Spitfire 4 ('Mk1') The Spitfire4 was first presented to an enthusiastic audience at the 1962 London Earls Court motor show.

After a purchase tax reduction, the price in 1962 for the Spitfire4 was 641 Pounds Sterling, which made it more expensive than the 587 Pounds Austin-Healey Sprite. But then the Triumph offering was much more of a sports car than the Austin. The price difference remained throughout the life of the cars - but it didn't stop the Spitfire from always outselling the Sprite/Midget range

(except for one year, due to workforce strikes).

The first Spitfire model, called the 'Spitfire 4' (4 stood for the number of cylinders in the engine) was well-equipped for the time, even though it came with a tent-like roof, which you more or less had to build yourself, and the heater was an option. It took some time before overdrive and wire wheels were available.
Still the car took off in America, selling 6,224 in 1963, 8,761 in 1964 and 9,097 in 1965. Total production ran to more than 45,000. It was a welcome addition to the already popular but much more powerful and expensive TR4 model.

Top speed was 92mph (147km/h) and 0-60mph (0-96km/h) took about 17.3 seconds. This may not be something to write home about today, but in 1962, this was quite something for a small, inexpensive sports car.

Triumph left little time to come up with tuning kits for its new sibling. These came in the form of high-compression cylinder heads, new inlet and exhaust manifolds, two twin-choke Weber 40DCOE carbs and a high-lift camshaft. For the serious competition-minded motorists, stronger pistons, connecting rods, crankshafts clutch and Vitesse close-ratio gears were also available.