I think a caution should accompany the video link above, some of the comments posted are really nasty….

I also see his age variously reported from between 72 to 80; personally I wouldn’t read anything into his age, as apart from having been a flyer since 14, whomever did his medical knew he was a racer, not some old boy doing circuits in his stearman.

He says in the video that they cut off 10 ft of wing, and the landing speed is more akin to a mig 17/21! and uses a form of evaporative cooling, hence theres no dog house, just a couple of round holes for the steam to exit.

He also said that the modified canopy, meant that the pilots head was virtually touching the top.

Triumph Spitfire, stays truthful to the original concept in at least one area, it retains the inward retracting U/C……

Knifeedge: I know that the REAL Spitfire had outward retracting gear (called undercarriage in my pre-C130 days!)

You were right about the Trumf Spit/Herald/etc gear swinging inwards when ‘raised’ by the suspension system – damn near had a nasty in mine!
Awful car – haven’t had a drive in an E-Type or a Lightning, although I fancy the ‘E’ handled a tad better than a Herald 😮

Yes your right about the “real” Spitfire’s undercart, I could have said Hurricane, as a company called Hurricane made a very nice body to replace the spitfire’s own, but it seemed more appropriate to link the two “spitfires”.

A road test at the time said that it had the unique ability to go from negative camber to positive camber almost instantly, having driven them I can concur.

I’ve driven almost every car from the ’60’s, I still cant think of one that had decent brakes; the big problem with drum brakes, was brake fade, compounded by an almost weekly requirement to adjust them, leaky wheel cylinders, and no telling which way they would pull the car (on the first application).

Quite a few harsh comments here r.e the Etype, I suspect those who drove it, and didn’t like it, expected far more than could be bought for £2k, had they have driven an Aston or Ferrari, they would have reached the conclusion that, the Etype was much the same, in terms of speed, stopping and rusting, but a fraction of the price; those of us that still have one, will have to content ourselves, with very reasonable resale prices, should we be too disappointed……

wonder if they would have allowed it if they’d discovered they were only heralds realy !!:confused:

probably , the herald was better looking !!

Triumph Spitfire, stays truthful to the original concept in at least one area, it retains the inward retracting U/C……

Brakes on an Etype are fairly awful by modern standards, but any one who had a Mini, or an Anglia, 100E, or for that matter a Cortina, all of which are contempories of the Jag, (and none of which could top the ton) will appreciate how good the brakes were then.

Whilst I do enjoy the challenge of Lotus ownership, they should never be mentioned in the same sentence as a Jag when the word reliability is also present.

BTW which Elan was it with the Climax engine?

you can take tablets for that nowadays. I’m led to believe

I thought that the tablets helped you get the gear up, but once up, it wouldn’t come down again for several hours, (even when you’d lost interest in “the job in hand”) or is that a different med?

That’s a big access panel for the radio set, I know the old valve radios were large, but that looks as though a complete radiogram is fitted; does the turntable play ok when taxiing?

“Technically of course the two words are correct for what they describe”

Reminds me of another thread recently closed!

I fixed it for you. 😀

Thanks……. although Wiki says English (Hawaiian)

With regard to language, if you want to muck around with it, get your own; like Latin, English is an established language, it doesn’t matter how many people mis spell or mis pronounce it, it wont change (innit)

BTW I hear the Australians are considering dropping French and German, in favour of Chinese, on the basis that much of the anticipated future trade will take place with them, and very little between Europe and themselves; best of luck with that!

“I told you they was organised”