Welcome back! Today we’re taking a look at the two extremes of convertible sizes, with a great big American cruiser and a zippy little British roadster. Neither one is in great shape, but the name of the game is Shitbox Showdown, after all.
Yesterday’s cars were in decent condition, though I knew going in which one was going to win. Sometimes you can just tell. And yeah, I would choose that Esteem wagon over a sketchy early Hyundai too, but you understand why I had to feature it, right? It’s a Hyundai Scoupe. Stuff like that just doesn’t come up for sale very often.
It’s nothing official, or even written down, but I do have a sort of “hit list” in mind of cars I’m keeping an eye out for to feature, and the Hyundai Scoupe was actually one of them. If you ever see a Sterling 825 or 827, Renault 18i, Fiat Strada, or Mitsubishi Tredia or Cordia here, you’ll know I’ve crossed another one off the list.
For today, however, we’ll stick to the merely uncommon: a couple of old convertibles. Years ago, the only really “sporty” American convertible was the Corvette. You could get Camaro and Mustang and Cuda convertibles, but they usually weren’t the hardcore performance models, and even those weren’t really sporty. If you wanted a sports car with no top, you turned to Europe, where any number of tiny topless wonders stood at the ready to obey your every command on a twisty road. American convertibles mostly did what American cars did best: cruise along smoothly making V8 noises, only with more fresh air. I’ve got one of each for your perusal.
1974 Oldsmobile Delta 88 convertible – $3,000
Engine/drivetrain: 350 cubic inch overhead valve V8, three-speed automatic, RWD
Location: San Diego, CA
Odometer reading: 64,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well, current registration
The malaise era hadn’t really started by 1974, but the writing was on the wall. Horsepower ratings had switched from gross (just the engine) to net (as installed in the car), making everything look a lot less powerful. Skyrocketing insurance rates and a fuel crisis had taken the fun out of muscle cars. And a whole list of impending new Federal regulations, including a rollover standard that would have all but outlawed convertibles, threatened to suck what little joy was left out of cars. A car like this Oldsmobile was a dinosaur, a remnant of an earlier time that was about to become extinct.
And really, the GM B-body, as well as other full-size American cars, had swelled to cartoonishly fat proportions. Just look at how much wasted space there is around this car’s 350 Rocket V8. You could practically climb in there with it to work on it. Not that this one needs much work; the seller says it runs and drives just fine, and it comes with a bunch of service records.
It’s a good thing this car is in sunny southern California, though; it’s permanently stuck in open-air mode at the moment. Neither the power-operated top nor the rear windows will raise. And something tells me the top isn’t much good even if you did put it up. What the hell; park it in the garage (if yours is big enough) and leave the top down. Drive something else when it’s rainy. The seats could use some upholstery, or pop down to Tijuana and get a couple of cheap wool blankets to throw over them.
It does have some significant rust in the rear wheel wells. The trouble with convertibles is that you can never really keep the water out; you just have to make sure it goes through where it’s supposed to. I get the feeling the rust on this car is the result of clogged drains or water collecting somewhere. Or maybe it’s just lousy mid-’70s GM paint prep.
1979 Triumph Spitfire 1500 – $2,900
Engine/drivetrain: 1.5-liter overhead valve inline 4, four-speed manual, RWD
Location: Lancaster, CA
Odometer reading: 44,000 miles
Operational status: Hasn’t run since 1988, engine won’t turn
There were no American convertibles between 1976, when the last drop-top Cadillac Eldorado rolled off the line, and 1982, when the first Chrysler LeBaron convertibles arrived. But British and Italian makers never did stop building convertibles; you could still walk into an MG or Fiat or Alfa Romeo or Triumph dealership and drive off with the wind in your hair – at least until British Leyland started killing off its cool cars one by one. This little Triumph Spitfire comes from the second-to-last year of its production, and only a couple of years before Triumph stopped building cars altogether.
