At the moment, this page is really just an excuse to show a few pictures of Carly, my Triumph Spitfire 1500. A brief history of her life is as follows:
11th November, 1977
Date of first registration of Triumph Spitfire 1500 "Sports Coupé" in Inca Yellow, with black vinyl trim, registration number DHO36S. Chassis number FH1056710; Engine number FM091395HE. Registered by Henlys (South West) Ltd., of Salisbury, Wiltshire, on behalf of its first owner, a Mr. Lewis, also of Salisbury. Retail price in March of that year (without a hard-top) was £2359.00.
17th September, 1980
Car sold by Mr. Lewis to Miss Crosse, also of Salisbury.
1st April, 1983
Car sold by Miss. Cross to Mr. Capon, also of Salisbury
24th June, 1985
Car sold by Mr. Capon to Mrs. Barglowski, of Bournemouth
20th March, 1987
Car sold by Mrs. Barglowski to Mr. Crump, of Taunton.
3rd October, 1987
Car sold by Mr. Crump to Mr. Bankhurst, of Grimsby
10th June, 1990
Car sold by Mr. Bankhurst to Mr. Groom, of Nottingham
18th July, 1990
Car sold by Mr. Groom to Miss Cowley, of Nottingham
27th July, 1991
Miss Cowley moved to Hythe.
7th February, 1994
MOT tested, recorded mileage: 3008.
16th February, 1994
Car sold by Miss. Cowley to Mr. Hayward, of Canterbury
7th August, 1994
Car and two spare wings sold by Mr. Hayward to Mr. Harvey, of Dover, for £750.00.
20th August, 1994
Mr. Harvey notified DVLA of his purchase of the car, and also pointed out that the engine had been replaced with engine number YC49683HEA (an identical engine to that originally fitted, but actually taken from a Triumph Dolomite 1500HL, c.1978). It is not known when the engine was replaced, or by whom, but Mr. Harvey religiously kept copies of all invoices, and an engine-swap is not mentioned in any of these. Logically, therefore, the work was probably done during the brief ownership of Mr. Hayward.
24th February, 1995
Car serviced by Halfords in Dover, recorded mileage: 7193.
29th March, 1995
MOT tested, recorded mileage: 7295.
25th April, 1995
Engine stripped, crankshaft reground, new con-rod fitted, new bearing shells fitted, rebuilt.
19th March, 1996
MOT tested, recorded mileage: 9413.
12th October, 1996
Mr. Harvey moved to Milton Keynes
10th May, 1997
MOT tested, recorded mileage: 10585.
12th May, 1999
MOT tested, recorded mileage: 10911.
4th May, 2000
MOT tested, recorded mileage: 11222.
27th January, 2001
MOT tested, recorded mileage: 11409.
10th February, 2001
Car sold by Mr. Harvey to me, in Bedford, for £1300.00.
5th March, 2001
Car serviced by Ives Garage of Bedford. Recorded mileage: 11839.
5th November, 2001
Engine stripped: pistons, rings, shells replaced, engine rebuilt. Recorded mileage: 15235. Everything else still looked fine - and so it should, less than 8,000 miles after the last engine rebuild.
24th January, 2002
MOT tested, recorded mileage: 15709.
12th February, 2002
Car valued by TSSC at £3,600.00.
The longest time any one owner has kept the car was 6½ years; the shortest was a little over a month. The car lived in the West Country, on the South coast, in the North of England, and in the Midlands, before coming to East Anglia. It has been owned by men and women, married and unmarried, by people who did less than 200 miles a year, and by people who did many thousands of miles a year. If you are one of these previous owners, I'd be delighted to hear from you. Please feel free to e-mail me. The engine has been replaced once, and rebuilt twice since that replacement. The car is now worth more than it has ever been worth in the past.
The background to this page is approximately Inca Yellow, the colour of my car. Inca Yellow was first introduced as a Spitfire colour option in 1977, under the paint code "94" - this code was changed to the much-more-appropriate "FAB" in 1978.
"Sitting in the morning sun..."
(Otis Redding, 1966)
A cleverly-posed picture with glare obscuring the rust on the leading edge of the bonnet, and deep shadow hiding the rust at the bottom of the front wing.
Nice, though, isn't she?
"No colours any more, just want to paint it black..."
(Mick Jagger, 1966)
The interior of a C11-trim car. Very, very black, with the houndstooth cloth seat inserts adding a touch of contrast. The real wood dashboard is an original feature. The "go-faster" gear-knob and steering wheel are courtesy of the previous owner. :-(
Nice, though, isn't she?
"One pill makes you larger..."
(Grace Slick, 1966)
In here I've got two boot tidies (purchased from the Triumph Sports Six Club), which fit over the wheel arches, and hold practically nothing, plus a whole load of stuff that must dramatically increase my fuel consumption! The umbrella goes without saying for an English gentleman...
Nice, though, isn't she?
Wallpaper
"Fly a Spitfire today!"
Here's a daft piece of 1024x768 Spitfire wallpaper for you to download.
Double-click on the
thumbnail and select "Save this file to Disk". Place the file in your
C:\Windows directory to make it available as wallpaper, under the title flyaspit.
Spitfire Diary
So much has happened since I bought Carly that I thought I had better keep a diary. Follow this link to learn of the trials and tribulations of running a 1977 Spitfire in 2001. Included is a complete list of all spares orders I have placed, and subjective evaluations of the price and quality of the goods and of the quality of the suppliers. If you are planning to use any of these people, it might be worth your while taking a quick look at this...
Tools
The other day I made the mistake of asking the Spitfire mailing list what basic tools I should carry in my Spitfire. Follow this link to read a summary of the fifty-plus responses I received!
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This page has been designed and is maintained by Michael Hargreave Mawson. If you have any queries or comments about it, please contact me.
Last updated by Michael Hargreave Mawson on the 16th of February, 2002
Copyright © 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 Michael Hargreave Mawson
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