Classic British Motorsport - triumph Dolomite Sprints :)

[m9fdb]

i just come across this on the net - the Dolly's look like there are flying along

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD8SlqqKocA

[jleyton]

Great viewing - those were the days

And the interviews make good viewing as well - they're jokey and friendly, unlike the intense stuff of drivers today.

Used to have a Dolly Sprint as a company car - brilliant, even if it did cook it's head at 800 miles

Cheers

Julian

[m9fdb]

Like many classic's I have a soft spot for a Dolly sprint i had one as my first car

I was also looking at this last night as a cheaper alternative to a VW Camper van - I like the Rover Rostyle wheels on it but would change the colour to a blue bottom half.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LPG-1972-COMMER-PB-AUTOSLEEPER-CAMPERVAN-/181212948766?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item2a3122291e

[tonyh]

Now here is an interesting fact for you. They had problems with the sprints overheating under race conditions, they were fine normal driving but on the track they overheated, all the sprints had 12 vane water pumps, some bright spark at Tom Wilkinshaw's works decided to remove the 12 vane pump and cut off 6 of the vanes, this cured there overheating problems under race conditions. I had the same problem with my Modsport Stag, took out the 12 vane pump, put in a 6 vane pump, problem solved.

For everyday driving in a Stag 6 and 12 vane pumps perform the same.

Tony.

[DJT]

A local former Stag owner bought a nearly new Dolly Sprint. It had a history of overheating with 2 new engines fitted under warranty. He found that the radiator was faulty, with half of it blocked off. Fitted a new radiator and had no further problems. That Sprint is still around today.

[Dave M]

Like many classic's I have a soft spot for a Dolly sprint i had one as my first car

I was also looking at this last night as a cheaper alternative to a VW Camper van - I like the Rover Rostyle wheels on it but would change the colour to a blue bottom half.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LPG-1972-C...item2a3122291e

My wife has a Commer camper van so it must be stag thing, they are becoming more popular and prices are on the up. If you look on the Commer Van Fan website there is mention of this van on there. There's a guy called Martin Maltas who is doing repair panels for the bodywork which were not available until recently. Fitting the Rover Rostyles is a popular mod and there's even a couple of guys running Rover V8s. We enjoy using ours and it certainly attracts attention.
Dave

[torque2me]

i just come across this on the net - the Dolly's look like there are flying along

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD8SlqqKocA

Aaahhh, Gerry Marshall and Tony Lanfranchini - still got my racing logbook with their sigs as instructors to whatever my effort was on Brands Hatch track that particular day. Won't mention the comments section ;-)

Kev

[staginhiding]

Great viewing,thoroughly enjoyed it..They certainly put those Dolly Sprints through their paces..
I had a friend with one that drove it the same way down country lanes.Used to frighten the life out of me..

Sam

[Stocky]

Some real tail-out, oversteer action. Excellent!

[Ian Durrant]

I remember an interview with Gerry Marshal, not sure if it was on TV or if I read it now, but he was asked if he had ever thought of using his talent for single seater cars to which he replied something along the lines of "Are you kidding?, have you looked at me?"

He was pretty talented though!

[staginhiding]

What surprised me (unless it was a requirement)was that they left the seats and other weighty stuff in..ok someone put me straight.

[jleyton]

They had problems with the sprints overheating under race conditions, they were fine normal driving but on the track they overheated,
Tony.

Hi Tony, Can I just start by saying that I consider you to be one of my motoring heroes Not wishing to sound too sycophantic but if it were not for your efforts then we all know that the Stag world would not be where it is today. Having been involved with Triumph for the first ten years of my working life, that means a lot to me.

So, why that introduction ?

Well, you say that Sprints didn't overheat in normal driving, however I beg to differ with you slightly. When I was parts manager at Lex mead Swansea in the late 70s I had a Sprint as a company car - it was brilliant. However, with just 800 miles on the clock, as I was driving along a newly opened section of the M4, it overheated. (That incident has always made me prefer warning lights to gauges).

Ok, I hear you say, maybe that was a one off. Well, after we got the car back to our garage, our guys quickly replaced the head. I was amazed that we had one in stock but the level of demand was such that we actually had three in stock ! I know that because just a few weeks later I took the car on a continental trip and I supplemented the touring kit (remember those ?) with one of the spare heads we had in stock.

In fact, at the last minute I left it out because of lack of space and the car performed perfectly for my journey, as it did for the next 5 or 6,000 miles. Ah well, maybe they weren't so bad after all ! Happy days

Cheers

Julian

[5chaiaday]

My first car (at the tender age of 20) was a Dolly Sprint. It was a hoot but I can confirm it was definitely prone to overheating. Mind you, I bought it for 400 quid and the temperature gauge was disconnected - I should have known but had the optimism and naivity of youth on my side.

Still, it introduced me to my very first head gasket replacement, the delights of iron blocks and alloy heads and the brilliance of angled head studs. Oh, and how to plaster the bodywork with filler instead of doing a proper repair. Happy Days indeed..............

Ed.