The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

I have been looking to buy a dolomite for historic rallying but have been told by a few people that the dolomite sprint engines are 'soft' and need rebuilding every couple of events if driven hard due to their design.
Is this true?
I am looking at buying a dolly because the sprint engines are powerful enough in standard form to get good results and the cars are different from the usual Escort/Cortina's you see.I also think that a well driven Dolly could give an Escort a run for its money.
But am I going to have to forever be rebuilding engines?

I think that the fact that so many of our members use their cars for motorsport and don't have to rebuild their engines every other week really answers the question...

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There are loads of people who race, rally and trackday sprints, here are a couple of websites...


http://sprintparts.triumphowners.com
http://www.bccp.nl/nl/racingnl.htm
http://www.dollysprint.com/

My theory is that they can be fragile if they are treated like their contemporaries during assembly. They come from a time of iron block, iron head boat anchors. Slap one together with the sort of disregard that you can get away with on a pinto, essex or spitfire and they will not last. Put it together with the cleanliness, care and attention that is common in good engine shops these days and they are fine. Which makes perfect sense really because a 16 valve alloy head work of art has far more in common with a modern engine than it does with a pinto etc.

Have a read of the motorsport archive.

Tinweevil

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1978 Pageant Sprint - the rustomite, 1972 Spitfire IV - sprintfire project, 1968 Valencia GT6 II - little Blue, 1980 Vermillion 1500HL - resting. 1974 Sienna 1500TC, Mrs Weevils big brown.

Ken Wood is your man for Dolomite rallying. He's a member of this forum so if you go to the memberlist you can pm him.

David

Hi
Thanks for all your reccomendations etc.It has got me quite fired up to go ahead and buy a Dolomite and prep it for historic rallies.Now all I need is to find a solid dolly that will fit in the 1967 to 1972 class of historics
John

ooooh. A snag, Dolomites were made from 1973-1980. Pre 72 Dolly 1850s are rare now

Isn't your car originally a '72?

74

Sorry, my mistake. The pre-73 Dolomites (all with 1854cc engines) do come up from time to time although they are not that common.

I am quite happy to buy a pre 72 dolly 1500 or 1850 and convert it to sprint spec as the first rally sprint prototypes used by BL were in 1972 so are homoligated.

Ahh right. the only proper Dolomites (as in badged as a dolomite, not 1500tc) before 72 was the 1850.

Which rally series are you going for?

Also worth noting that a well built sprint engine using absolutely standard parts will produce more than the book figure of 127. Depending on your luck and the skill of the builder 135 to 150 flywheel bhp is about the range to expect.

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1978 Pageant Sprint - the rustomite, 1972 Spitfire IV - sprintfire project, 1968 Valencia GT6 II - little Blue, 1980 Vermillion 1500HL - resting. 1974 Sienna 1500TC, Mrs Weevils big brown.

Their is a sprint track racer who sometimes frequents this board who has completed 12000 serious track miles and not touched it hardly since fitting it.
he did voice the same opinion as above , that it has to be put together just right, i didn't listen and mine lasted 3500

rich

I intend to do various individual events rather than a series.I intend to do historic road rallies and events such as Border classic,Cumbria classic caper which are as near to stage events that you can get without needing full FIA spec cars.