It is a blessed few who can say they own a car, but even fewer can say they own a piece of history. Junior Alex Seals is proud to own his 1978 Triumph Spitfire.

Seals never planned on owning an antique car, but when he went to the London Auto dealership with his father, the Spitfire was there. Seals’ dad knew the owner of the dealership because that was where he had bought his first car.

The old owner of the Spitfire had left it at the dealership, and Seals and his father were able to get it at a cheaper price. The only problem was that it needed a lot of work in order to get in running condition.

“I wanted to work on something, it ended up being a car just to tinker on,” said Seals.

Seals and his father bought the car in August and had it running by September. They were working on it together and were planning to sell it when Seals decided to buy it for himself instead. It still needed some more work but Seals decided to do the rest of it himself.

“I liked how it looked,” said Seals.

Seals enjoyed working on his Spitfire and was able to find out many things about it. The car was red but he found that the previous owner had painted it white and maybe orange at some point. Beside the total appearance of the car there was a lot more to it that Seals had to worry about.  Among other problems under the hood, Seals also found another major issue.

“It didn’t have a top on it,” said Seals.

At first he didn’t think this was much of a problem. It wasn’t till his was out running errands when it suddenly started to rain. He had to drive back on I-95 with the rain in his face.

“It was nice and dry when I left,” said Seals.

Since Seals walks to school he just drives his antique car around when he can. Seals is proud to say, though, that he has it up and running.

“It doesn’t need anything else but gas,” said Seals.