Yellow Peril! Dolomite Sprint Content

[Crackers]

WOWsers. Yeah, that's fit as.

Dollies always look fantastic in bright colours but I think that takes the cake.

[SiC]

4 hours ago, trigger said:

Thank you everyone! Funny you say that, this one has the same problem! 

It's a tremendous car to drive, I can't even compare it to my old 1500 SE, it really is like chalk and cheese, the 1500 was quite slow and noisy and a much more sedate way to travel, this on the other hand is a lot more fun! 

It really flies, even by todays standards and will happily scare a Audi driver! 70mph in 4th with overdrive engaged is just under 3000 rpm so it's pretty quiet and refined but out on the B roads its a lot of fun, the steering reminds me of a proper Mini, lots of response and feedback and very nimble, you forget how small they actually are! 

It probably helps that this has poly bushes all round, Spax shocks, obviously the lowered suspension which I need to change and the braided hoses and EBC Green Stuff pads, someone spent some money on it! I love driving it! 

Glad you said that! I haven't had a proper drive yet of mine, apart from motorway drive back. I've read mix reviews of the Dolomite but hoped it would be a good mix.

Mines lowered (I think) with (squeaky) poly bushes and rusty Spax! 

How do you find the brakes? The front discs and calipers are the same size across the range bizarrely. 

[trigger]

19 minutes ago, SiC said:

How do you find the brakes? The front discs and calipers are the same size across the range bizarrely. 

I read loads comments about how rubbish they are but personally I find them to be pretty good, mine have been upgraded to braided hoses and EBC green stuff pads which I'm sure help and I've got a set of EBC grooved discs that I bought cheap to fit at some point but under normal driving I've had no issues. 

[cort1977]

Looks a really nice car.  I don't know much about these but in some ways they resemble an improved Cortina 1600E, got that same 'small executive' vibe about them.

[Dan302]

4 hours ago, trigger said:

I read loads comments about how rubbish they are but personally I find them to be pretty good, mine have been upgraded to braided hoses and EBC green stuff pads which I'm sure help and I've got a set of EBC grooved discs that I bought cheap to fit at some point but under normal driving I've had no issues. 

Mine were awful, i imagine the pads it had were cheap and nasty ones, I bought some EBC Green Stuff pads to try but sold the car before I got around to fitting them, would have been interesting to compare.

[Isaac Hunt]

On 4/20/2021 at 11:32 PM, trigger said:

Having already posted a post over on the News24 thread and raising a bit of interest I thought I'd make as well make the effort and put a thread up for it. So earlier last year I had the Granada Scorpio and the Marina estate, both lovely cars but lock down happened and things were starting to get to me a bit, the Granada wasn't being used yet I was forking out tax on it so i sold that and bought a 1962 Vauxhall Victor FB for the wife as it was cheap and as i had a little money saved i decided sell the Marina and to start looking for a Dolomite Sprint as I'd been hankering after one for years.

Then back in July a Facebook contact i know mentioned that he was thinking of selling his one so me and Mrs Trigger took a drive to Potters Bar to take a look and i fell in love with it!

I was a bit more than i wanted to spend, a bit rougher than i hoped and the clutch was shagged but it had plenty of potential so a deal was struck and he agreed to deliver it for me too.

 

It was originally a automatic but in 1991 converted to a 4 speed with overdrive and it's only done 71000 miles, has mots from 1986 back this up and the previous owner managed to send of the V888 form get copies of all the old V5's, the first owner was BL Cars of Cowley for the first 2 years, I'm not sure if it was Unipart managers car? 

That is the Dogs Danglies for sure and has benefitted from the Trig Treatment.

There is an extremely high probability that it was a Unipart Management Car Plan car, they were very popular on the scheme ‘in the day’.  

[Isaac Hunt]

Having now seen the copy of the original ref document, there you have it, Unipart MCP scheme.  

[trigger]

Ah! I wondered what MCP meant! Thank you! So it would have been a Unipart managers car for the first 2 years then? 

[timolloyd]

Management Car Pool?

[SiC]

1 hour ago, timolloyd said:

Management Car Pool?

Presumably it's 

13 hours ago, Isaac Hunt said:

There is an extremely high probability that it was a Unipart Management Car Plan car, they were very popular on the scheme ‘in the day’.

