There's no doubt about it, the Spitfire's smoothly styled body with flared wheel arches, sports road wheels and sleek lines gives it a big-striding, urgent image. But appearances are only part of the scene. Under the Spitfire's elegant facade is all the strength and safety of Triumph engineering. There's a double back-bone chassis of braced steel girders, and steering is by rack and pinion for light control and instant response.

Roadholding and comfort are well catered for by the Spitfire's all independent suspension and radial ply tyres, and thanks to a large front antiroll bar, fast corners lose all of their drama. Brakes are powerful 9 in front discs with rear drums. They respond to a soft touch and clamp down hard. So you can see that with all these engineering refinements, the Spitfire takes your sports car motoring to new heights.