The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

The Number One Club for owners of Triumph's range of small saloons from the 1960s and 1970s.
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 06, 2020 11:25 am 
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Joined: Sun Sep 08, 2013 3:35 pm
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Location: St Annes on Sea, Lancs.
I've been through the various versions of the FIA's Appendix Js to the to International Sporting Code, starting with the 1971 issue that applied in 1973/4 for the initial approval - FIA Recognition number 5542 - on 2 Jan 1974, and the 1975, 1976, and 1981 issues that covered maintaining that approval, needed for continued use in competitions covered by FIA rules.

The initial requirement was for 5000 "cars which are identical, the manufacturing of which has been fully completed within a period of 12 consecutive months". These also had to be "entirely finished cars, eg, cars in running condition and ready for delivery to the purchasers" and "meant for the normal sale". Those last two are particularly relevant to the homologation of the TR8 and Vauxhall Chevette HS. But those are other, if interesting, stories.

The Form of Recognition for the Dolomite Sprint has a space for the date the 5000 cars were built by, but it's blank. From the numbers of cars built in 1973 given on the Wikipedia page (5,446), that would be sometime before the end of 1973, but it's not obvious when. I know there was a gap from Feb to Oct 1975 between the TR7 reaching requirement and gaining approval for Group-3. But I guess the gap must be smaller for the Dolomite Sprint, and maybe that's why that date is blank in the form.

The requirements for continued recognition varied quite a bit over the period. In 1974, "Recognition of a series-produced car will become void 4 years after the date on which the series-production of the said model has been stopped." "The series production is regarded as completely stopped if the monthly rate has decreased for more than four consecutive months to below 1/12th of the minimum figure required by the Appendix 'J' for the minimum production of the group in which the model is recognized." That meant, if BL thought they might want to run the car in 1978, at least 417 cars in at least 3 equally spaced months of 12. That gives a minimum of 1250 cars, though if organized badly, i.e. only 415 in 5 consecutive months, 4994 could, in theory, be too few.

In the 1975 and 1976 issues of Appendix J, the requirements were relaxed to " Recognition of a series-produced car will become void 5 years after the date on which the series-production of the said modei has been stopped."
"Definitive abandonment of the series-production" was defined "As from the moment when the annual production decreases below 10% of the minimum production of the group concerned, series-production is considered abandoned."
So that's just 500 spread anyway over the year.

That means that nearly all the 1973 production of Dolomite Sprints were needed for the homologation on 2 Jan 1974, and at least 1250, arguably all 4,232, of the 1974 production to maintain it beyond 1978. Thereafter, its only 500 to maintain it to 1980 and beyond. Given the production figures on the Wikipedia page, that would mean it would have ceased to be recognized after 1984. However, the 1985 Appendix J changed the competition group structure entirely, i.e. to Groups N, A, and B, and would have ended it's recognition anyway.

Some of that will also matter to historic race and rally series, but I don't know what, how, or which.

Graham

_________________
The 16v Slant 4 engine is more fun than the 3.5 V8, because you mostly drive it on the upslope of the torque curve.

Factory 1977 TR7 Sprint FHC VVC 697S (Now all of, but still needs putting together)
B&Y 73 Dolomite Sprint UVB 274M (kids!)
1970 Maroon 13/60 Herald Convertable (wife's fun car).


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PostPosted: Sun Dec 06, 2020 1:27 pm 
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Reminds me of the story about the Lancia Delta Evo.

They simply didn’t have enough cars when they where inspected.
They took the Guys round the cars they had built.
Then had a long Italian Lunch.
Whilst the workers moved all the cars that had just been inspected to a different location.
After lunch they inspected the now moved cars.
Apparently none the wiser.

_________________
2009 Mini Clubman Cooper S Daily Driver.
1980 Dolomite Sprint with a touch of BLTS
Balanced Lightened and Tweaked 13B Rotary and SuperCharged.
Back in my possession 22 September 2019.
Rebuilding the Sprint time taken so far, 111Hrs@15/12/2020
212Hrs @31/12/2021
352 @ 28/11/2022
455Hrs @ 20/10/2023
480Hrs @ 14/03/2024
This is time taken at the Sprint not necessary time worked.

Working on a ratio of just 7Hrs a day not including driving to the Sprint.
That equals to 68 days that doesn’t include weekends.
Member TDC no 0471

Project 13B Sprint now back on.


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PostPosted: Sun Dec 06, 2020 2:00 pm 
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Joined: Sun Sep 08, 2013 3:35 pm
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Location: St Annes on Sea, Lancs.
There used to be a post on an internet forum somewhere (which seems to have been removed) telling a similar story about the Chevette HS. It reckoned they ran the cars out the garage, round the back, where they changed some number (didn't say if it was chassis or reg) and back through. According to an article in Autosport. they did build all 400 and Neil Eason-Gibson was convinced of that, but not until the end of 1977 when the car was approved in Nov. 1976, backdated in a publication of April 1977.

I think the story about pulling the wool over Neil's eyes is one passed down in pubs from a true fact: After the HS got banned in Portugal in April 1978, they had to re-homologate some of the bits they couldn't re-engineer, as they did in replacing the 16-valve Lotus head with a GM one. The cars for that were the 50 (maybe 58) HSRs as a variant/evolution. The thing is, rather than build new ones, they modified some HS cars they hadn't managed to sell and had them inspected a second time - for a separate approval.

As to not having sold some of the HSs, supposedly Talbot had to nearly give the last of the 400 Sunbeam-Lotus homologation specials away to one of their main dealers.

Graham

_________________
The 16v Slant 4 engine is more fun than the 3.5 V8, because you mostly drive it on the upslope of the torque curve.

Factory 1977 TR7 Sprint FHC VVC 697S (Now all of, but still needs putting together)
B&Y 73 Dolomite Sprint UVB 274M (kids!)
1970 Maroon 13/60 Herald Convertable (wife's fun car).


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