The “1500” in this car’s name refers to its engine size; technically it’s 1493 cubic centimeters, but that would look weird on a badge. Like its MGB cousin, the Spitfire suffered mightily from US emissions regulations towards the end of its run. This car was rated at only 53 horsepower when it was new, hardly a respectable sports car number even then. This one can’t even do that now; it was parked in 1988 in favor of a kid-friendly ride, and hasn’t run since. The engine is now stuck and won’t turn over by hand. With patience and some Marvel Mystery Oil, you might be able to get it unstuck, or you might not. Luckily, engine swaps on Spitfires are common and well-documented.
The rest of it looks pretty good, as it should, having been parked in a garage for three and a half decades. The interior looks nice, even that wonderful wooden dashboard – real wood, mind you; none of that fake Ford LTD crap here. There is a blemish on the passenger’s seat, but it might just be gunk that could be cleaned off.
Outside, it’s shiny and rust-free, just how you’d like it to be. It includes both the soft top and a factory removable hard top, as well as the cardboard boxes full of spare parts you’d expect to come with an old British roadster.
These days, we’ve got a whole new list of regulations that are sucking some of the fun out of cars. Horsepower is no longer a worry, of course; today’s cars have plenty of that, but what they lack is charm and personality, which these two have in spades. One is tailor-made for rolling along down the highway, or Sunset Boulevard, while the other is more suited for zipping along the canyon roads or between cones in a parking lot. But they’ll both give you that connected feeling that you can’t quite get with anything other than an open-top car. Which one is more your style?
(Image credits: Craigslist sellers)
I’ll take the Triumph. It’s cheap as spit!
My older dad bod says I should vote for the Old 88 but my heart says give me that 1493. So the Triumph triumphs.
Just look at how much wasted space there is around this car’s 350 Rocket V8. You could practically climb in there with it to work on it.
I never thought I’d see a car blog claim on a car for having enough room in the engine compartment to turn a wrench.
I voted Delta. A $7.00 switch gets the top running again. Top down, Detroit Lean, easin’ around town…
I’d love to take both, but if pressed I’d go for the Spit. I’ve kind of always wanted to swap the w11 with attendant supercharger from an r53 mini like mine into something rwd, and a spit with a seized motor would do quite nicely.
C’mon Mark, admit you set this up for the Spitfire to win. Total thumb on the scale here…
Advice to the seller of the Spitfire:
Pour yourself a pint of decent best bitter and go sit in the driver’s seat. Savour the beer and talk nicely to the motor. By the time you finish your pint, it might actually turn over for a second and you can list it as a runner at 2-3x the value. If not, well, at least you got to sit in the driver’s seat and enjoy a pint before parting with it.
I’d rather tear down, likely need to find a machinist, source odd parts etc. on that motor than look at that Olds for ten more seconds on internet pictures. Yuck.
And for the record, I don’t like wrenching!
The Olds brings back high school flashbacks. Worked on a friends Spitfire fixing the myriad of bad design and build decisions that British manufacturers made. That and the usual for me doesn’t fit, I’ll take the Olds add some too long hair, wide leg bellbottoms, platform shoes and a tacky purple shirt and go cruise the roller rink. My rose tinted hazy memories of driving my 67 dynamic 88 with might be coloring my decision. I’m sure a replacement top could be located and fabricobbled into working order.
I wonder if the 2.5 Ford engine that people are swapping into Miata’s would go into the Spitfire?
Since I already have a 455 powered ’72 Delta 88 convertible, I’d take the Spitfire for variety’s sake.
That said, I highly recommend the barge lifestyle.
No, thanks.
I rarely vote for the non running car, but I wonder how hard swapping a Miata drivetrain in would be?
Also if I were going for a GM convertible of the era, I would prefer a Buick Centurion.
You could probably find something at Harbour Fright that would double the horsepower and bolt right in.
This is one of the few times I voted for the non-running car. It presents much better inside and out and I’d say a NA Miata swap would work wonders here.
I like old yatches but this non-special Olds would cost a ton to get re-upholstered, re-painted and get its top fixed. Some cars might be worth going that route, but this one isn’t it.
A coworker got an old Triumph as part of a machine tool sale.. I said “Miata is always the answer” figuring like several here that it should be an easy swap. Nope, he wanted to keep the original engine, and yup, it’s still not finished being rebuilt 2 year later..
