Well we ran into a little problem with the Spitfire this weekend. My 18yo
son drives it (hard and far) every day and it blew a head gasket. I wasn't
sure if this was going to be the only problem, but had it towed over to an
LBC mechanic buddy of mine's house. I don't mind doing frame off
restorations on a TR3 working for years, but I don't have the time to fix
the Spit when it needs to get driven every day. Anyway, he happens to have a
pretty darn nice 73 Spit sitting in his driveway. A customer moved out of
state and left it for him to sell for $2500. He's been driving it a couple
of weeks and calls it a good driver (that's a lot from this bloke). No rust.
No top .. the PO kept it in a garage and only used it for nice weather
driving.. does have toneau.
Anyway, I found myself hoping that something bad had happened to the engine
of my current Spit. I'd have had no choice but to just buy that one.
ESPECIALLY because being a 73 it's exempt from smog.. so I'd just swap my
weber, O/D, add exhaust... one of these days my son might actually consider
it a "real" car...
But... the damn mechanic found nothing else wrong... fixed that and a good
1/2 dozen other things on my "to do" list for $400 total incl. parts... no
complaints, except it's amazing that in a few short hours I was so easily
and so happily imagining a 3rd Triumph somehow squeezed into the "estate?".
Most of me thinks I'd be happier a couple of years down the road if I paid
no attention to the short term cheap fix but just bought another one for the
helluvit. I think it's time to up the medication again.
Dave Moag
62 TR3B
77 Spitfire
95 Q45 (holds entire knock down engine hoist in the inside cabin)
73 Spit... so close and yet so far...
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