----- Original Message -----
From: Michael Hargreave Mawson <OC@46thFoot.com>
>
> That is my experience too. Mind you, I've yet to meet an owner of a
> wire-wheel-equipped car who would happily be without the feature either.
Well you've met one now!
Wire wheels are an absolute maintenance nightmare. They were a real pain to
clean on my MG BGT, the added weakness of the short Triumph splines makes them
quite undesirable on an everyday car. And yes, I do currently have a Triumph
equipped with wires - I'm debating at the moment on whether to keep them.
> What I am getting at is the fact that overdrive was (and is) an optional
> extra (however desirable), and that when one is trying to run an old car
> on a tight budget, spending money on optional extras is possibly not the
> most far-sighted decision one could make, even if these extras didn't
> add to the list of potential problems.
If it's a choice between making a Spitfire more driveable as an everyday car
versus buying an additional vehicle (or even a REPLACEMENT vehicle), then it
makes perfect budgetary sense to spend a few hundred pounds on the overdrive
conversion. In real terms it will make the car more economical which is another
budgetary offset.
> I also have a theory that
> within, say, ten or twenty years, there won't be a single example of an
> original, non-OD, Spitfire left on the road, which would be a great
> pity.
Indeed, but by the same measure there will be no pre-1964 cars left without the
(optional) seatbelts fitted, because owners felt the need to make their cars
more practical :-)
I like original cars, but I would rather see them being used than being laid up
because their owners considered them unsafe or impractical,
Cheers,
Bill.
--
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