Joe Guinan
751 N. Lincoln Ave.
Fremont, NE  68025
Email me at:
[email protected]
My Triumph Spitfire "1500"
Welcome! This site was created to give me a place to show off my Triumph Spitfire.  The photo at left is my 1980 Spitfire "1500" - somewhat as she looks today.  The photos below show the car as it was purchased (by my "car partner" Deb Lampe and I) from my friend Sterling West.  The body was completely rust free - which is unusual for these cars.  I understand that "Russet Brown" cars have far less rust problems than cars with any other paint color.  Why? Guesses range from an odd quality in the paint for that color to wondering if it's because people were just too embarassed to drive the brown ones very much...  The paint on the bonnet and boot lid had "crazed", the bumpers had faded, and there were a couple of small dents in the doors.  The soft top and the seat covers were bad. The wheel centers and trim rings  were missing, and the wheels were the wrong size - 4.5 inches instead of the correct 5.0 size.  The engine ran "ok" but it had a slight rattle on start up and would die when it got warm under the hood.  Of course the rear end sagged and the speedometer didn't work - common problems on Spitfires.  Still, the car was fun to drive and got a lot of "looks' from other folks on the road.
Here is the car shortly after purchase.  By this time Deb and I had put a new soft top on the car, installed some fake lambs wool seat covers, and cleaned it up.  The engine had been given a bottom end rebuild and a tune-up.  A new electronic ignition module took care of the tendency for the engine to die,a new rear spring fixed the rear-end sag, and a new cable got the speedometer working again.  At this point, she was running pretty well, and looked good enough to keep us satisfied.  We enjoyed a few nice drives.  Until...
..."Lift-Throttle Oversteer" on a gravel road got Deb in trouble one morning.  The car spun into a ditch and had almost come to a stop when it rolled over on it's raised soft-top.  Deb managed only a small cut on her head, but it always amazes me how much a head cut will bleed.  Xrays of her head showed nothing in it. Heh, heh... :-)  The car was pretty beat up though. It didn't help that the wrecker operator pulled it back upright on the OTHER side of the car.  The little brown lump of a car sat in Deb's barn for a few years, before I decided to go ahead and have it repaired.
Fixed! Wheels Header Wreck Wreck Repairs
Firewall Air Dam Dellortos Roll Bar
My Favorite Links:
NASS The North American Spitfire Squadrons' free site.
NASS HQ
The site for NASS "Members".  Great archives!
Spitfire & GT6 Magazine
Great Magazine, Fantastic Bulletin Board!
Broken Drum Racing Team My friend Rod Chvatla and I got bitten by the racing bug.  Racing is like a boken drum. You can't beat it!
My Friends' Spitfire Sites:
Howard Baugues' Pages A great guy and many good links!
Mike Nelson's Pages
A local "Spit Head" who got me autocrossing!
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