Vintage Racing Services

Racing Spitfires for Le Mans and Sebring

Reel back, now, to 1964, when the Triumph factory built a team of new light-allow Spitfires with which to enter the prestigious French Le Mans 24 Hour sports car race. Maybe not money-no-object, but certainly with a generous budget behind them, these cars were as special as the engineers could make them – lighter, faster and stronger.

Superficially, these were modified road cars – but think again. Maybe the chassis frames were standard, and the engines used the same cylinder blocks, but almost everything else was new. Complete body shells were made from aluminium, bonnets had E-Type style noses, and cowled headlamps, while glass-fibre hardtops were fashioned around the shape of the still secret GT6 coupe. Glass was discarded in favor of Perspex, bumpers were thrown out, and new-style cast allow wheels were fitted.

Under the skin, too, it was all change. Because they were to run as prototypes, the engines could have new cast-iron eight-port cylinder heads and twin dual-choke Weber carburetors, with 98 bhp at 6,750 rpm. the stronger TR4-style gearbox was used, and massive 80-litre petrol tanks were fitted behind the driver.

After the 1964 Le Mans race (where two crashed and had to be reconstructed in the winter months), they were prepared as so-called ‘production’ cars with GT6-type gearboxes to race in the Sebring 12-Hour event of March 1965. ADU 4B was the best-performing Spitfire in that even, finishing second in its class. For the 1965 Le Mans race – now with aluminium cylinder heads and 109 bhp at 7,300 rpm – the cars were faster than before, with ADU 4B (driven by Jean-Jacques Thuner and Simo Lampinen) being the class winner.

By this time the neat little Spitfires looked and were, very special indeed, because they were running with a 3.89:1 axle ratio, with 5.5-inch-wide wheel rims – and they could achieve 140 mph in a straight line. Although the factory later admitted that no wind-tunnel testing had ever been done, the GT6-style top and the long nose style clearly worked well. But after Le Mans 1965, the factory wound down its racing efforts. New rules for 1966 meant that aluminium shells would no longer be allowed on “production cars,” an attempt to build a six-cylinder (GT6-engined) version was abandoned, and the team cars were all sold off.

Found in an Obscure Museum

Which is how the ADU 4B came to reside in Switzerland, lost from view for many years. It was on one of many globe-trotting business trips, and on a whim to see what cars were in the motor museum at Geneva airport, that Bill Shanahan finally caught up with this car. Having already looked at two other “works” Spitfires – one was ADU 3B, a Le Mans sister machine which was then being restored in France (the negotiations eventually broke down), and the wreckage of ADU 7B, the elements of a rally team car which was then for sale near Dunkirk, France – he was convinced that somehow, when the right car came along, he had to buy one.

Even under rather dim artificial light in that concrete display hall, suddenly, the “great idea” light came on:

“With my Spitfire,” Bill told me, “for my size the bubble top wasn’t very accommodating – the roll cage and stuff all had to go in there, too. I thought that a Le Mans-type car would be much more comfortable to drive and would give more protection. Second of all, the relative weight of my Spitfire was higher than for a Le Mans Spitfire.
“So I completely fell for it. Most important, of course, in that condition, I thought it was a beautiful little car. It looked absolutely gorgeous; and what I saw, in Geneva, looked so authentic. If a deal could be worked out, I decided to buy it, bring it back to the States, re-fit it, and race it.”

Once the car was air-freighted back to the USA in April 1998, Bill discovered just how complete, and authentic, it actually was. After 33 years, the paintwork was still original – faded, cracked here and there, scuffed in places, but original – and in specification it was almost complete. One road-car accident in Switzerland meant that the engine oil cooler, some fresh air ducts in the bonnet, and the long-range driving lamps were all missing, but everything else survived.

Fitting A Rare Car for Racing

For racing in the USA, the idea was to have a competitive car, but not to destroy the unique original pieces, so refurbishment in the USA by Vintage Racing Services, involved removing many elements and storing them carefully, while replacing them (temporarily) with more modern, expendable equipment. A 120bhp/1.2-litre engine was fitted, along with TR6 gearbox and final drive units, while new suspension and reinforced rear end items were added, but: “Everything we took off the car was boxed and carefully stored with the car. To do anything which we could not undo, to this wonderfully original car, would be criminal. We could return it to standard, again, very quickly.”

