Cars of Coolhaven

A while ago, I shot some pictures of this nice Triumph Spitfire IV at Ter Heijde. Somehow, I have never posted them. Why? I don’t remember, but anyway, here they are!

It is a nice and well-kept little sports car from the seventies. I am quite fond of the little sporty cars England produced decades ago. Unfortunately, this car is not the brilliant looking Mark I, but a 1970-1974 Mark IV. Oh well, it is a nice little thing to throw around on a sunny day, I guess.

From various internet sources:

The Triumph Spitfire was a small British two-seat sports car, introduced in 1962. The vehicle was based on a design produced for Standard-Triumph in 1957 by Italian designer Giovanni Michelotti. The codename for the vehicle was the “Bomb”. The car was largely based on the Triumph Herald small saloon.

The Mark IV originated in the late Sixties, when Triumph requested design consultant Giovanni Michelotti to produce a completely reskinned Spitfire on the existing backbone chassis, retaining the same proportions and as many body panels as possible. As with the TR6, the result was more a major facelift than a completely new design.

Michelotti had proposed flip-up headlamps, but the Mark IV front was like the Mark 3′s aside from a larger grille opening and a recontoured bumper (still the bone in the dog’s teeth) with black guards below it instead of overriders on it. Two-piece fenders were discarded for single units at the front but retained for the rear, which was nicely reshaped along TR6 lines, as was the accessory hardtop.

Other recognition points included GT6-style recessed door handles, reshuffled trim, and on U.S. models, distinct side marker lights as required by law. Inside was the more logically ordered instrument panel first seen on the American-market 1969-70 Mk 3.

The MK IV brought the most comprehensive changes to the Spitfire. It featured a completely re-designed cut-off rear end, giving a strong family resemblance to the Triumph Stag and Triumph 2000 models, both of which were also Michelotti-designed. The front end was also cleaned up, and the doors were given recessed handles. The interior was much improved: a proper full-width dashboard was provided, putting the instruments ahead of the driver rather than over the centre console. The engine continued at 1296 cc, but was modified with larger big-end bearings which somewhat decreased its “revvy” nature; there was some detuning, which resulted in the new car being a little tamer than the MK 3. The gearbox gained synchromesh on its bottom gear.

By far the most significant change, however, was to the rear suspension, which was de-cambered and redesigned to eliminate the unfortunate tendencies of the original swing-axle design. The Triumph GT6 and Triumph Vitesse had already been modified, and the result on all these cars was safe and progressive handling even at the limit.

The Mk IV went on sale in the UK at the end of 1970 with a base price of £735. The good news is that many of these cars are still around, and dirt cheap. It may never be a collector’s item, but the Spitfire will always be hard to beat for low-cost sports-car fun.

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