2023 Update

The reader would be forgiven for thinking I'd been crushed beneath my Spitfire in the driveway almost a decade ago, but the truth is that I got her on the road about on schedule, and enjoyed driving her for several years.  We had to tow her home once for what turned out to be a loose wire in the ignition system, but otherwise she was a pretty dependable car, if a bit loose and prone to leaving a trail of rust flakes and oil drips in her wake.  

I had her all the way up to the Continental Divide (over 10,000 feet, or 3,050 meters) on one memorable occasion, and she behaved herself admirably for that drive and most others.  Then there came a hydraulic problem with the clutch that I couldn't seem to solve... and a divorce....

I managed to roll-start and dry-shift the Spitfire to my new home in 2017.  The next year, I spotted an ad for a very nice orange 1974 Spitfire 1500 with a stuck engine, but no serious rust.  I purchased that car for $800, and began the slow, intermittent process of making one really great car out of the bits of the two.  The original carmine red Spit was sold as a rolling shell with the bad engine from the new car, and after a couple years on hiatus, I'm back at work on the engine swap.  An interior refresh awaits after that.

The goal is to have her on the road again by next spring, 2024 - if not sooner.