Triumph Spitfire Hardtop

The first hardtop was pressed steel, offered from the 1964 model year. Standard-Triumph's Italian brochure of 1966, for the Mk II, lists it among the accessories to order and describes a top that one person could fit or remove in a couple of minutes by turning six bolts, two of them in the holes the hood (soft top) used, with a large curved rear window and a well-trimmed lining.

Mike Cotton had the hardtop on the Mk III he drove to the Monaco Grand Prix for Motor Sport in 1967:

triumphspitfire.com's option lists add a kit for converting a hardtop car to the soft top, for the Mk II and Mk III, and a heated panel for the rear window of the Mk II's hardtop.⁠source 1​source 2​source 7​source 3​source 8​source 9

The Mk IV's new body brought a new hardtop. Its rear quarter windows were hinged at the front to open, its rear window was toughened glass and its lining washable leathercloth, as British Leyland's French brochure of 1973 described it. The American brochure for the 1974 model year listed it as "Optional hardtop, with forward hinged quarter lights and washable lining", and Bill Boddy's road test of January 1971 told readers who wanted a coupé that a hardtop was available.

The UK brochure of December 1978 still offered the 1500 with a soft top and tonneau cover or with the hardtop, and the last Spitfire, built in August 1980 and kept by the British Motor Museum, wears one.

triumphspitfire.com says the Mk IV's top came in the body colour with a beige lining, and gives a hardtop's weight as 26 kg (58 lb) without saying which one it weighed. No source read says whether an early steel top fits a Mk IV or 1500, or the later top an early car.⁠source 4​source 5​source 10​source 6​source 11​source 9

The factory's fastback Spitfire was a separate model. The GT6, built from 1966, put a six-cylinder engine and a fastback roof on the Spitfire's chassis and was sold under its own name; it is on the Spitfire in popular culture page with the car's other relatives. The works Le Mans cars of 1964 and 1965 had fastback roofs too, on bodies built for racing, and the racing page tells their story.

In the 1970s Lenham converted Spitfires with a sloping glass-fibre fastback. Practical Classics featured one in 2003, and its owner knew of no other Lenham fastback Spitfire that survived.

Lenham made hardtops as well. In January 1971 Motor Sport reported two aftermarket tops for the new Mk IV: Lenham's Torado, a glass-fibre top of the targa type, and a glazed hardtop from Heron Plastics. Rimmer Bros says it holds the sole rights to make and sell the Lenham hardtops for the Mk IV and 1500.⁠source 12​source 13​source 14​source 15​source 16​source 17

The Triumph Sports Six Club dates overdrive from October 1963, an option for the 1964 model year. It was a Laycock de Normanville unit, working on third and top gears.

The early cars had Laycock's D-type. Canley Classics says the J-type was standardised on all Triumphs from 1974, on the Spitfire from FH60000, and that its solenoid sits on the left of the unit where the D-type's was on the right. The J-type's step is 25 per cent on every Triumph but the 2.5-litre cars. Which other Triumphs' overdrives fit a Spitfire is on parts and specialists.

On the Mk IV that Motor Sport tested in January 1971 the overdrive was "selected by a slide on the gear-lever knob", and the 1500 that the magazine drove in 1975 had its switch in the knob too. triumphspitfire.com puts the switch on the steering column before FH60000, which does not fit the Mk IV the magazine tested; no source read says where it was on the earlier cars.

By December 1978 overdrive was the only optional extra that the UK brochure listed for the 1500.⁠source 18​source 2​source 10​source 5​source 19​source 20​source 9​source 6

Centre-lock wire wheels were offered from the 1964 model year; the specifications give the wheel size. triumphspitfire.com dates the change from eared spinners to hexagonal ones to about FD11732, a Mk III number.

The Mk IV kept wire wheels as an extra, listed in Motor Sport's test of January 1971, and triumphspitfire.com says they were bolt-on wheels, fixed by nuts like the steel ones, until about FH60000.

The 1500 brought an option pack: a driver's door mirror, inertia-reel seat belts, head restraints, a map light, a centre armrest and a dipping rear-view mirror. triumphspitfire.com says it became standard on cars outside the United States from about FH80000, in January 1976, and the UK brochure of December 1978 lists every item as standard. Motor Sport priced the pack and the overdrive in March 1975.

In the United States the options and dealer accessories in British Leyland's brochure for the 1974 model year ran from a radio and a chrome luggage rack to Koni adjustable dampers and a walnut gear knob, and included a "Striping kit in black, silver or gold."

triumphspitfire.com, citing dealer brochures, describes stripe kits in black, silver or gold in 1975 and black or silver in 1976, then two 3M kits from 1977 to 1980, one red, silver and blue (part BLM105206) and one yellow, black and silver (BLM105207), fitted by dealers or at the port of entry rather than on the line. It reports Michael Cook's book of 1981 as saying the kits were for the US market only, but also a British car that had one, so they were sold mainly, perhaps only, in the United States.⁠source 20​source 9​source 6​source 5

The factory's own tuning parts came as kits, and Canley Classics explains what they were for:

In the United States in the 1970s British Leyland backed Spitfire 1500 racers with about 40 competition parts, according to Triumph Sportscars of Australia, and British Leyland's brochure for the 1974 model year advertised a Racing Support Program. The racing page has the results.⁠source 19​source 22​source 5