Gosh oh golly, I bought a Dolly.

[miniman]

Just posted on Autoste thread but newbie = mod action before posting.

Anyway. VA803 so very early. Bought from a chap in Dagenham. It had a knackered clutch slave so mate's Disco summoned into trailer action. £850. Crazy.



Anyway, got that sorted and ran it for a couple of years, couple of trackdays, unwise set of Yoko AO48Rs. Nose was always quite crusty but otherwise it was solid as. Overdrive never worked very well (wiring, some tiny spring thing fixed by chap from Dolly club who is serial Sprint restorer in exchange for 12 bottles of Tribute). Tacho never worked just like yours. TADTS.

A temporary cessation of employment turned it into a liquidisable asset. Silver lining - new owner was its old owner - chap who owned it in 1975 who tracked me down via Dolly Club. I think he gave me three grand for it and has subsequently spaffed a stload on a bare metal resto, mega engine action and so forth. God knows what it's worth now. A bit more without a slightly dubious black & sliver plate, natch.

[miniman]

Met another early at a PH meet at Haynes museum.

[Johnspex]

miniman said:

Just posted on Autoste thread but newbie = mod action before posting.

Anyway. VA803 so very early. Bought from a chap in Dagenham. It had a knackered clutch slave so mate's Disco summoned into trailer action. £850. Crazy.



Anyway, got that sorted and ran it for a couple of years, couple of trackdays, unwise set of Yoko AO48Rs. Nose was always quite crusty but otherwise it was solid as. Overdrive never worked very well (wiring, some tiny spring thing fixed by chap from Dolly club who is serial Sprint restorer in exchange for 12 bottles of Tribute). Tacho never worked just like yours. TADTS.

A temporary cessation of employment turned it into a liquidisable asset. Silver lining - new owner was its old owner - chap who owned it in 1975 who tracked me down via Dolly Club. I think he gave me three grand for it and has subsequently spaffed a stload on a bare metal resto, mega engine action and so forth. God knows what it's worth now. A bit more without a slightly dubious black & sliver plate, natch.

I had a Sprint about 35 years ago but it just dawned on me how much difference the vinyl roof and c pillars make to it.

[aeropilot]

Breadvan72 said:

The Sprint was to have been branded the Dolomite 130 or 135 (I forget which and am too lazy to look it up), on the basis that the engine was supposed to produce 130 or 135 BHP. Spen King found that some test bench engines produced 150 BHP, but the production line's standards were not sufficiently consistent to produce 130 or 135 BHP for each production engine (this was partly down to low morale, skiving, bad industrial relations, bad management and so on, but also attributable to lack of investment and worn tools).

As the 130 or 135 name wouldn't do, the hotbox Dolomite was branded as the Dolomite Sprint.

A new Sprint might have a feisty engine or a be a bit of a chuffer, depending on the luck of the draw as it went through the build process. As with many BL cars, some were good when new, but too many were bad (long term test reports in the car mags expressed frustration with many snags, and with poor dealer responses).

Common among most British makers back then. Lotus was another example of that inconsistency in manufacturing, especially with the 16v 900 Series engines. I saw this a lot in the Lotus-Sunbeams, when new, which could be anything from 145hp to 175hp, which is a massive variation in power levels for a 'fixed' specification engine, although, its now clear that the specification of those engines was hardly 'fixed' in the term we would now use today.

My cousin's Sprint (autobox or not) was a real lemon, and the BL dealers were useless back in the day. The Sprint replaced a P6 Rover 2000TC he'd bought new a couple of years before, and while less problematical than the Sprint, he was constantly frustrated by the poor level of service from the BL dealers.
Edit: memory has just kicked in and I remember now that he didn't chop the Sprint in for the Ascona, he chopped it in for a year old Volvo 240! His dad had bought a new Volvo 145 back in the early 70's and replaced it with a nearly new 245 around the time my cousin bought the Dolly. The Volvo's were so much more reliable than anything British at the time that after 18 months or so with the Dolly and getting to the end of the road with BL dealers, he chopped the Dolly into the same Volvo dealer for a nearly new 240 auto just to get rid of it. I forgotten about that maroon 240, as he didn't have it that long, about a year or so, before him and his dad chopped the 2 x Volvo's in for 2 x new Opel's at the same time (had consecutive number plates), he bought the Ascona SR and his dad bought a Rekord estate.

