Joseph,
I think you've made a wise decision. It's nice to know that you're a doctor
who can use his head. The good news is, even Spitfires that HAVE been
well-maintained don't command a lot on the resale market. You would be
better off to spend $3k or even $3.5k on a car that's been babied and fussed
over by a true Spitfire enthusiast with the time and funds to do things
right. You might even find one for roughly the same price (or maybe a few
bucks more) in much better shape!
You'll know the right one when you see it. Just keep doing your research
and stick around this list. You'll learn more than you ever thought
possible (both good and bad) about Spitfires from some very intelligent
folks!
Best wishes,
Jeff in San Diego
www.ohms.com/spitfire/spitfire.shtml
P.S. Did a fiberglass repair of my transmission cover today. See my
projects page for details.
----- Original Message -----
From: Garner, Joseph P. <JPGarner@UCDavis.Edu>
To: <spitfires@autox.team.net>
Sent: Tuesday, March 14, 2000 12:17 PM
Subject: ... the saga continues
>
> Once again, thank you everyone for all the advice. I think i can summarise
> as follows:
>
> 1. everyone pretty much has raved about how much the love their spitfire,
> and how much they love driving it. I don't need convicing, i think they
are
> the most beautiful car in the world, and having just test driven one ...
> well it was the most fun i've had behind the wheel in a long time!
>
> 2. I have had more mixed opinions on safety. Bu the consensus seems to be
> that being a good driver is going to save your life, having airbags isn't.
I
> couldn't agree more.
>
> 3. I have had very mixed opinions as to reliability in general, and as to
> the value and likely prospects of the car which i described.
>
> So I had a very sleepless night last night, and i came to the following
> conclusions :
>
> 1. i would love to OWN a spitfire. This is what has got me so excited.
> 2. on my salary i cannot afford to OWN one car and USE another. (USDA pays
> better an academic better than in england.. but not much!)
> 3. Therefore i can only afford to OWN a car which i can USE.
> 4. if i was not madly in love with the most wonderful woman in the world,
> who just happened to live in palo alto, I would only USE a car to go to
the
> gym and got to the field station, and for the occasional outing to SF,
> sacramento, or the Yuba.
> 5. and therefore i could afford to OWN and USE a pitfire which needed a
> little TLC
> 6. Fortunately however I AM in love with the most wonderful woman in the
> world. Hurrah!
> 7. In which case I have to own a car which can regularly make it to palo
> alto and back.
>
> So i still had no idea what i was going to do!
>
> So I rang around the specialist garages in the area, and their opinion was
> somewhat in line with the gloomier 25percentile of respondents on the
list.
> None of them would agree to check the car over: they all had a no-spitfire
> policy! But everyone was very friendly, and gave me plenty of advice.
> Namely:
>
> 1. Again, in concensus with opinions on this list they thought that the
test
> drive noises that i described could indicate any or all of: an engine
> screwed over by a bodged smog retro fit; rear bearing that needed
replacing;
> rear transmission that needed replacing; exhaust problems; or major valve
> problems.
>
> 2. They also agreed with opinion here that low use in the last 12 years
> (especially 8 years in storage) was probably a very bad thing. The most
> helpful guy i spoke to (who was actually from near where i grew up in
> england, judging by the accent), was also the most sympathetic to
spitfires
> but he was of the opinion that a car that had stood that long -even if it
> ran now- would need a continuous and severe rebuild over the next few
years
> if it was used at all heavily, and the symptoms i described were the first
> signs of the need for that rebuild.
>
> 3. Certainly, everyone indicated that i would be putting a lot of money
into
> the car and that it was probably not worth the $2000 being asked. The
other,
> really interesting, comment was that the reason none of these garages
would
> take spitfires is that they were notoriously unreliable, but that this
> unreliability was mainly due to years of neglect... i.e. if the car has
been
> well maintained for a long time it is an excellent car, but simply most
> people don't know how to the preventitive maintainence required to avoid
the
> development of these particular unreliabilities.
>
> 4. I actually think the situation may be more subtle: the people who DO
know
> how to maintain these cars rarely if ever take them into the garage (sorry
> that's shop in american). So the garage mechanics really do see a lot of
> very unreliable spitfires... and it really isn't worth their while to work
> on them... but that's because all the reliable spitfires are relible
simply
> because they are being properly maintained by people like yourselves
>
> 5. As to my mental state, opinions ranged from brave... to deranged.
>
> I think this latest bout of fact-finding may have put me off this
PARTICULAR
> spitfire... but i'm still thinking about it... i'll keep you posted!
>
> cheers
>
> Joe
> ___________________________
>
> Dr. Joseph Garner
> University of California
> Department of Animal Science
> One Shields Avenue
> Davis
> CA 95616
> USA
>
> Phone: (530) 754 5291
>
> >
>
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