TriumphSpitfire

Triumph Spitfire ADU 467B

The Spitfire that Stirling Moss's SMART team ran for his secretary, Valerie Pirie, alongside the works rally cars in 1964 and 1965. A works mechanic then raced it on the circuits, and in 1968 it became the first Gold Seal car.

A black-and-white photograph of two women in rally clothes holding tulips, leaning on a Spitfire 4 with extra lamps and race number 30 on its door.
Valerie Pirie (left) and Susan Reeves with tulips and a Spitfire 4 at the Tulip Rally, Noordwijk, 28 April 1965; the car's plate, partly hidden, begins ADU 4.Anefo, CC0

ADU 467B was a works-built Spitfire entered under a famous name.

Known as the SMART car, originally sponsored by Stirling Moss and BP and driven by Stirling's secretary Val Pirie this was built up in Triumph competitions and ran alongside the works team.

Canley Classics, on ADU 467B

SMART stood for the Stirling Moss Auto Racing Team, and racingsportscars lists the car's entries under that name and under Moss's own. After two seasons of rallies it went to a works mechanic, who raced it on the circuits and then made it the first car of a new team.⁠1​2​3​4

Built in the competition department

Sources for ADU 467B

Canley Classics, "Spitfire ADU 467B Rally"⁠1; Canley Classics, "Spitfire Gold Seal Racing"⁠4

A pale blue Spitfire 4 with a hardtop, four extra lamps and door numbers, parked under a shelter.
Four extra lamps and a hardtop on a pale blue Spitfire 4 prepared for historic rallying, at the Classic Motor Days in Hohenlockstedt, Germany, in June 2013: the works-rally look, not ADU 467B.Nightflyer, CC BY 3.0

Triumph's competition department built ADU 467B up in 1964 to the standard of the works rally cars, and a Canley Classics photograph of the competition workshop shows it at the head of a line of rally cars. Its commission and engine numbers are not published in any source read.

A blog says it was pale green, where the works cars were powder blue; no other source read gives its colour. Canley believes the car may not have had the long-range Le Mans-type fuel tank of the works cars, being, in its words, "a 'normal' hardtop car".⁠1​5​6​7

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With Pirie, 1964–65

Its first recorded entry came to nothing: entered by S.M.A.R.T. as No. 133, with Pirie to drive, for a BRSCC race at Brands Hatch on 3 August 1964, it did not arrive. racingsportscars names the entrant and driver, not the car. In September it started the Tour de France Automobile as No. 132, entered by Stirling Moss for Pirie and a co-driver named Taylor, and retired with engine trouble. The competition department prepared it for the Monte Carlo Rally in January 1965, where it also retired.

Pirie also appears at the Tulip Rally of April 1965: the Dutch press photograph at the top of this page shows her at Noordwijk on 28 April with a Spitfire whose plate, partly hidden, begins ADU 4. A blog says the Tulip was her only finish in five starts with the car; no other source read gives her result.⁠2​3​1​6

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Peter Cox and Gold Seal

When the works effort ended, Peter Cox, a mechanic from the competition department, bought the car and, in Canley Classics' words, made it "a highly successful circuit racer"; he won the Freddie Dixon Trophy with it in 1967. For 1968, much modified, it became his first car for Gold Seal Racing, sponsored by the Gold Seal Car Company, a London sports-car dealer; Cox and another ex-works mechanic, Peter Clarke, built and ran its cars, the later ones with glass-fibre bodies.

racingsportscars lists Cox's Spitfire results from 1966 to 1968, among them 4th in a Special GT race at Mallory Park on 12 May 1968, without naming the car. No source read follows ADU 467B after 1968: the car that carried Moss's name into the Tour de France leaves the record as Peter Cox's much-modified racer.⁠1​4​2

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Where it has been

  1. 1964

    Built for the SMART team

    Built up in Triumph competitions to works rally specification for the Stirling Moss Auto Racing Team (S.M.A.R.T.), sponsored by Moss and BP, for Moss's secretary Valerie Pirie, and run alongside the works team. Its commission and engine numbers are not published

    Canley Classics, "Spitfire ADU 467B Rally"⁠1

  2. 1967

    Peter Cox won the Freddie Dixon Trophy with it

    The ex-works mechanic had made it "a highly successful circuit racer"

    Canley Classics, "Spitfire Gold Seal Racing"⁠4; Canley Classics, "Spitfire ADU 467B Rally"⁠1

  3. 1968

    Peter Cox's first Gold Seal Racing car, in highly modified form

    Canley Classics, "Spitfire Gold Seal Racing"⁠4

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Results

  • 1964

    BRSCC Brands Hatch, August 1964

    3 August 1964, Brands Hatch, England. No. 133, Valerie Pirie: did not arrive⁠2

  • 1964

    Tour de France Automobile 1964

    11 September 1964, France. No. 132, Valerie Pirie and Taylor (co-driver): retired: engine⁠3​1

  • 1965

    Monte Carlo Rally 1965

    January 1965. Valerie Pirie: retired⁠1

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Sources

Sources are given as plain text; their addresses are on the sources page.

  • Referenceserious later work: clubs, specialists, magazines, books
  • Databaseresults and listings, entry by entry
  • Uncheckedencyclopaedias and enthusiast sites: cited beside a good source, named in the sentence, or marked Unchecked
  1. Canley Classics, "Spitfire ADU 467B Rally", para. 1; photo captions. Reference
  2. racingsportscars.com, "Triumph Spitfire – All Results" (9 pages, 880 entries, 1962–87), Brands Hatch, 3 August 1964; Peter Cox, 1966–68. Database
  3. racingsportscars.com, Tour de France Automobile 1964, results, DNF table, No. 132; DNF table. Database
  4. Canley Classics, "Spitfire Gold Seal Racing", para. 4; paras 1, 4. Reference
  5. Canley Classics, "Spitfire ADU 5B Rally", para. 2. Reference
  6. psychoontyres.co.uk, "White Yellow Red – Triumph Spitfire #ADU1B" (22 Jun 2014); "'64 TdF Class Winner – Triumph Spitfire" (21 Mar 2015), 2014, "'64 TdF Class Winner". Unchecked
  7. Canley Classics, "Le Mans Fuel Tanks", para. 1. Reference

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