[anonymous-user]

Johnspex said:

I had a Sprint about 35 years ago but it just dawned on me how much difference the vinyl roof and c pillars make to it.

I agree - the car doesn't look quite right without the vinyl. I know that vinyl roofs can be a rust-trap nightmare, but yay seventies!

The Dolomite is not, in my eyes, one of Michelotti's best designs. It's a tad frumpy and upright, and (being from the sixties) looks more sixties than seventies. It does look OK in Sprint guise, but maybe only just, and it is a pity that there was no two door Sprint to rival the two door BMW 2002 tii. The Sprint was a budget-based bodgemobile, right from the start. It's a wonder that it lasted long as it did and did as well as it did, given what a compromised thing it was, and given the problems with build quality.

This is an intelligent article by a US classic car journo comparing the Sprint to the 2002 tii (he owns one of each). He knows his history, and reflects on what might have happened in the alternate reality in which Triumph lived on to become the British BMW. It remains a sad irony that Triumph now exists only as a name owned and kept in a locked drawer by ... BMW.

http://www.automobilemag.com/news/triumph-dolomite...

Edited by anonymous-user on Monday 10th April 09:18

[anonymous-user]

As for variable engine power when new, I have owned three Lotus 900 Series engines (from 1980, 1984 and 1990), and they did seem to vary a lot in punchiness, although by the late 80s Lotus had really sorted that lovely engine (which you can tune up to silly power outputs if you are a nutter and don't mind it exploding) . It is I think one of the best sounding four cylinder engines, especially when paired with a couple of big Dellortos. It is a pity that Lotus did not bung fuel injection on it in its later days.

I have been learning about the Ford Cologne V6 since obtaining a one third share in a Granada Ghia X Estate, which has a 2.8 litre Cologne with a single carb. I am told that some of these were fast cars straight out of the box, and others were slow, which goes to show that even 80s German car workers could be lazy when they wanted to be. The one that I have a share in is a fast one. It won't win any traffic light drag races (big car, three speed autobox), but once it gets going it is pretty foomy.

[P5BNij]

At around four o'clock this morning I was standing on the corner of Old Oak Common Lane and Channel Gate Road in NW10 waiting for a taxi and the air was filled with a raucous sound, a few seconds later a very tatty and faded red Dolly Sprint rumbles by, leaving a warm fuzzy glow in its wake. Smashing!

[tankplanker]

I had a light blue one as my second car. It replaced a mostly rust and filler Escort Mexico that was my first car and had become too far gone for my limited budget to save. I bought my Dolly as a MOT failure for £50, spent £500 getting it back on the road, then drove it for nearly three years before it got chopped in for something newer but far less interesting.

Mine was meant to make about 150 BHP with all the usual bolt ons. I also had the over drive mod so you could activate it in any gear. This may or may not be related to the gearbox losing first and then second gear before I had to replace the gearbox.

I taught the wife how to drive in the Dolly, which was an interesting and exciting experience for her as it was a bit more demanding to drive than a modern car.

I still get a hankering for a decent example, preferably in Purple. There used to be a good tuner in Dorset or Devon? He used to be able to replicate the full rally prep, moving the engine back etc.

[Poisson96]

Mmmm a Purple Dolly, the colour I want one in since I saw one in that colour

[aeropilot]

Poisson96 said:

Mmmm a Purple Dolly, the colour I want one in since I saw one in that colour

Magenta, magenta......

Back in around 1982/3, a mate of a mate had a Magenta Triumph Slag.......and there was a guy at the place I worked at around the same time had a Magenta GT6.....fabulous colour.

[anonymous-user]

I have been out and about spotting heaps in the heap: photos below. I also saw but could not photograph (because I was driving) a small convoy of MGBs that was led by an Austin Healey. None of the miserable sods gave me a smile or a wave in return for my cheery greeting. Tweed wearing sixties sports car dullards with briar pipes, and food in their beards, I expect. I have twice spotted a red TR6 recently, once driven by an old dude who did wave, and the next time driven by (presumably) his too cool for school son who was too busy being awesome in his shades to notice other road users gurning at him.

