Karen Miller and members of the Triumph Sports Six Club Shropshire area group with the Spitfire which will be restored

When Shropshire pensioner Robert Dyke splashed out on a vintage Triumph Spitfire nearly 30 years ago he vowed to family and friends to restore it to its former glory and get it back on the road.

Mr Dyke, known as Bob, got all the parts together, but the former electrician, from Belle Vue in Shrewsbury, was never able to get round to doing the work and died in 2008, aged 70, after a long battle with cancer.

The dream could have ended there – but Mr Dyke’s family has decided to donate the car to the Triumph Sports Six Club, with the agreement that it will be restored and used for charitable purposes.

His daughter Karen Miller, 44, of Garmston, near Shrewsbury, said the car was originally bought for her 18th birthday but she was not able to drive it due to having to “double declutch” when changing gear.

She said: “The car had been sitting in his garage for about 25 years but he had been collecting everything needed to restore it over the years.

“When he retired he intended to restore it, but first my mum became ill and then he was poorly and he never had the opportunity to do it.”

Karen, who now cares for her mother at her home, said her parents’ house was now being sold and she had decided to donate the car to the Triumph Sports Six Club, with the agreement that it would be restored and used for charitable purposes.

She said: “I know Dad would approve of it, it’s something he really would have wanted.

“He was a very kind and generous man and he was always working for the good of others.

“It’s something that makes you feel good inside and I know he would look down and smile and say ‘yes good choice’.”

Karen said that the club would loan out the car for charity events, with people even able to go for a spin in it.

Mr Dyke was never able to get around to doing the work on the car as first his wife developed Parkinson’s Disease and he became her carer, before he himself was diagnosed with cancer.

He died in March 2008, aged 70, at the Severn Hospice after a 10-year battle with the disease and his dream of seeing the car restored never materialising.