Spit spare wheel safety feature.

[AlanT]

I had a visit from Steve Morris of Spitfirespares the other day. He mentioned that he’d scrapped several rear end shunted Spits where the spare wheel had acted as a shock absorber, moving the force to the raised chassis section instead of the tank. Wheels jammed into boots. Said never drive a Spit without one…as I’ve been doing as have Slot Mags…old wheel now in boot! 
Thought worth sharing.

Alan

[Adrian Cooper]

This is excellent advice Alan, thank you for sharing. The mechanic who mentioned this to me also stressed the importance of having the spare wheel bolted to the floor too.

On the very early Spitfires, the petrol tank pipe exits underneath the tank and this was changed to exiting from the top with the Mk3? When our cars were new the bottom connection was fine because the narrow, original tyres were small enough to pass under the petrol pipe in any rear impact. On my Mk2, with its modern, wider profile tyres, in a rear end impact there would be a real danger of the tyre being pushed forward and 'collecting' the petrol pipe on its way to banging up against the chassis. To reduce this risk I placed a thick rubber block between the tyre and the front of the boot wall, beneath the fuel tank, limiting the chance of the tyre coming into contact with the petrol pipe.

Adrian

[NonMember]

52 minutes ago, Adrian Cooper said:

this was changed to exiting from the top with the Mk3?

No, the Mk3 was still a bottom outlet, changed on Mk4.