In the photos below, the blue MG is a daily driver that lives outdoors all year. It is owned by a cheery looking non pipe smoker. The Scimitar (an SE5 manual) belongs to a pleasant father and son combo who own a large collection of British jalopies.

Stopping at a local BP garage /Co-op shop yesterday to buy some wine on the way home from work, the young bloke behind the counter admired the Dolly and impressed me by telling me that he has a 1989 Rangey Classic as his daily. He's just fitted a Holley Carb to it in order to make his MPG even more bonkers.

[Yertis]

Breadvan72 said:

I have been out and about spotting heaps in the heap: photos below. I also saw but could not photograph (because I was driving) a small convoy of MGBs that was led by an Austin Healey. None of the miserable sods gave me a smile or a wave in return for my cheery greeting. Tweed wearing sixties sports car dullards with briar pipes, and food in their beards, I expect. I have twice spotted a red TR6 recently, once driven by an old dude who did wave, and the next time driven by (presumably) his too cool for school son who was too busy being awesome in his shades to notice other road users gurning at him.

If it was his Dad's car

a. he probably hasn't suffered the skinned knuckles of long-term Triumph ownership, and the comradeship this brings.

b. he was concentrating on keeping it going where it was pointed

c. he was worried something was wrong.

Or all three. MGs definitely seem to attract a different type of owner to Triumphs. Nothing wrong with them, but I wouldn't want my daughter to marry one.

[anonymous-user]

I agree. I am grateful to MG owners for leaving the motorways clear for Triumph-driving by always staying in the inside lane at 55 mph, although I am sorry for those driving lorries or towing caravans and horseboxes, who have to put up with this. When I saw the MG convoy with its Austin Healey flagship sail by, the cars were going in the opposite direction to me, but had we been going in the same direction I could probably have overtaken all of them at once without changing gear and well before the next bend (this being on a stretch of road where you normally get only one chance to overtake and have to be quick about it if the solitary chance comes up). Still, they have their hobby, so, bless.

I assume, BTW, that the Big Healey was on escort duty (perhaps it had been detailed to lead all the MGs to a scrapyard for humane destruction) and so could not hoon, as usually when I see Big Healeys they are hooning.

Edited by anonymous-user on Tuesday 11th April 17:26

[anonymous-user]

Confession corner: I recently had a moment of insanity and came very close to buying an MGF, but as it turned out that the head gasket had gone before the purchase could be completed, I came to my senses and bailed. It is a pity about the OMGHGF on those cars, because a mid engined two seater that is said to handle well would otherwise be an attractive proposition, MG badge notwithstanding. I am told than MG RV8s are not bad things, but they are rare and not all that cheap.

[P5BNij]

Had a little chuckle to myself at the MG owners comments BV, reminds me of the conversation I had last week with the old boy who lives behind our gaff, he has a '72 Roadster which he bought new and likes tweaking / improving it at any given opportunity, this apparently gets some of his fellow MGists into a right old lather for daring to alter the Abingdon missile in any way shape or form. The irony is he's the tweedy beardy one while they're mostly a lot younger than he is, but they come across like a bunch of old farts. He scores extra 'ace' points in my book for looking like DSJ 'Jenks' long lost twin brother and having an old '50s motorcycle and an Austin Seven as his other toys.

[anonymous-user]

Good old dude. MGBs in standard spec are so dire that they have to be altered if they are to be usable as cars.

[CharlesdeGaulle]

The car's looking good BV.

[Yertis]

Breadvan72 said:

MGBs in standard spec are so dire that they have to be altered if they are to be usable as cars.

In fairness I'd level that criticism at most separate-chassis Triumphs too, mid-period GT6s being the exception.

[Poisson96]

MG owners are mostly miserable people (have met some who aren't shock horror) but also I get looked down upon by Healey's etc in the Heap XD

[aeropilot]

Breadvan72 said:

I assume, BTW, that the Big Healey was on escort duty (perhaps it had been detailed to lead all the MGs to a scrapyard for humane destruction) and so could not hoon, as usually when I see Big Healeys they are hooning.