OhSoRetro Show 2017 - 24th September 2017 - Margate, Kent

[ian65]

Great photos James, looks like a good show...

My mate back in NZ has a mk3 Spitfire. So I took photos of this Mk4 to give him some motivation of how nice his could look.

this is a 1500 though

[KiwiDave]

Nice pics. I'm loving the Starion and the Opel Manta.
That little Honda flatbed is the perfect transporter for your 121. They would be so cute together

[MelloYello]

this is a 1500 though

Uh? Please elaborate....

[ian65]

this is a 1500 though

Uh? Please elaborate....

Sadly, I'm a bit of an anorak about Spitfires after I spent years and years restoring them.
Basically between 1962 and 1980 there were 5 different series of Spitfire starting with 1150cc engines and ending up with 1500cc engines.
A big change came in 1970 when the body shape seen in your photograph was introduced as the 'Spitfire MKIV' with a 1300cc engine.
Finally in 1974 the 'Spitfire 1500' was introduced with an uprated 1500cc engine (hence the name) and the brakes, equipment, trim etc were also all uprated making the Spitfire 1500 the best equipped and refined Spitfire ever available.

Here's the specs...





Unfortunately, in typical Triumph style, their innovation was also their undoing. The 1500cc engine had started out in Spitfires way back in 1962 as a very basic 1150cc OHV engine, having already come from the Triumph Herald.
With each new series of Spitfire the engine was bored out to increase the capacity but when it came to the 1500 the engine had already been as bored out as it could be ( the cylinders were becoming very close to each other) so the only option was to increase the stroke. This achieved the higher cc but resulted in an engine that had been bored and stretched to its limits and made it very fragile. It had to be driven within a very narrow rev band, wouldn't rev and ate big end bearings and thrust washers for breakfast.
It was a shame because the 1300cc in the MK4 could make decent power with a few mods whereas the 1500 was a crap engine but then that was Triumph all over. They had some great ideas, didn't develop them properly or put sufficient money into them to make them reliable, the classic example being the 16v head in the Dolomite Sprint.... they came up with one of the first mass production 16v engines then decided to put half the headbolts in at a slant to the block so they wouldn't hold their torque, kept coming loose and blowing the heads.

.

[Hobbawobba]

Looks like it was a pretty good day aye! That MR2

[codge]

Yeh.....similar theme to Ian's comments.
Triumph 6 cylinder 'In line' (Triumph 2000 etc) used to blow head gaskets between the centre two pots. No meat in the block for the gasket to seal on. I believe the Stag suffered the same but I never had one of those.

Then enter the guys from the land of the rising sun.....and the rest we know about.

[MelloYello]

So you have had the "White Section" first ( well that's because society and the mainstream media like it that way).

Welcome to the "Japanese Section"

Now this little fella had me smiling for many reasons. The owner was a top chap. It was a well looked after specimen. And it appeared that the suspension had been set up nicely also.


There was a strong Nissan / Datsun presence at this show. Largely due to one attendee organising a car transporter to help bring along 18 (yes you read that right) of his collection. He enlisted friends and family to drive the roadworthy examples, and transported the less structurally sound. Admittedly I do not know which are his and which are not. I am not au fait with Nissan / Datsun nomenclature so I will just leave them here.









A heavily modded Honda s600


A nicely stanced Silvia


I love this Pulsar pocket rocket. All those vents gotta mean something - right?


Tommi Makinen had to win four Championships before Mitsubishi gave him his own special edition road car. A reported 276bhp out the box. Just cool.

[A7RXY]

Love the Datsun 510, I had one of them for my 21st, it was a 1300 1970 model and cost £ 450 in 1973 and it went like the dogs ..... Well to me it did. ....

[DKWW2000]

Great pictures, weather looked great, loads of interesting cars....just the sort of show I love

[MelloYello]

loads of interesting cars)

Yeah the variety of vehicles really made this a good show.