No, no, Greg! The Spitfire engine was *not* designed for a tractor. According
to Graham Robeson's book *Triumph Spitfire & GT6* it was developed as part of a
concept that began in 1951 for a new car. In fact it was called the SC project
for "small car", and involved an engine, transmission and differential. It
first went on the market as the Standard Eight in 1953, a smallish unibody car
with an engine size of 803 cc. This eventually found its way into the Herald,
then the Spitfire and Vitesse, then the GT6, then the TR-6.
Speaking of Spitfires, and since it has come up before, the same book lists
SCCA national title winners that drove Spitfires or GT6's:
GT6:
1969 Mike Downs E-Production
1970 Don Devendorf E-Production
Spitfire:
1965 (There were six divisional winners instead of a single national title.)
Dave Kiser G-Production (1147 cc) Midwest
Don Kearney G-Production (1147 cc) Southeast
Don Smith G-Production (1147 cc) Southwest
1968 Don Devendorf G-Production (1147 cc)
Brian Fuerstenau F-Production (1296 cc)
1969 Lee Mueller F-Production (1296 cc)
1970 John Kelly F-Production (1296 cc)
1971 Marshall Meyer G-Production (1147 cc)
1972 Rick Kline G-Production (1147 cc)
1973 Rick Kline G-Production (1147 cc)
John Kelly F-Production (1296 cc)
1974 Rick Kline F-Production (1296 cc)
1975 Jerry Barker G-Production (1147 cc)
Ken Slagle F-Production (1493 cc)
1976 (no Spitfires - boooo...)
1977 Tom Collier F-Production (1493 cc)
1978 Jack May F-Production (1493 cc)
1979 Steve Johnson F-Production (1493 cc)
1980 Jerry Barker F-Production (1493 cc)
Not a bad result...
Jim Muller
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