Friday, March 21, 2008

Unusual Mk.5s No.4


This one is Ian Knight's car at Mt Tarrangower hillclimb. Basically it has a Mk.7 back and a Mk.5 front. Some people would say aren't the Mark 7 fronts the same as Mark 5s but with a bonnet. The answer is "no". They are completely different. The Mk.5 has a slopier nose, the mouth is lower and the headlights are in a different position for a start. I wonder if this car is still around.

4 comments:

Ikara8 said...

Hi John
thanks for this post as I was going to ask you about the"look" difference between the MK5 and MK7. However I notice the other photos of MK5s have no slots/slits and this one has 3! I assume the slots were added when the car was modified

Great blog

cheers
Graham

John L said...

On original Mk.5s the only slot was for the Triumph Herald/Spitfire bonnet catches.

Colin said...

Hi John.
I found the latches on Mk 5 bonnets terrible and scared myself half to death when I lost the entire front clip at speed at night. Replaced the front pivot bolts with larger ones and the herald latches with leather straps.
Have found the pics of different Mk 5's fascinating.

John L said...

I fitted bigger wheels on mine with similar scary results. Leah and I were on our way to Robe and doing a bit over 100mph along that bumpy old Coorong road when the wheels came up hitting the top of the wheelarch. This was just too much for the bonnet catches and the bonnet sprang up and the nose hit the road. We managed to stop without hitting anything and tied it down with wire. After that I fitted pins and clips. They were from Aunger Accessories, that's how long ago it was.