My experience has also
been that these things that
might annoy you greatly in
the first place, don’t produce
such wrinkles in your psyche
a few weeks down the track.
So do me a favour, Peter:
Go down to your nearest
Camaro and Mustang dealer
and drive an example of
each with an open mind.
I reckon if you’re honest
about it, those lovely big V8s
and rear-drive platforms will
soon be making a bigger
impression than which side
the console is hinged on.
My pick? Thanks to the
price advantage and the
retro looks, my money is on
a five-litre Mustang with a
manual gearbox. Probably
that techy looking silver
colour. Although the metallic
blue is very tempting, too...
She’s a-mine
Just wanted to let you know
I bought the Triumph
Dolomite Sprint featured
in your October 2016 article
and that it’s on the road to
recovery. It now has a newly
restored subframe, front
suspension, and the engine
and gearbox are now back in
TradeUniqueCars.com.au 103thecar.Thebrakecalipers
andtandemmastercylinder
havealsobeenrebuilt.
Theweldingonthe
suspensiontowersisold
weldingfromanattempt
tostrengthenthecarfor
rallying.I havegroundthe
weldsdowna bitbuttheyare
stilluntidy.Havetolivewith
thatI think.Stilla longway
togobutgettingthere.Don
EmailHEY DON, nice to see that
the leads we publish are
actually working to bring
old cars and new owners
together. Yours wouldn’t be
the first car to have a few
home-made modifications
made in the name of rallying
or racing but provided the
mods haven’t reduced the
car’s structural rigidity, then
maybe living with a slightly
untidy set of strut towers
aint so bad.
I’ve never had much to
do with Dolomites but I doconfess to being a big fan of
their styling. That Michelotti
styling has aged remarkably
well and I put the Dollie in
the same basket as the BMW
2002, the Alfa Giulia, Mazda
1500 and the Volvo 144,
that had simple but elegant
glasshouse that stamped
them as classic three-box
designs.
My most vivid memory
of a Dolomite was many,
many years ago on a fairly
empty road between a big
town and the little town
where I worked as a young
dogs-body on a newspaper.
One of my jobs was to drive
the paste-up pages from my
town to the printing shop
in the big town. For this, I
was issued the company
Sigma wagon, a 2.6-litre,
five-speed manual with no
documented top speed (it
would just keep winding
out). This particular day, I
got into a proper road race
with a 1600cc Celica and
a Dolomite Sprint (like I
said, this was a l-o-n-g time
ago). I had the top end, the
Triumph had the jump out
of corners and the Celica
simply had a driver with
huge bollocks. Which wasno help when the highway
patrol car came over the
brow and nailed the Celica at
some insane velocity. Me and
the Dolomite slunk off in the
distance, watching our mirrors
and sweating. And no, you
couldn’t do it now.
The Dolomite engine story
is interesting. Saab
was working on a new
four-cylinder engine in the
1960s, but had run out of
development money. So,
it agreed to hand over the
work to Triumph to finish the
development and build the
engine, providing Saab with
50,000 units. And before
anybody out there poo-poos
the engine, remember it was
good enough to be the basis
of one of the first production
turbo cars (the Saab 99
Turbo) as well as one of the
first modern multi-valve
engines in the 16-valve Dollie
Sprint.
Meantime, is anybody else
spannering up their dream car
at the moment? We’re looking
for Reader’s Resto feature
fodder, so get in touch and
send a few photos. Don, let us
know when your Sprint is up
and running and we’ll tackle a
feature on it, too.