The main difference between the Spitfire and the MGB, is the MGB is a
bigger more expensive car when new. A Spitfire has a solid backbone
plus it's sills for strength, where as the MGB uses most of the body
pannels. The Spitfire chassis dosen't rust realy from engin back, but
the sill's are vonerable. Some people just patch over them, so watch
out.
There is also a lot of snobbery involved in both car's, I would ignore
both element's, you can have fun in both car's. I have not owned a MGB,
but any car with wings atached to the front of the car looses as far as
accesabitily is concerned.
Don't wory about the Spitfire engin, althogh the bearings and thrust
washers are not bomb proof, it's said that you can chaing them without
taking the engin out. The Midget 1500 uses the Spifire engin, but it's
got less proformance because of space restrictions. Bots would do well
from a tubular manifold, and electric fan conversion, removing the old
engin driven fan.
The other car's you might consider are a Midget, or a TR6-7. Realy you
should compair the MGB to the TR serise, and the Spitfire to the Midget,
it was a competitor after all. The MGB uses a B serise block, a bit
boring. The Midgets other than the 1500 use a A serise engin. This I
have driven, I had a 1275 A+ engin, mildy better tune factory than
standad, and this engin I don't like, there is now power low down, and
not much high up. The 1500 at least have a nice wide power range.
Take them all out for a test drive, and before you descide take into
account any mod's that have been made. Drive a couple of each car, and
think which would be better for crusing at dusk, or winding about the
streets.
If you drive a Spitfire with heavy steering then, that is not right.
They are suposed to have steering lighter than most power assisted
cars. With a 24 foot turing circle, they are grate for getting into
parking place that no other car can.
Ignore any comment's about the handeling beeing erratic, the 1500 and
MK4 don't suffer from this, unless the suspension is realy warn in which
case some bushes will soon get it behaving it's self. (Good way to get
the price down) As for the Spifire 4, Mk2 and Mk3, they can be
converted to the later type, with ease if you wan't. The Mk3 is
recogised to have the most tunable engin, but the tourque of the 1500 is
better for crusing.
--
James Carpenter
Yellow '79 spit wired by a trained marmot
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