😜

[atomic punk]

18 hours ago, Dan302 said:

Mine were awful, i imagine the pads it had were cheap and nasty ones, I bought some EBC Green Stuff pads to try but sold the car before I got around to fitting them, would have been interesting to compare.

Same with my stag, I was always told they had bad brakes, and they were awful when I first got it. A careful rebuild of the braking system combined with good quality pads, and they are actually pretty good now.  Keeping them tip top is the key.

A dolly sprint is high on my want list too, far better than an rs2000 yet the rs is 3 times the price? 

[Garythesnail]

Nice - my parents went through several small Triumphs when I was  kid. I remember being disappointed with the appearance and quality of dashboards in 'inferior' cars.

 

Anyone else prefer the look of these without the front bumper or is it just me?

[Cookiesouwest]

37 minutes ago, Garythesnail said:

Nice - my parents went through several small Triumphs when I was  kid. I remember being disappointed with the appearance and quality of dashboards in 'inferior' cars.

 

Anyone else prefer the look of these without the front bumper or is it just me?

My Dad had a 1972 2.5pi mk2.

I'm still disappointed by every other dash I've ever seen.

[Isaac Hunt]

16 hours ago, trigger said:

Ah! I wondered what MCP meant! Thank you! So it would have been a Unipart managers car for the first 2 years then? 

MCP = Management Car Plan, available to anyone of a Management (Non Clerical Grade) who did not qualify for a Business Car.  

Two years not, about 6 to 9 months.  Sometimes one had to order your next car when you collected a new one.  

6 to 9 months and it would be back in and on its way to the dealer network as nearly new.  

As one moved up the grades, ones entitlement increased.  At one stage I had a business car, and MCP car for the wife and a second MCP car for the FIL.  It was a bit like a modern day PCP, so much a month.   BL ran the same scheme.  

By the time I arrived, the Sprint had been out of production and we were in to MG Metros and MG Maestros of talking dash fame followed by Rover 216 Vitesse of which I remember an extremely spirited drive to the south of France four up, speed warnings flashing at every village.

I remember someone showing me an old photo of the staff car park, stuffed full of Dolly Sprints.

Dolly Sprints were very very popular, it was quite a car in its day despite all the shite about HGF.  By 1980 you got 16V, Alloys, Sundym Glass, Vinyl Roof, Bri-Nylon cloth trim, wood veneer, overdrive if manual, cool is that, a switch on your knob to change gear and some decent oooomf to go with it.  

When the man next door had a ‘poverty spec’ Ford or Fauxhall or a Talbot Solara, you’d arrived when you rocked up with a Dolly Sprint.

i remember when I was a lad, a friend up the road, his Dad came to see him, the Dolly Sprint had not long been launched, I was a kid, and this Pimento Red Sprint turned into our road and booted it, I think that was the day I learned to say ‘fookinell’ as my jaw hit the floor.  

I worked for a guy in marketing, Alan (his surname will come back to me) and I seem to recall him once saying he had a yellow Sprint Auto, but as I say, they were very popular.   There was a tale of two yellow sprints parked next to each other at a wedding, someone nipped out and swopped the number plates and when everybody was pissed up there was much ROFL as the first driver back tried to unlock ‘his car’.  TBH the locks were of few differs so with a wiggle he might have got in.

 

[bezzabsa]

is it me or do the rear doors appear to be 'out'?? PS seems to be sticking out  DS seems to be sticking in???

may be angle of pics.....

Bro had a spring and I had an 1850Hl....would love another, but wayyyyyy out my price range

[SiC]

21 minutes ago, bezzabsa said:

is it me or do the rear doors appear to be 'out'?? PS seems to be sticking out  DS seems to be sticking in???

may be angle of pics.....

Bro had a spring and I had an 1850Hl....would love another, but wayyyyyy out my price range

You mean the door handles? They don't line up on the Dolly! Irritates some. 

[wuvvum]

I've probably mentioned this before, but there is an old dear in Wroxham who has a Dolly Sprint identical to that.  She must be 80 years old if she's a day, and she's probably had it from new.  Looks immaculate.

[SiC]

I've come to the opinion that no Dolomite is immaculate. They make look it, but once you start poking...

The club Facebook page is another odd place. If you post up pictures of your cars rusty bits, half the members post up with pictures of theirs but even worse. It's almost like that it's a competition! 🤣

[Minimad5]

Good to see you posting here again mate.

