This 1978 Triumph is just one of the things that popped up on my “Less than $501” Craigslist search. At $500, we’re pretty sure we could get it for $350 or $400, and with the right parts this thing could be a riot. Engine swap it, help out the suspension, and you have a car that is slightly less girly than a Miata and that would haul and be light weight like one. Maybe do an S2000 drivetrain and rear suspension swap on it? That could be cool as hell. We could see ourselves racing it around the autocross, can’t you?
Would you build it into a bad ass handler, or put a 26×8.50 slick under the back and go MX235 or Outlaw 8.5 racing with it? Hmmmm. Turbo LS under the hood could make that fun.
What would you say to some little car like this?
Turbo LS up your ass – a throttle body equipped 2.7 litre TR6 motor and 5 speed Toyota gear box. Narrowed Jaguar XK front and rear suspension and 17 inch MWS split rim wire wheels.
But first of all get it up on a ramp to watch if the chassis falls apart….
If I can fit in it, I would buy it. An Ecotech or Ecoboost engine will wake this lightweight for sure.
As usual, CHMG is spot on, first things first; shove that LS right up the ol’ Hersey Highway, then put a jack under it to see if it folds faster’n an old wallet.
If you pass those two tests, how about a turbo 2.2 Mopar…
Busa engine?
Old SVO 2.3, in my opinion.
I would do what I did to my ’64 MGB, full frame and custom suspension, engine of you choice (I went sbc). LBCs (little british cars) can be a lot of fun with some power.
I had, and miss, an 1971 Spitfire. The cool guy trick is a complete RX7 rotary swap with gear box. A Spitfire handles like it’s glues to the road, and the Rotary swap gives perfect 50/50 balance with ample power.
Brian hit the nail directly on the head. 13B Wankel is all this car needs.
oooo this one brings back some bad memories – and a weird coincidence. Some mates of my brothers drove past our place one night after school in the 70’s in one of these they’d just scored for – wait for it – $350. Sounded healthy but looked `wrong’ til we realised what was missing – no windscreen and hardly anything left of the pillars. So we then learned the back story…One of their neighbours had sold it to them cheap, because her son had rolled it the week before ( hence no windscreen). They both leaned backward to point at the boot lid as if to explain this which is when we saw a series of deep gouges across the bootlid – full of hair, blood and meat. This was where it had slid upside down on the road…..
brick it down a boat ramp
or over a cliff the higher the better
Making a turbo LS / small tire drag car out of this would be pretty sketchy – badly balanced and a very short wheelbase. Probably about as easy to drive as a Fuel Altered, and I have zero illusions that I can drive at Willy Borsch’s level. This one would be better suited to a lightweight motor with a screamingly high redline, set up for autocross or track days.
While a rotary powered Spitfire is very impressive, with today’s engine choices, I’m thinking a built, naturally aspirated Honda K-series is the way to go under the hood. Maybe with a Miata rear suspension transplanted into the back.
Spitfires are only good for one thing ” boatanker” or Lawnornament with the nose burned in the Ground. Same thing goes for other small British cars. I have seen my fair share of rustet out frames and body sagg due to rottet out floors on these. They were rusty straight out the factory, so there is alot of other cars i would rather build.
Reading the slack-jawed abuse hurled at British cars here shows me who the dolts are. My TR6 is a stout survivor with only the slightest of surface rust and it’s generally a well built car with all of its hickies sorted out. It earns the title blokiest bloke’s car for sure.
That said, Ford’s Ecoboost 1 liter 3 cylinder can be had as a crate engine and is good for 120+ hp. It would be perfect in a Spit.
https://jalopnik.com/why-fords-tiny-1-liter-3-cylinder-is-the-future-of-ga-1543662936
I’ve owned a RX7 with a 12a rotary – too thirsty but a ton of fun. Grassroots Motorsports did a rotary Spitfire many years ago then sold it and everyone agreed that it was a game changer of a car, but there’s a lot of drawbacks to running a rotary today.
slack- jawed ? you don’t know what I I have got or what I have done and bangshift is not the place to start debates