Triumph Spitfire - 1965 Le Mans 24hrs (19th June 1965)
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•Dec 13, 2011
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1.23K subscribersSpitfires at Le Mans (1965) June 19th 1965 From the Standard Triumph archives Commentary by Raymond Baxter This is a promotional film produced by the Standard Triumph Motor Company of Coventry, England. The film documents the 1965 24hr of Le Mans and the 4 Triumph Spitfire racing prototypes entered by the company.Triumph never identified their cars other than Spitfire racing prototypes with 1.1 litre inline 4 cylinder engines and aerodynamic hard tops.
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Time was closing in on the smaller engined cars.....
Speeds were rising......
At Daytona 24 Hours, a Porsche would pass the SAME small engined car TWICE PER LAP......EVERY LAP.....
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At Sebring one year, a Spitfire flipped in the Timing-Scoring turn.
The rear swing axle had no limiting straps, and the car jacked itself up and rolled right over in the air.
In Macdill Sports car club, we had required rear axle limiting straps in our autocrosses for some time.....
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I was tech inspector at a Macdill Sports Car Club autocross at the Schlitz Brewery (now a Yuengling brewery in 2019)
When I told an NSU driver that he needed rear axle limiting straps, or he couldn't run, he argued and had some unkind things to say.
I finally agreed to allow him to demonstrate that his rear swing axle car would not flip over.
He drove away and made a u-turn............and flipped it over onto it's roof.
I said nothing to him...and did not need to.
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Story #2: An earlier time:
Operation Grand Slam MSCC autocross at an abandoned WWII runway/airport near Sanford Florida.
I owned no car and had hitched a ride with Flip Sygnarski in a 356 Porsche hardtop.
Flip was famous as a real racing driver, having obtained an SCCA competition license.
Both of us were stationed at MacDill Air Force Base at the time. The club was meeting at Ayres Diner on Dale Mabry, West side
approximately across from Village Inn for the drive to Sanford. My ride had let me out, and as I crossed Dale Mabry, I was hoping that I would get
a ride in that Porsche. I got my dream. The car was beautiful and smelled just like leather and rubber, as I imagined all Porsches of that time to smell.
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As we hit the I-4, I asked him how he got the name "Flip".
He told me he had flipped his 356 Porsche in (Timing Scoring) Turn one of the infield course at Daytona.
356 Porsches had a swing axle, but in those days not enough people knew swing axles would pivot downward in a hard turn
and the car rear would rise and flip over.
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Years later, the empty shell of his car was sitting at a small Garage belonging to Herb Trinka on US 19 Clearwater.
It was in the waning years of Herb Trinka's mechanical career. I knew the car had belonged to Flip since the New Jersey
tag "JOY 123" was still on it. Working up my courage on a Sunday, I removed the tag, knowing the empty shell was headed
to the crusher. I still have that tag today in the stack in my garage.
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After the event, I accepted a ride home with Drucella Sing in her Triumph Spitfire, She lived in the trailer park at Gandy and MacDill Ave in Tampa.
which is now vacated and probably about to be sold in November of 2019.
She had not competed in MSCC's autocross that day, and as we were leaving, no doubt overcome by the
day's worth of revving engines, spinning tires, and the smell of gasoline fumes, she decided to get on the gas in a sharp left hander
....................and drove the spitfire off the road to the right when the rear swing arm tucked under the car just enough to head us off
the road and into a (luckily) small palmetto tree.
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