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Introduction by John Swauger
The Triumph Spitfire has always been a favorite of ours here at The
Roadster Factory. Charles Runyan's brother Don had a 1968 Spitfire that
he bought new, around the same time Charles was driving his second
Triumph, a 1969 GT6+. My first car was a red 1969 Spitfire mk.3 that I
bought used from the local Dodge dealer. That first car was almost a
Fiat 850. For some reason, my father wasn't as keen on the Spitfire as I
was, possibly because I had looked at a very tired 1962 MG Midget
earlier in the winter. The Midget was covered with snow the day we
went to look at together, and the dealer had to jump it to get it started for
a test drive. It was a neat car, grey and with side curtains. We later
looked at a Fiat 850 at the local Pontiac dealership that also sold Fiats.
My dad spotted the 850 and said, "That looks like a good one." It was
sitting up awfully high in the back so I wasn't surprised when I opened
the trunk and found that the car had no engine. That pretty much sealed
the deal for buying the Spitfire.
My Spitfire had belonged to a local businessman, and I used to
admire it, as well as his two daughters, while I was in high school. I
would walk by the car every morning on the way to school and say to
myself, or to anybody who would listen, "If I could someday have a car
like that." In the winter of 1972 I bought that very car for about
$1,300.00. My father felt that was too much to pay but looking back on
it now, I should have bought a dozen of them at that price. There was a
time when it could have been done. Our local Triumph dealer was A & L
Motors in Monroeville, Pennsylvania. They are now a Jaguar, BMW,
Nissan dealer, and there is no longer any sign of the Triumphs that used
to cover their lot. I went to A & L many times to look at all the cars
SPITFIRE GLOVE BOX COMPANION
