Le Mans Fuel Tanks

At least eleven of the works Spitfires built, ADU 1B through ADU 8B, ADU 467B (may not have had a long range tank, as a 'normal' hardtop car) , AVC 654B, ERW 412C and of course the Macau, all had these endurance long range aluminium petrol tanks fitted.

We have four of the original five we owned (we recently sold a tank to our friend Steve Phillips who is making a replica Macau) here on display in our museum. These should not be confused with the replica tanks we made and sold a few years back, the most famous of which now sits in Mark Fields (Jigsaw Racing) works replica Spitfire.

The ones we have on display are genuine 40 year old original, and show all signs of it, being dented, and corroded, as you might expect for 40 year old aluminium.

So consider this, bearing in mind that ADU 3B, ADU 4B, ADU 5B, ADU 6B, ADU 7B, ADU 8B, and AVC 654B should all have there original tanks still fitted (the Macau lost its original tank in America) that makes seven tanks still fitted to works cars, plus the five we have owned, and one other one we know of locally, and the Macau's (still in the USA?) that makes 14!

OK, so a couple of tanks may have been made as spares, but if you knew that we acquired these tanks fairly locally, and that there exists locally the considerable remains of a factory backed private Spitfire racing effort, still in situ after almost 39 years after the three cars were last campaigned, then it might not surprise you to see an amazing survival rate of 'works' parts.

Watch this space for further developments.

In the meantime please feel free to come along and examine these and other parts of Triumph's Spitfire racing effort.