TRIUMPH SPITFIRE MKIII
RUN BY Julian Balme OWNED SINCE 1967
Sentimentality is a dreadful thing. It turns sane, rational people into hopeless lost causes – or, in my case, an accountant’s worst nightmare. Not for me the family blown Bentley 4½ or Bug Type 35 – I inherited a modest, mass-produced ragtop from Coventry. When my mother passed away in ’06 I was bequeathed her car, a MKIII Spitfire that she had owned from new and used pretty much every day until the last six months of her life. Much as I liked the idea of my mum driving the diminutive Triumph, I couldn’t really see myself in it. Like an embarrassing number of men, I considered it – wait for it – a bit of a ‘hairdresser’s car’ and I thought I’d end up moving it on.
Of course, the minute I was confronted with it, the memories came flooding back. Such as the first time I rode in it home from Padstow in Cornwall, aged 10. Dad and I had gone down there on the Thursday in his car, leaving mum to pick up her new, special-factoryorder-black convertible on the Saturday, whereupon she would ‘run it in’ on her solo trek to the West Country. Or travelling back from school trying to mimic her by steering the car with the passenger grabhandle. Or witnessing her one and only competition win at Woburn in a club hillclimb, where she landed the dubious title of Fastest Lady on the Hill. I learnt to drive in it and, once finally qualified, was let loose in it on my own, only to discover all about the limitations of rear-axle location.
After her death I found myself using ‘The Bird’, as she called it, quite a lot. With good fuel economy, small size and with the option of putting the hood down, it was fun and perfect for running errands in and around town, along with small road trips.
If anyone is to blame for my decision to restore the car, it’s the French. I drove the Spitfire to the Le Mans Classic in 2014, whereupon it was totally reinvented for me. The reaction to it from the locals was fantastic. Forget grey Porsche 911s, the MKIII was considered just as chic and more unique. A clip of Jean-luc Godard’s film Weekend, shown in an exhibition at the V&A, cemented the deal. Halfway through the trafficjam scene is a MKIII Spit on wires. Job done, and all common sense promptly left the building.
I wish I could say the Spitfire was totally original and had never been repainted, but just keeping it going had given way to a number of nasty repairs in the ’70s. As the classic-car craze gathered momentum, mum had it ‘restored’ in the early ’80s. Sadly, enthusiasm was no substitute for skill and nearly 80% of the work I have committed to do is to rectify the inventive repairs carried out 30-odd years ago by would-be marque specialists.
Mechanically the Spitfire is very sound, but the paint – and, more importantly, what lies beneath it – is what has prompted me to sort it out once and for all. It being a black car, I’ve enlisted the services of Wilf Stacey, who did such a stellar job painting my black Ford Galaxie and who restored a MKIII for his wife Diane when they were living on Canvey Island. Wilf can’t bear to do anything half-heartedly, and if ever there was a man who lived by the mantra of ‘If the job’s worth doing…’ it’s him. Now embedded in Lincolnshire, he has stripped, blasted and primed the car ready for local body man Barry ‘Baz’ Hilliard to set about welding it all up.
Thankfully, Triumph specialist Rimmer Brothers is barely 20 minutes away from both of them, and a visit proved to be more fruitful than an initial cursory search on the website had suggested. Stock changes quickly, yet we were able to come away with everything we needed including new sills, floorpans, door skins, plus inner and outer wings.
My head told me not to, but my heart has won the day and I’m genuinely excited at the prospect of renovating The Bird for a return to Padstow, 52 years after the first trip.
‘Most of the work I have committed to do is to rectify the inventive repairs carried out 30 years ago by would-be specialists’
THANKS TO
Δ Rimmer Brothers: 01522 568000 Δ Wilf Stacey: 07851 870432 Δ Barry Hilliard: 07508 555784