# Ultimate Spitfires by Peter Caygill



## MIflyer (Mar 18, 2022)

I think I bought this book, by mail order, under the impression that it covered highly detailed and accurate Spitfire restorations. But it turns out to be what surely must be the definitive work on the Griffon powered Spitfires and Seafires, both during WWII and after. The 'Ultimate" part is they were the Spits with the most cubes stuffed under the hood.

The Griffon Spitfire got its start the exact same way the Spit IX did, as a quick response to the FW-190 threat. When the first MK V was modified to take a Griffon, Sueprmarne was asked to participate in a July 1942 "Drag Race" with a Typhoon and a captured FW-190. Everyone had been impressed with the 190's turn of speed at low altitude and expected it to leave the British airplane far behind. As it turned out the 190's engine spat out a huge cloud of black smoke and made an emergency landing as the race got started, and the Griffon Spit easily passed the Typhoon and made its high speed pass over Farnborough well ahead of the Typhoon, the exact reverse of what had been expected. This resulted in the Spitfire XII.

But while the Spit XII was impressive, it seems to have been much less useful than the Spit IX. Since the Griffon had only a single stage supercharger it ran out of steam by 25,000 ft, the Spit IX being far superior at higher altitudes. So they built the Spit XIV, which had a two-stage Griffon.

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