My next notion was for a Ginetta G32. A rare sight now (I have only ever seen 1 in Northern Ireland!) – based on the mechanicals of the popular Ford Fiesta XR2.

Around this same time, one of my friends bought a bright yellow Triumph Spitfire 1500 and was going through the process of restoring it. I only got one run in that car – there was no passenger seat, no dash, no carpets! I rocked around on the floor as we blasted up a back road. I now realise that this was the start of my Triumph addiction!

In 2001 I seriously considered buying a motorcycle. I owned a ‘twist & go’ scooter at that time and wanted to do my test & get into ‘real bikes’. It was here that my father in law Billy and I started chatting one day about how nice the Triumph Spitfire is… and that was the start of it! We trawled the Internet for months… reading and reading. The intention was for us to seek out and buy a fully restored 1500 Spitfire. Once we had decided to go for it – we knew it was time to get off the Internet and start looking at these cars in the metal. At that time, in the 100th anniversary year of Standard Triumph Cars, the NI TSSC was hosting a Triumph show called “Totally Triumph”.

We made the trip to Totally Triumph and started closely examining all the cars… still thinking “Spitfire”. After looking at around a dozen Spitfires, we noticed a couple of things… not criticisms… just observations!

1. Very few Spitfires sit ‘level’ at the back. The majority were very 'saggy'
2. They are a lot smaller than they look on the Internet!

It was at this point that we spotted PIA7070. It was a minter. I always liked dark green cars (each to their own I say) – but the TR7 DHC lines just looked perfect on this car.

I always liked the TR7, especially in convertible form – but it was only when I saw one (Kyle’s V8 actually!) beside a Spitfire that day, that I realised which car was right for us.