The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

RDU was on the Club stand at the NEC last year. It was confirmed it had the correct additional strengthening under the floor proving it to be a genuine works car...though a couple of pieces of glass had younger date codes.

That publicity pic is a big cheat! RDU 983M is indeed a well known (and I believe still surviving in some form, probably reshelled a couple of times) competition car from late 73. But the car in the foreground with only a couple of comp dept decals is a total fraud!, its just a stocker off the line and the pic was probably taken early in 76 as it's a series 3 car, you can tell by the headrests and nose badge! It's not a proper racecar as it doesn't have a rollcage in either pic, assuming as likely it's the same car in both the external shot and the internal one with a helmeted "race driver" in the seat. Race drivers wore fireproof overalls and full helmets not those archaic open face jobbies and nylon rally jackets!

I'm assuming you are quoting your VIN from memory as 12600? Elsewhere in the thread (top of page 2) you give it as 16727 which is much more likely, putting the car smack in the middle of series 2. The series 2 cars are one big change point with elements of both series 1 and series 3 cars apparent in their builds. and the exact balance of parts varies throughout the series, the later the number the more series 3 bits it has!

I also don't believe (though i've been wrong before) that 12600 is a valid number for ANY Sprint. Though the factory didn't designate the the cars as anything but "Sprint", a brief explanation of the series definitions we owners use may help you. Series 1 is VA1 to VA 14999, series 2 is VA15000 to VA 19999, series 3 is VA20000 to VA 30000 and series 4 is VA 30000> and actual VIN numbered cars.

But it's not as simple as that, though series 1 is up to VA15000, only about 11500 series 1 cars were actually built, so there are roughly 3500 unused numbers in the first series of which 12600-12699 are 100 of! The same goes for series 2 where only 3278 cars were built of a possible 5000, series 3 cars approximately 7200 of a possible 10000 and only around 1200 series 4 cars before the introduction of VIN numbers instead of the VA chassis number and another couple of thousand after.

It may also interest you to know that the first 500 series 2 cars were ALL Mimosa yellow and were ALL exported to Australia. So your series 2 car is a real rarity here.

Steve

12600 was me incorrectly remembering it ! It is 16727, so it's interesting to find out that it's a rare car in the UK.

The brochure shot shows that Sprints did come with a tan interior as late as series 3 cars. Were any series 1 cars built with this interior?