Triumph Repair: Spitfire rear suspension, negative camber, mike crane

Question
I recently purchased an 80 Spitfire and being new to Spits am learning as I go.  When I got to the point of removing the rear suspension I found the rear had coil springs located around the shocks.  My guess was either weak rear suspension or better handling. No where have I seen this as factory, what's the reason for doing this and what remedy should I be considering when I put it all back?
This does not look like it would be a bad idea (coils) in addition to the spring but would need to fabricate an upper coild support as they were just stuck in there going around the upper bolt and connection point if going to keep.  I did not drive the car previous to tearing it apart so I don't know how it might have handled.
The Spitifre is competely a part and corrections could be easy made at this point.   Any input or comments would be great.
Regards,
Mike Crane

Answer
Hi Mike,
When the transverse spring gets weak and the rear sags, it causes a negative camber due to the swing axle suspension, so most owners just replace the rear shocks with coil over shocks to help support the rear of the car. Other options are "Gas over oil" shocks, air shocks or replace the spring.
Howard