Being as I have a ’66 Thunderbird convertible and a ’75 Spitfire sitting in my garage right now Imma gonna sit this one out.
The Delta is intriguing, but what looks like no top mechanism is a hard no
Pretty sure you could probably find a rusting, running Spitfire out there and have one good car out of two. It has a Hardtop.
Spitfire.
Both seem fun. I voted Spitfire because the engine size seems similar to what’s in a Kawasaki Concours 14…
Setting aside the merits of the specific vehicles at hand, you’d be hard pressed to come up with a pair that tugs more at my heartstrings. I’ve talked before about my dad’s Oldsmobile heritage, and the first family car I remember was a (much, much less cool) ’79 Delta 88. Meanwhile, Mom’s first car was a Triumph TR3, and while this car is a far cry from that one, I’ve always thought the Spitfire was the best looking of the post-1960 British sports cars (E-Type excepted, whatever Adrian says about them).
In this specific case, I don’t see what good a roofless convertible would do me in Pittsburgh. Even if I had a garage, it wouldn’t be big enough for that thing. Meanwhile, the dead engine in the Spit is a good excuse to put in something too spicy for Torch.
I was going to rule out the 88 based on the rust, but at least it runs…. so I guess I’d take that if I had to take one of them. It has the added bonus of more scrap metal value when it stops running.
Despite having thankfully forgotten the awful Rubber Baby Buggy Dagmires, voted for the Spitfire.
I think that Delta has a larger footprint than my work van
It’s Dagmar, for the record.
I kind of like them both, though the Spitfire is not on my list of sports cars I’d want, neither is the mega B-body. Not a convertible fan, but a cruiser makes more sense to me than an already flimsy sports car. Oh, but rust. The Spitfire has a hardtop and no rust! But won’t even turn over, which means I’m already looking to engine swap, which means I’d have to GAF about the finished project to actually finish it. Running Delta it is.
Both were pulling at me, brain was “Torchered”. The Spitfire won, it looks like a great find, lots of engines will fit, but I’d gamble the one in it is fixable and there is fun to be had doing that.
Spitfires are abysmal cars in every way. I wouldn’t take one for free.
My Mom drove a Spitfire. She’s not a horrible person, but perhaps there’s some Venn overlap.
*I’m playing the mom card. Don’t get me started on apple pie.
I went Spitfire because that is where my head is at right now. Revive the old motor or swap in another, I’m somewhat agnostic. I like the overall condition of the car though.
For the US market that’s true, but Triumph kept building cars until mid-1984.
I went for the Delta, because for the price, it’s not a bad car. It runs, and though it probably drinks gas, it’s got some old school cruiser charm. The Spitfire is an attractive project car, even if the engine is trash, it’s worth reviving.
Drinks is an understatement – I want to say the ones we had in our family got like 13 mpg. Although I guess that is where a lot of us still are with high-performance cars and big pickup trucks. Although with the top stuck down, you may not put that many miles on it.
…thinking…..”Is there any possible way I can squeeze that Oldsmobile V-8 Into the Spitfire…..? (◔ૂ◔)
I’m sure you could get the Spitfire into the Olds engine bay pretty easily.
🙂
Yup, if you wanted that is. The olds 350 is pretty close to the buick 350 in terms of outside dimensions(totally different engines though with very different personalities), and a friend of mine measured my buick 350 up because he was looking to v8 swap his mkI spitfire. Kind of glad he didn’t mutilate that particular one, he did it to his spridget instead.
Spitfire all day.
Those engines are as difficult to work on as four Briggs & Strattons welded together, and deliver enough speed to make the car (I was going to say Spritely, but no) plenty of fun to drive.
Oh, and do the brakes. And tires. And hoses.
IIRC the spitfire has a swing axle rear suspension which made it an evil handling little bugger. There are/where various aftermarket solutions but I’m not sure of the availability many decades later. My friends one from back in the day was quite a handful if driven 7/10ths. The rear would jack up and make the thing very unstable and no fun to drive in any kind of spirited way. Add horsepower and sticky tires and you may need to carry several sets of replacement underwear and pants.
Get a TR3 through 7 for a drivable fun car, once sorted. I had a 6 and a 7 and they are much much better cars..