RE: Triumph Dolomite Sprint: Spotted
Discussion
These little cars always did very well in Production Saloon racing when they were new which shows how good the basic car was.
Production Saloons was like group N, basically a standard road car with a roll cage, stiffer shocks, uprated pads, road tyres etc the Sprint usually won their class.
If you want to see how well they over-steered check out this old clip!
Gerry Marshall racing the Group 1 Sprint (220 bhp) and the Production Spec (140 bhp) Sprint (fast forward to 11 mins to get to the Production spec racers, racing starts from around at 13mins 30 secs)
https://youtu.be/AD8SlqqKocA
Production Saloons was like group N, basically a standard road car with a roll cage, stiffer shocks, uprated pads, road tyres etc the Sprint usually won their class.
If you want to see how well they over-steered check out this old clip!
Gerry Marshall racing the Group 1 Sprint (220 bhp) and the Production Spec (140 bhp) Sprint (fast forward to 11 mins to get to the Production spec racers, racing starts from around at 13mins 30 secs)
https://youtu.be/AD8SlqqKocA
hardworker said:
Nice. It would be great for Britain to have even 1 decent sized car manufacturer (have France, Italy and Germany sold every single last one of their car manufacturers to foreigners?).
Germany - BMW, VW and Daimler are all listed on the Frankfurt stock exchange, with global HQs in Germany. Opel was sold by GM to PSA last year.Italy - Fiat-Chrysler is listed on the NY and Milan stock exchanges, with a global HQ in London.
France - PSA and Renault cars are listed on the Paris stock exchange, with global HQs in Paris. Renault trucks is owned by Volvo group (Volvo cars are Chinese-owned), who are listed on the Stockholm stock exchange.
Anybody, of any nationality, can buy shares in any of them, of course... (And, before you ask - no, you can't buy shares in Tata, because it's not a public listed company - it's almost entirely ultimately owned by the Tata family.)
hardworker said:
We should make a point of buying back JLR (and iconic Rolls Royce) at the first opportunity or revive Rover.
Why? Just so a flag can be stuck on a freshly-polished turd?can't remember said:
I have to admit that I love Triumphs if this ere. The Dolly Sprint, the 2500s , and the Stag (if properly serviced) were really good cars. Chuck in the bargain bucket Toledo and the GT6/Spitfire and you had a really good line-up.
Well done BL/Rover for killing Triumph.
You say that, but don't forget that Leyland bought Standard-Triumph from the brink of bankruptcy in 1960, two years before the Spitfire was launched, three before the 2000, and five before the 1300 which developed into the Dolly/Toledo - so all the Triumphs you name simply wouldn't have existed at all without "BL".Well done BL/Rover for killing Triumph.
Mine was Vermillion (orange) and less than four years old, it boiled up a couple of miles after picking it up from the dealers, After several head gaskets it eventually had a reconditioned engine, that too had several head gaskets. Once an uprated water pump and radiator were fitted it was better but never totally trustworthy. It was nicknamed 'Dolopashyte'. After 12 months the warranty expired and I was on my own, I learnt a lot about those engines over the next year lol
The engine design was clever (it won some sort of award) single cam and 16 valve, it just lacked a bit of development by BL which was done later on by the specialists that identified and cured the problems, the angle of some of the head bolts and a lack of locating dowels didn't bode well.
I persevered with the upright old girl even though it was rusting especially the rear of the boot lid and rear panel. Good points, it was easy to convert understeer into oversteer by removing some shims from the front suspension giving it some purposeful negative camber, a full Janspeed exhaust got rid of the strangely routed original that had silencers crossways under both front (or was it rear) seats. I loved the interior, the wood dash with a plathora of dials and that nice steering wheel, it was a comfy car to do the mileage in.
My lasting memory is of the temperature gauge or should that be the head gasket failure gauge as its what I spent most time looking at and is responsible for my paranoia of overheating even today!
I had a bad one and was unlucky but they weren't all bad.
The engine design was clever (it won some sort of award) single cam and 16 valve, it just lacked a bit of development by BL which was done later on by the specialists that identified and cured the problems, the angle of some of the head bolts and a lack of locating dowels didn't bode well.
I persevered with the upright old girl even though it was rusting especially the rear of the boot lid and rear panel. Good points, it was easy to convert understeer into oversteer by removing some shims from the front suspension giving it some purposeful negative camber, a full Janspeed exhaust got rid of the strangely routed original that had silencers crossways under both front (or was it rear) seats. I loved the interior, the wood dash with a plathora of dials and that nice steering wheel, it was a comfy car to do the mileage in.
My lasting memory is of the temperature gauge or should that be the head gasket failure gauge as its what I spent most time looking at and is responsible for my paranoia of overheating even today!
I had a bad one and was unlucky but they weren't all bad.
I had two different versions of the dolly sprint back In the 80’s.
As someone mentioned, they were prett quick cars back in the day, mine would regularly outrun RS2000’s And 205 GTI’s. too!
They were a night mare to Maintain though and a pain to. Work on too, but l learnt many valuable mechanics skills just keeping it running.
I keep looking at them in the classified adverts, but most seem to be pretty rough, even after extensive “ restoration “!
On and no one else mentioned it, but they had huge leather hinged hand straps in the. Back, which earned the Nickname in my car as. “ Ankle Straps “!
As someone mentioned, they were prett quick cars back in the day, mine would regularly outrun RS2000’s And 205 GTI’s. too!
They were a night mare to Maintain though and a pain to. Work on too, but l learnt many valuable mechanics skills just keeping it running.
I keep looking at them in the classified adverts, but most seem to be pretty rough, even after extensive “ restoration “!
On and no one else mentioned it, but they had huge leather hinged hand straps in the. Back, which earned the Nickname in my car as. “ Ankle Straps “!
hardworker said:
Nice. It would be great for Britain to have even 1 decent sized car manufacturer (have France, Italy and Germany sold every single last one of their car manufacturers to foreigners?). We should make a point of buying back JLR (and iconic Rolls Royce) at the first opportunity or revive Rover.
Yeah, damn foreigners. Coming in here and buying our failing automobile companies.How did a lovely car turn into a nationalist rant? Or is that just how Britain works now?
Took one for a test drive in the 90’s , with a view to buying. Jumped out of first gear a few times- common issue- so didn’t splash my cash. They may be a little delicate as an everyday driver, but as a pampered useable classic they’re hard to beat. Much nicer than an escort rs2000,and going on recent prices about half the price also.
JimbobVFR said:
That's lovely. I had one about 15 years ago but mine was Maple (milk chocolate brown would be more accurate) with a brown velour interior.
Easiest car I've ever had to drift round roundabouts, even when you didn't necessarily want to
Ah memories! My one had an amazing ability to head for the nearest ditch at the first sign of rain. Easy to mod though, mine got lowered suspension, uprated brakes and engine mods to about 180 bhp. Got flattened by a tree in the Great Storm of 1987.Easiest car I've ever had to drift round roundabouts, even when you didn't necessarily want to
Took one for a test drive in the 90’s , with a view to buying. Jumped out of first gear a few times- common issue- so didn’t splash my cash. They may be a little delicate as an everyday driver, but as a pampered useable classic they’re hard to beat. Much nicer than an escort rs2000,and going on recent prices about half the price also.
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