Visually, Bill’s biggest problem was to replicate the faded yellow nose – for although the green was a normal Triumph BRG, no one (including the writer) could recall what yellow had been used.

“Fortunately, I found some clear colour shots of the car, so we have matched what it looked like in 1965 . . .“

By mid-summer 1998 ADU 4B was once again race-ready (“though we still had a lot of race-sorting to do”), and Bill immediately put it on the track. Visually, and in historic terms, it caused a sensation, for no American had seen a Le Mans Spitfire since 1965 – and, unless they had been to Sebring, not at all. Bill remembers, “At Laguna Seca in 1998, there were people around it, in the paddock, all the time . . .”

Although his original intention was to race it, and race it often, later in 1998 he began to realize that he might be exposing it to accidental abuse from other racers. What would happen, he thought, if through no fault of his own, this irreplaceable machine – the last, the only, original “works” Spitfire – was written off? He would never forgive himself.
“I realized that this was a car that should never be crashed. It deserves to survive; it should be kept like it is. So, the reason why I bought it evaporated within the first season. OK, I could restore it, but I never took that point of view – so I parked it up, and it hasn’t raced since.” Which explains why the car has been returned to the 1965 Le Mans condition and now lives, in retirement, in style, in New England – and why you, Mr Triumph enthusiast, could buy it if your idea of its value and Bill’s happen to coincide. But don’t rush in with a small pile of dollars. A bigger pile will be needed – and in any case Bill loves it too much to give it away . . .

INSET IN MAGAZINE PAGES: TWO SIDEBARS

SIDEBAR ONE: Four Cars, One Survivor

Triumph built four identical light-alloy Spitfires for the 1964 Le Mans race – registering them ADU 1B, ADU 2B, ADU 3B, and ADU 4B. Only three cars raced on that occasion, with ADU 4B acting as team spare.
All four cars were sent out to Florida for the 1965 Sebring race, once again three of them started the race – and this time it was ADU 3B which had an easy weekend.
Back in the UK< all four cars got lighter frames and more powerful engines, before being sent to the Le Mans race. On this occasion, all cars started the race, two of them finished, and ADU 4B won its capacity class.
What happened in later years? ADU 1B was scrapped after a six-cylinder project for the 1966 Le Mans race was cancelled, ADU 2B was written off in a racing accident in 1966, while ADU 3B has survived, ready for restoration by a Bermuda-based owner, in Paris.

SIDEBAR TWO: Two Other Cars…

In this period, a fifth car, registered ERW 412C, was built up for Bill Bradley to race in Europe, while a sixth car – an open-top machine – was also built up for the Hong Kong importer, Walter Sulke, to race in Macau. ERW 412C has not bee seen in public for many years, but the much-modified “Macau car” (now with a six-cylinder engine) has returned to Europe.

Swiss Afterlife

When the “works” Spitfire race programme ended in 1965, the factory sold ADU 4B to the Triumph importer (Blanc & Paiche) in Switzerland, where Jean-Jacques Thuner used it to win the Swiss racing championship in 1966, and later used it in hillclimbs. B & P later put it in store, but a few years later it was sold off as a street car, with many racing items removed.
Through a shadowy 1980’s existence as a road car with a standard engine (which resulted in at least one accident that damaged the front end), it retained its original colour scheme, and almost every item of equipment. Finally it was bought by a Swiss collector, who re-united it with all its racing parts (which had been in store). He then put it on show in the Geneva Motor Museum, where Bill Shanahan found it, and bought it, in 1998.

The Personal Angle

I have to declare a personal interest. When the race cars were developed in 1963/1964, I was much involved in Triumph’s motorsport activities. Although Harry Webster made sure that I was fully occupied by running the rally team, I had to make sure that the Le Mans cars met every regulation. It was my idea that the GT6-style of roof was used to give the race cars a better aerodynamic shape – and early in 1964 I even took the original Spitfire GT to Paris to convince the race organizers that the shape met all their rules.
Which may explain why Bill Shanahan turned to me in 1998, when e wanted ADU 4B to be authenticated before he bought it. The day trip to Geneva was one of the most enjoyable days of my life.
– Graham Robson.