By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

I’m providing the full text for your reading pleasure:

Runs surprisingly well, transmission shifts nice. Brakes work well. Passes inspection, all lights, wipers and horn function. Minimal rust, solid rockers, good floor. It’s a 20-footer. Lots of dings and hickies but complete. Originally had the rubber bumpers until chrome bumpers from an earlier car were installed. The alloy wheels are Minilite copies called Minator also made in England. The tires are good condition Kumho. The paint is dull so this could be a good beginner’s painting project. The convertible top isn’t perforated and has clear windows. Unless I happen to fix it prior to selling, the driver’s door opens from the outside handle only, the passenger side only from the inside. The horn honks like it has a frog in its throat. I have no idea how many miles are on this car as the odometer has never worked. It marks its territory with a few drops of oil, doesn’t smoke and has good oil pressure. The gauges all work, the dash lights illuminate, the heater blows hot in any season. The driver’s seat needs upholstery repair. It comes with a tonneau cover to cover the cockpit without putting the top up.

Learn the art of “Shabby Chic”. Most people having a mid-life crisis blow a king’s ransom on a Porsche Boxster or late 60′s Stingray – or – grow the obligatory cliche goatee + big gut and buy a Harley. We both know you’re not that lacking in creativity. You want a car that says you take the less trodden path, that you’re mechanically inclined and that you like to park anywhere without concern for door dings or theft. Voila! Here’s your car: pre-dinged and invisible to car thieves, the thrill of top-down British motoring at a sub-Geo Metro price. You won’t have to wear a bag over your head with this $2K purchase. Cheapskates rejoice: register it as an antique for once-every-5-years renewals, and no inspections. Surprisingly, insuring this car is peanuts.

Buyer’s Guide for the Married Man (or) How To Justify Buying My Car to a Significant Other

There’s no rational justification for buying this car so you’ll need to stretch the truth. For example if you’re a one-car household you could say it’s the second car for commuting to a nearby employer or for getting groceries. You and I both know your employer doesn’t look favorably on iconoclasts in tiny cars who arrive late and blame dodgy Lucas electrics. We also know that this is the wrong car for trips to Costco, but it’s all about the S.O. (significant other) at this point. You can call it an economy car as it’s a 1500cc 4-cylinder car that weighs about as much as a full dress Harley Davidson so your nose won’t go Pinocchio on this point. You could also point out you’ve upped your life insurance to a cool $1 million dollars and this car doesn’t have air bags & sits at the height of a big rig’s lug nuts. Think outside the box. You can do it. Working together we are a team. (Bonus points: this car played a role in the unraveling of a particularly dumb marriage, and for that I am glad. I should keep it as a memento but feel it might help some other trapped person break the bonds of a loveless relationship.)

Via Austin Craigslist

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

When Alex bought this Triumph Spitfire, the seller assured him that it was complete and only needed to be re-assembled. Turned out that quite a few things were missing—like the half the engine, most of the suspension, the dash and wiring. Ever bought a “complete” project in boxes only to find yourself scrambling for parts?

Little British cars are awesome, the only known drawback? They’re little British cars, so generally, you don’t want to drive them anywhere you couldn’t easily walk home from. That’s why I love to see people drop big, sturdy American V8s in them, and G-Man47 has done a hell of a job with his ’79 Spitfire. The custom grill looks sick, and I really dig the way the 350′s air cleaner is poking out of the hood. Head over to his page for some detailed shots of the build.

Hot on the heels of the Honda Civic to BMW M3 transformation I posted about on Friday, comes this hilarious Nissan Sentra to Mercedes-Benz 190E project. While the end result might not fool the trained eye, or the untrained eye, or a blind person that could actually run their hands along the side of the car, you have to appreciate the amount of work Greg put into this ride, and of course, his awesome sense of humor. But Greg isn’t just a novelty act. He’s had some pretty cool rides in the past—1970 Chevelle SS, turbo MR2, bitchin’ Camaro—and currently owns a ’69 Spitfire and a cherry ’66 Mercedes Benz 250S. Head over and check out his pages!    

British cars are really pretty, but everyone knows they tend to be a wee bit temperamental. That’s why Mike decided to swap the motor from a wrecked ’91 240SX into his old Spitfire. In addition to the drastic improvement in reliability, the Nissan motor has a lot more pep than the 50-odd horsepower mill which came with the car, so it should be a blast to drive. And while the project isn’t completed yet, it looks like he’s doing a bang-up job—just check out the video of it running! Best of luck with your project Mike, I can’t wait to see the finished product! If you were going to do an engine swap, what set-up would you choose?

Here’s an eBay find that might very well lead to World War III: all you’d have to do is stumble across an engine from an R31 Skyline and slap it into a Spitfire and call ‘er done.