Denny, I have no idea why that spitfire acted that way, but it did it twice in the relatively short time my daughter drove it. It would be terribly hard to start, and when it did finally catch, full throttle was the only way it would continue to run. In both instances, changing the condenser was all that was necessary to cure the problem, even used the same set of points!

Yours sounds more like a fuel supply problem or a piece of trash floating around in the carburetor. Have you tried running a temporary supply line to the fuel pump out of an auxiliary tank? I'd suggest a test drive with a 2-gallon gas can in the passenger's side floorboard and a piece of rubber fuel line to the pump inlet.
Jerry

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