My one thousand nine hundred sixty five Triumph Spitfire four Mk2

…at Lakeside vapid out and went into a wild 360-degree spin in his one thousand nine hundred sixty five Triumph Spitfire four Mk2.

The British sportscar hit the wall under the bridge and ended Ezzy’s club sprint day.

“I had got it up to 101.01mph (162.6km/h) but I came unstuck and hit the wall.

“But I could still drive it home.”

The 57-year-old Gold Coaster bought the car for just $50 from a local wrecking yard in one thousand nine hundred seventy eight for his sister.

“She was about to get her licence and we needed a car for her to drive, so I bought it for her,” he says.

“Then she got married and didn’t want it so I’ve kept it going all these years, building, building, building, spending and upgrading.

“I once did a Harley custom-made demonstrate bike and I’d always wished to do a car up.”

The Spitfire was a rusted wreck when Ezzy got it, so he bought another assets from Melbourne and began cutting the rust and substituting panels until he had a finish car.

He eventually got it running and registered in one thousand nine hundred eighty two and has been driving it ever since.

The original Spitfire was painted white with crimson trim, had a four-speed gearbox and an 1147cc four-cylinder engine with about 47kW of power and a possible top speed of 96mph (155km/h).

Ezzy painted the Spitfire his favourite blue, bored the engine out to almost 1300cc, reflowed and modified the goes, fitted a handmade stainless-steel straight-through harass system, bolted on South Australian Globe 13-inch wheels and converted to a five-speed gearbox after the original packed it in while rivaling in the Speed on Tweed timed sprints in 2009.

“I do all my own work,” he says.

“It purs at 4000rpm, but I just want to take the diff down from Four.875 to Four.1.”

The paintwork is good, the badges aren’t all original and he doesn’t have all the Jaeger instruments.

But, as Ezzy says, “all the money is underneath”.

Open up that massive one-piece front end and you detect an engine in gleaming chrome.

“All the chrome looks good but it keeps the warmth in so I have to get the cooling just right. I’ll use more polished stainless steel parts rather than chrome in future,” he says.

“Chrome takes a lot to keep clean.”

There is also a massive air plate underneath that runs from front to back.

“It’s good for a showcase where they put it on a lift as you don’t see the gearbox and other mechanicals,” he says. “It looks a lot cleaner.”

That hair-raising wild rail at Lakeside led to two other modifications after he immobile the dented panelwork; a fire extinguisher on the front floor and a roll bar.

“It’s about ninety nine per cent where I want it.,” he says “I drive it as much as I can, weather permitting.”

When the weather does turn foul, he can deploy either a material tonneau cover or fibreglass hard top.

“There have been a few times I’ve been tempted to sell it but where do I go to from here?” he asks. “I was suggested $22,000 but I had already stopped keeping receipts at $30,0000.”

“It’s a hobby and part of my life. I’m not married, I have no children, so it’s my baby.”

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