1964 Triumph Spitfire 4 Project Car

Styling by Geovanni Michelotti

Above is what I'm hoping my car will look like when the project is complete During the months ahead, I plan to begin the process of tearing this car (see below) apart to perform a complete restoration, hoping to have it on the road for the 50th Anniversary of the Triumph Spitfire. I believe the original color of this car was Powder Blue, but I plan to paint it British Racing Green. A little bit of Spitfire history: The Spitfire 4 (Mk1) was the very first British car I had the opportunity to ride in during the late 1960's when a college friend of my sister's brought her home from school one weekend. When he noticed that I was spending a lot of time looking at the car, he offered me a ride. I thought it was the coolest car I had ever seen in person, and even cooler to ride in! Since that ride, I have been hooked on British cars, and I have always appreciated the early Spitfire design work by Italian designer, Geovanni Michelotti. The Spitfire body style was designed for Standard-Triumph by Michelotti during the late 1950's, but due to the British economy at the time, the company had to pospone production. The initial design was code named the "Bomb." The first production version was finally introduced to the public as the "Spitfire 4" during October of 1962 as a brand new 1963 model. My car that you see on this web site was manufactured during 1964. The Triumph Spitfire was a very popular sports car because it was very attractive, inexpensive, handled well, and was a lot of fun to drive. It had more modern features than its competitors, including front disc brakes, roll-up windows, and a peppy 4-cylinder engine that created more BHP than its closest rival, the Austin-Healey Sprite. The Spitfire also had a very impressive racing history among amateures and professionals alike, which helped drive healthy sales in the United States. In 1965, the Triumph Spitfire (special hard top version) won its category at the prestious Le Mans 24 hour endurance race. In fact, even today you'll find Spitfires racing at the many vintage racing events taking place annually around the country. Early Spitfires have become relatively rare because the original owners of the day drove them for fun and every day transportation, and they had very little interest in preserving them. When the car became too rusty and couldn't be driven anymore, the owners would often roll it to an out of the way place where it would continue to rot, and would eventually end up in a scrap yard. Oxidation was a significant problem with these cars. It has been said that after transportation on ships from the UK to the US (salty Atlantic Ocean air), cars would show up at dealerships with early stages of rust forming. This oxidation also affected the electrical connections, which would give owners fits. Fortunately, today these problems are a thing of the past, and cars that have been restored or perserved, are very reliable. Triumph Spitfire production began during late 1962 and ended sometime during 1980. If you have an interest, be sure to keep an eye on this website. I'll do my best to keep you up to date on this project.