Car looks a cracker 😎

Hope yourself, good lady and little legs are all okay. Keep the shite content coming 

[montytom]

Very envious. Always loved these and it's in the best colour aswell.

It's one of them cars that is now out of my price range unfortunately. 

Thanks for sharing 

[trigger]

Thanks again. 

5 hours ago, bezzabsa said:

is it me or do the rear doors appear to be 'out'?? PS seems to be sticking out  DS seems to be sticking in???

yeah the door alignments is a little off, not sure if that's from factory or where its been resprayed, I've had a little fiddle but can't seem to get them much better. 

5 hours ago, Isaac Hunt said:

Dolly Sprints were very very popular

 

It's interesting that you say they kept them for 6-9 months as it was definitely 2 years old when the next owner, a Doctor from Selly Oak, Birmingham bought it. 

[Spottedlaurel]

Looks great, hope to see it in the metal one day!

[trigger]

29 minutes ago, Spottedlaurel said:

Looks great, hope to see it in the metal one day!

Thanks Nigel! I hope your keeping well by the way? We have some dates for our car meets again for this summer, the one in May is at the Foxhall Aviation museum but after that it's back at Shotley again. 

[Isaac Hunt]

5 hours ago, trigger said:

Thanks again. 

yeah the door alignments is a little off, not sure if that's from factory or where its been resprayed, I've had a little fiddle but can't seem to get them much better. 

It's interesting that you say they kept them for 6-9 months as it was definitely 2 years old when the next owner, a Doctor from Selly Oak, Birmingham bought it. 

There was always the odd person, like me, who had a car they liked and didn’t like anything on the replacement list (not all cars were always available) so you didn’t put your order form in the internal mail.  That gave you some time before the chase came.  You then took more time to get the form in.  I would hazard a guess that this was probably one of the last Sprints on the scheme and something like a Triumph Acclaim CD with all the toys did not appeal as a replacement.   I had a Rover 216GSI for Mrs Hunt, someone ran her off the road and she took out a signpost.  Car was about 4 weeks old.  It went into the bodyshop and they had it  for a good few weeks.  I remember collecting it and then handing it back in as the replacement car was ready.  So we only drove it for about 5 weeks.   It was a ‘deal upgrade’ and it was GSI with ABS for a special price, they must have had too many in the car pound.  

[Dan302]

Yes the interiors were brilliant, I loved the slices of cake style warning light display. My Sprint had the black interior which looked great and was so comfortable.

I'd also had a Green 1500HL with a beige interior but that was before I passed my test and ended being scrapped in the early 2000s

[wuvvum]

3 hours ago, trigger said:

Thanks Nigel! I hope your keeping well by the way? We have some dates for our car meets again for this summer, the one in May is at the Foxhall Aviation museum but after that it's back at Shotley again. 

Ooh, excellent.  I shall pencil Wed 23rd June in my diary.

[trigger]

So a bit more of a update, The cars been driving well apart from the oil leak but i wasn't happy with a few rusty bits, seeing as the cars value seems to have gone up significantly since covid i decided to bite the bullet and get it booked into a professional bodyshop here in Ipswich.

These were the worse bit, the lower quarter needed a new plate welded in and both wing tips had been plugged before and need repairing as well as the screen surround.

and the finished result

Money well spent i think, They done both wings, front panel, full screen surround, rear quarter and a scratch on the rear door for £700

I haven't got a good photos yet but you get the idea! I also got a little mention in this months PC magazine which was nice! I haven't got the Victor anymore but that another story!

In a few weeks I'm taking it to the Cotswolds for the weekend for the Morris Marina Nationals where it will be going to the Cowley factory (where it started live with a Unipart Manager) and then on display at Gaydon on the Sunday so I'm sure i'll see some of you there!

[Isaac Hunt]

Looks even better now and it was nice before.  

Some proper period repairs there, although I would imagine with less filler and more metal.

good find on that bodyshop, I am sure many would have quoted silly money for a job like that.

get plenty of waxoyl up behind those wing repairs

[Crackers]

Bloody lovely. 

 

^Fairly sure I say that every time you post a picture of it, but I have a bit of a moment every time I see a Sprint. And in yellow... phwooaaaaarrrrr

[High Jetter]

That is fit. Saw it in the mag. I guess a random is unlikely?