For the love of the GT-6

"Trevor Slattery, ACTOR" (anacostiabikecompany) 01/20/2016 at 18:09 • Filed to: British Cars

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I love the Triumph GT-6. It ticks all the mid-sixties fun boxes. Styling by Italian design legend Giovanni Michelotti, a peppy 2.0 liter 6 cylinder and a 4 speed with optional OD that worked on 3rd AND 4th gears. This is the GT-6+, the model to have.

We love chrome at Motorhead. Chrome makes us happy.

The bonnet on Spitfire/GT-6 cars are one of my favorite details. Gives you so much room to work. The sheetmetal work on it is beautiful as well. This particular car sat for 4 years. The owner wants us to get it started and running as well as replacing the front suspension and steering rack bushings.

The 2.0 inline six. I prefer it to the 2.5 liter in the TR-6 personally. I think the shorter stroke of the 2.0 makes for a better revving engine. Not a fan of Stromberg 150CD carbs at all. We suggest swapping them out for some appropriately sized SU carbs.

Pre-start compression test yielded mostly 170-180 with a couple at 150. We are hoping it is just due to the car sitting and once it gets a valve adjustment and run until warm things will seal back up.

This is one of those things about working on old cars. If the car has been sitting for 4 years, even if the gas tank was properly emptied before being put up (like this one), just replace all the fuel line from tank to carb. Don’t even try starting the car before doing it. The old hoses WILL leak. We had to replace the hard line that runs from the fuel pump outlet to carbs on the other side of the engine as well.

This is a good car. It was running when I left the shop yesterday. Mechanics are on the suspension work today. Customer would probably pick up if not for this blasted storm.

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Big Bubba Ray > Trevor Slattery, ACTOR 01/20/2016 at 18:35

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Those are beautiful little cars! There’s a guy in my area who owns one with a fatty LS motor in it. It must be terrifying to drive.

RallyWrench > Trevor Slattery, ACTOR 01/20/2016 at 19:48

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Love it, these things have always called to me as well.

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > Trevor Slattery, ACTOR 01/21/2016 at 06:14

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One of my all-time favourite cars :) I’ve got tons and tons of pictures on my laptop but my hard-drive decided it didn’t want to be a hard-drive anymore so I’m rebuilding my library :(

I’m not too au-fait with the American models, was a GT6+ your equivalent of the GT6 Mk2 here (higher bumpers and a rotoflex rear)?

I will own one someday, although the prices here have risen steadily for a while and are likely to continue. My current plan is to try and find a ratty GT6 bodyshell that I can transplant onto a Spitfire (and then swap in a 16v Dolomite Sprint engine). Even if the body isn’t saveable, I’ll cut the roof off and transplant that onto a Spitfire tub and then make some sort of hatchback by welding together the trailing edge of the Spitfire boot to the GT6 rear hatch.

Should be great fun :)

Trevor Slattery, ACTOR > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 01/21/2016 at 09:08

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Exactly on the GT-6+. Mk2 version. Raised bumpers and Rotoflex IRS. Keep me posted on the Dolomite engine swap. Would love to see that! We got a long door TR-2 coming in this weekend.

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > Trevor Slattery, ACTOR 01/21/2016 at 11:16

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Ooh very nice :) prefer the 4s myself (and 6s over that), but I do like the bare-bones-ness of the early TRs. I love that the TR owners club over here wouldn’t accept members whose cars had windows for quite some time :)

Will do, although I've got my current Spit6 project and a Slant 4 1850 Spitfire to do before then!

Trevor Slattery, ACTOR > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 01/21/2016 at 16:31

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The older I get the more I fond I become of the TR-3. I would love to do up TR-3B. All the mechanical pluses of the TR-4 but that totally unsafe TR-3 body style. How can you not love a car where the designer said one of his goals was to have the driver be able to touch the ground with the door closed?