Triumph Spitfire

Start with what the Triumph Spitfire is: a 2-seat drophead coupé with 1147 cc OHV Standard SC engine I4, built from 1962 to 1980, in the decade that gave the world the pony car and the mid-engined supercar. What it meant takes a little longer. The shape is credited to Giovanni Michelotti.

Where it came from

The Triumph Spitfire is a British sports car manufactured over five production iterations between 1962 and 1980. Styled for Standard-Triumph in 1957 by Italian designer Giovanni Michelotti, the Spitfire was introduced at the London Motor Show in 1962. It was manufactured at the Standard-Triumph Canley works, with approximately 315,000 produced over 18 years.

Developed on a shortened variant of the Triumph Herald saloon's chassis, the Spitfire shared the Herald's running gear and Standard SC engine. The design used body-on-frame construction, augmented by structural components within the bodywork and rear trailing arms attached to the body rather than the chassis. A manually deployable convertible top, substantially improved on later models, provided weather protection and a bespoke hard-top was available as a factory option. The model was named after the famed Supermarine Spitfire fighter plane of World War II.

Under the skin

The engine is 1147 cc OHV Standard SC engine I4. On the scales it comes to 1568 to. Drive goes through a 4-speed manual with optional overdrive on top and third from 1963 onwards. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 83 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.

In context

In the Triumph line-up the Triumph Spitfire has a clear place: the factory was Canley, Coventry. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Alfa Romeo Giulia, the Ferrari 250 GTO, the Maserati Quattroporte. Nearby in the Triumph catalogue sit the Triumph SD2 and the Triumph Renown.

Owning one today

MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Triumph Spitfire has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.