potentially been a festering can of worms, and not peculiar to the Triumph World. Don't take everything you read at face value, don't listen to the keyboard experts, or Johnny come lately historians, do some proper research based on actual paper trails, and first hand experience.