The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

Hi guys,

I'm Timon, 21 years old and a student Mechanical Engineering. Old cars and motorcycle are my passion. Currently I have 2 motorcycles, a 1985 Honda VF750F and a 1979 Yamaha SR500.

Ever since I first saw a dolomite, I've wanted one. Now I'm almost at the point of buying one
Currently, I have 2 good options:

- A inca yellow 1850 with a vinyl top. Optical bad and the engine died some time ago (the current owner is a good friend of mine), but with a solid underside. Already found a different engine, to swap. This is the one:
Youtube movie
pricetag: 300 euro's

-A dark blue 1850, good solid car, with new exhaust and MOT.
pricetag: 1500 euro's

As you can see, the prices vary quite a bit. I'm looking for a car to tinker with, make it faster, better and tune it. My technical knowledge is pretty good, I repair and restore my own motorcycles (sadly on a frequent basis ).

What do you guys think, what would be sensible?

Regards,
Timon

Hi Timon,

I am not an expert with regards to the 1850, but if you can do the work then sort out the yellow one. Inca is such a nice colour and suits the Dolly really well.

You have a couple of good bikes too. Let us know how you get on and we like pictures!!!

All the best whichever car you choose. Lots of good advice freely available on here to help. I have no doubt that someone else will be along soon.

Ken

Hi there,

Inca yellow is so common, and for some reason I always think of Sprints when I see Inca.
Dark blue sounds nice, if it's an original colour.
As for tinkering and making faster, be careful of putting too much power through a standard 1850 gearbox - they're on the limit with well-tuned standard 1850s that are, erm, well-used.

Forgot to mention that if I buy the yellow one, it wil become matt black, due to all the rust spots. I'll just repair all the rust, and then roll it matt black, so it's properly protected this winter

Ok, will keep that in mind. A sprint engine is always an option for more power, but would rather turbocharge the current engine (yeah I know, difficult/expensive, but fun )

Oh great, another power junkie

Matt black is also cool!

I love the idea of tuning my car. Already have quite a few books about the subject. From Maximum Boost by Corky Bell to A. Graham Bells 4stroke tuning. The yamaha is currently in a rebuild, getting a forged piston. In the future it wil get a hot cam, stiffer valvesprings and a bigger flat slide carb (Hurray for single cylinder bikes )

I'm guessing you will get through the 1,200 euros you would save if you bought the yellow one pretty quickly. I always seem to.

However if you're doing all the work yourself then it should be fairly reasonable, and if you are planning on doing a lot of modifications it may be best to not start with one in a very nice condition if the yellow one is basically solid.

One thing I do keep suggesting to people is that the saab 900 engine "should" bolt in. (it was developed from the 1850 engine, and bellhousing bolt pattern stayed the same up until they were bought by GM) The turbo manifold will be the wrong way around however.

welcome Timon, good to hear of another young dolomite owner.

if you are going for power and modification, why not get a sprint to start with ?

black dolomites look really hot. I'm going that way if I ever get around to my 1850 project. Have a look at some of the pics posted by merlin100, in fact (face palm) have a look at the black sprint merlin100 has for sale:

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=15790
that car will have been well looked after and described accurately.
or has it already been sold ?

good luck. I'd get the yellow 'un if there wasn't a sprint around.

no bias

stu

Because a sprint would cost at least 1500 euro's, here in the Netherlands. If you're lucky, you can find one for less (like the owner of the yellow dolly, he found a red sprint voor 1k euro's.

btw. im in the Netherlands eh, so the black sprint would be difficult to get hold of.
I know the saab engine should bolt straight in, but are those engine really better? Better internals? If so that would be the way to go

The original engine Saab used is exactly the same as the triumph 1850 unit. But they then started modifying it to make it better for their needs.

As it turns out Jeroen, who comes on this forum a lot and is from the Netherlands, has been investigating this very issue. He probably knows a lot more about it than I do.

http://www.saabrally.com/forums/viewtop ... 2&start=15

Good to know

Yesterday, I worked the entire afternoon with my mate on his red sprint. Then for a little testdrive, awesome

About the yellow dolly, it has a bad front, whining diff and the suspension isn't what it used to be On the plus side, my mate has a fast supply of dolly parts

Does anyone here know a good supplier of tools in the right sizes? I do have tools, but of course those are metric sizes

the right tools are fairly widely available in the UK.

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/?_from=R40&_trks ... Categories

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/i.html?_nkw=AF+s ... m270.l1313

Draper is a British brand, and usually quite good.

Thanks!

I quite like you already!

The others here do have a point. A standard box and diff will not last all that long with much more power, but there's ways around it and that's half the fun. Besides, if you can turbocharge it, fitting a different box won't be beyond you!