Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Oh my, 4 months to build 206 cars is not exactly being a volume car manufacturer!
Don't forget Rafe, this is only Sprints! they WERE building other models of Dolomite too! In much bigger numbers. And the Sprint was only ever a fairly limited edition, top of the range model, with a mere 21000+ cars built in 7 years. The numbers may be more than reversed now, with more surviving Sprints than all the other models combined, but it was not like that in production times.
Steve
Were they bothered about Sprint production much after they'd made the 5000 needed in 1973?
I thought they only continued any because they could only race it for 4 years after production stopped (changed to 5 years in Appendix J 1975). Also, when the slant-four cost-reduction programme was cancelled with the first death of SD2, the O-series engine was getting all the development funding. They were going to put that in the TR7 till about 1980.
Graham
I don't know much about the O series development, but Sprints are a different thing! It was never a Homologation special, like the TR7 Sprint was and I rather fancy that the original Triumph plan for the slant motor was that it WOULD have replaced the venerable inline 6 in the T2000 and it's replacement, had not the SD1 come along (which was originally designated RT1)
The first 2000 (not 5000) Sprints, all in Mimosa yellow, were built prior to the model launch in June 73 and it was a kind of "put a toe in the water" experiment, to see if they would sell! When they did, production recommenced around August 73 and a range of colours and trim options became available. But the Sprint was ALWAYS a niche market, production hotrod, in the same fashion as the RS2000 Escort, Droop Snoot Firenza, HS Chevette etc and as such, never built or sold in large numbers. In a sense, it was the rally and race winning hook they used to catch customers for the lower output models.
Steve