Spitfire

A Sprite Fighter From the Parts Bin

Standard-Triumph began the car in 1957 under the code name Bomb, to answer the Austin-Healey Sprite. Where the Sprite borrowed Austin sedan running gear, Triumph took the separate backbone frame of its Herald, shortened it, removed the outer rails and rear outriggers, and built structural sills into the body to recover the stiffness. Giovanni Michelotti, who had styled the Herald, drew the body, with a one-piece front that tilted forward for engine access. Financial trouble at Standard-Triumph stalled the project; Wikipedia records that after Leyland Motors took the company over, its officials found Michelotti's prototype under a dust sheet in a corner of the factory and approved it. The car was shown in October 1962 and reached American showrooms as a 1963 model with a 1,147 cc four, twin SU carburetors and 63 hp.

Five Versions, Two Markets

The Mk II of 1965 brought a few more horsepower and carpet in place of rubber mats. The Mk III, which reached US roads in 1967, took the 1,296 cc engine and 75 hp, a proper folding top, and a front bumper raised to meet bumper-height rules; Hagerty calls it the most powerful Spitfire sold here. From 1969 the US car was federalized: compression dropped to 8.5:1, output to a quoted 68 hp, and the instruments moved in front of the driver. The 1970 US cars carried a one-year Spitfire badge over an RAF roundel. Michelotti's Mk IV followed for the 1971 model year with a cut-off tail, a hood without seams along the fenders, and in North America a single Zenith-Stromberg carburetor that Moss Motors says left the engine under 50 hp.

The Swing Axle Question

The Herald's rear suspension came along unchanged: swing axles located by a transverse leaf spring, with a universal joint only at the differential. Pushed hard into a corner, the rear could jack into extreme positive camber and the inside tire tuck under, the source of the car's reputation for sudden oversteer. The fix was cheap. For the Mk IV only the bottom leaf was clamped to the differential and the rest of the stack could pivot, an arrangement Triumph called the swing spring. The 1500 added longer axles, a lower spring mount for more negative camber and a wider track. When Road & Track tested nine showroom-stock sports cars in April 1973, all on 165-section radials, the GT6 set the fastest lap and the Spitfire was judged the most fun to drive.

Federal Years

For the United States the 1,493 cc engine arrived for the 1973 model year, two years before Britain, in Mk IV bodywork with 1500 badges and FM-prefix commission numbers. It traded revs for torque: a single Zenith-Stromberg, compression cut to 7.5:1 for unleaded fuel (9.1:1 for 1976 only, per Wikipedia), and an official 57 hp that Hagerty points out was an SAE net figure. A better-shifting single-rail gearbox came in 1975. Bumper law then reshaped the car: large overriders on the chrome bumpers, and for 1979 and 1980 one-piece black rubber bumpers built to the five-mile-per-hour standard. Commission numbers gave way to VIN-format numbers late in 1979 at US insistence.

An American Car Built in Coventry

Of the first 100,000 Spitfires, completed in February 1968, 45 percent went to the United States. A researcher who worked from the build records at Gaydon puts total US deliveries at 139,719. Moss Motors says the Spitfire outsold the Midget and Sprite every year except 1969, when a strike cut Triumph's output, and it won SCCA national championships in F and G Production. Production ended at Canley in August 1980. The Vintage Triumph Register blames British Leyland management, US safety and emissions rules, and the exchange rate. The last car built, an Inca Yellow home-market car with hardtop and overdrive, was never sold to the public and sits in the British Motor Museum.

The 1,147 and 1,296 cc engines are sturdy, with one known weakness: crankshaft thrust washers, the same issue as the TR6, named by Moss Motors, Hagerty and Classic Motorsports alike. Smoke, low oil pressure and a clatter at startup point to bearings, and Hagerty stresses the correct oil filter with a non-return valve. The 1,493 cc engine has a weaker record; Wikipedia calls it rough and more prone to failure, and Hagerty notes ring and crankshaft wear. Its gearbox has the better reputation, though careless engagement of reverse on the 1975-80 single-rail box damages the teeth and can take the layshaft and synchros with it. The front trunnions wear quickly without regular lubrication, and a UK specialist sells a conversion that eliminates them. Rear wheel bearings, leaf springs, lower ball joints, rear U-joints and bushings all wear, and Moss Motors says to expect a full suspension and driveline rebuild. A whine from the rear can simply be low differential oil. Overdrive solenoids fail. Zenith-Stromberg idle and flat-spot complaints are often a split diaphragm or an empty dashpot. Electrical faults are usually frayed wiring and corroded grounds. Whether the frame itself rots is a point the sources do not agree on: Hagerty includes the backbone chassis among the rust areas, while a British specialist quoted by Hagerty UK says the chassis does not tend to rot and the sills and floors do.

Rust decides the car, and it can be anywhere. Hagerty lists sills, fender arches, trunk floors, main floors, the cowl, the windshield frame and the backbone frame. Classic Motorsports adds front floor pans rotted by water leaking in around the master cylinder openings, and says rot at the bottom of the windshield frame on Mk IV and 1500 cars is hard and expensive to repair. A sagging door can be worn hinge pins or a rotten lower A-post. The sills are structural, standing in for the Herald's outriggers, so the quality of any sill repair matters more than on most cars. On 1971 and later cars the frame extensions to the rear bumper are open ended and collect water. The tilting front end is easily damaged, so panel gaps and kinks in the frame ahead of the suspension towers tell a story. On the engine, fore-and-aft play at the crank pulley means thrust washers; Classic Motorsports puts ideal end float at 0.006 inch. Reverse gear teeth on the 1975-80 single-rail box are often chipped. The commission plate states what the car was: FK for a US 1300, FM for a US 1500, U for US specification, UC for California, O for overdrive. Paint codes went from numbers to three letters in March 1977, so Pimento Red is 72 or CAB, Carmine Red 82 or CAA, Java Green 85 or HAB and Inca Yellow 94 or FAB. On year, Moss Motors names the 1973 1500 as a favored model, while Hagerty finds little value spread across versions. On cost, Hagerty put a full interior refurbishment under $2,000 and a wood dash at $240 in 2025, and Moss Motors quoted a gearbox rebuild under $500 in 2009.

As of September 2026, classic.com gives an average Triumph Spitfire sale price of $10,120, and its recent US results bracket that figure: a 1966 Mk II sold for $12,000 in New Hampshire on August 21, 2026, and a 1979 car for $4,200 in Bend, Oregon, on August 19, 2026, while another 1979 car went unsold in Idaho that week. The lowest result it records is $100 for a 1971 car in December 2025, a parts-car price. Hagerty's 2025 buyer's guide, read as of September 2026, placed condition 2 (excellent) cars at $16,600 to $17,400 and condition 3 (good) cars at $7,300 to $8,200, and said all versions sit within a thousand or two dollars of each other, with a show car or low-mileage original stretching past $20,000 but not by much. Rare colors, a factory hardtop and overdrive carry a premium. The auction record at the top is thin: RM Sotheby's offered a restored and modified 1974 Spitfire 1500, chassis FM16659U, at its Open Roads online sale in March 2021 at a $25,000-$30,000 estimate and it did not sell, and a 1970 car estimated at $8,000-$12,000 went unsold at RM's Santa Monica sale in 2016. Neither lot page gives a high bid. classic.com mixes UK results in pounds with US results; only the dollar results are used here.