James,
Congratulations, you are now really starting to enjoy your Spitfire, and
drive it like the makers intended!! Admittedly, the makers probably never
thought they'd still be around in 25 years time (or however old yours is),
let alone still be driven this way, but they were designed for it!
Yes, it does get noisier, but there's nothing wrong with that - that's just
how it was designed, long before the days of stringent noise regulations. I
probably change up around 3500 rpm (at a guess, I'll watch my rev-counter
more carefully on the way home to see what I actually do) when driving
normally, more like 4000-4500 when I treat myself to a spot of fun if the
roads are clear.
I took my Spit on a track day last April, and on the freedom of a race track
(Cadwell Park) I was going right round to the 6000 red line, to get the most
out of the engine. She did 4 20-minute sessions of this sort of hard
driving, plus 1 1/2 hours enthusiastic cross-country drive there and the
same back, with no ill syptoms at all, and has covered 9000 miles since
without collapsing yet!
The 1500 engine, because the extra capacity was achieved by increasing the
stroke, does not rev as enthusiastically as it might - there's not a lot of
extra power above 5000 rpm - unlike the 1296 engine which (reportedly, I've
never driven one) is much happier at high revs. This was made apparent to
me by the fact that I will change up around 5500 rpm however hard I'm going,
as there's no more acceleration beyond there, yet when I borrowed a Peugeot
306 XSR (or whatever the hot version is called) from work a while back I
found myself bouncing off the rev-limiter, as it kept on pulling hard right
up to the limit so I never wanted to change up.
That stupid grin on your face? That's what a Spitfire is supposed to do to
you. I have one every day I get to work and the traffic has been clear at
least half the way.
ENJOY!!!!!
Richard & Daffy
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