The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

I just noticed in the Wikipedia entry it says full production of dolomites started in October 72.
How come one of mine is about the 5000th made and was registered in April 72 on a K plate.
I also have one in the 20000 range build on December 27th 72 and registered April 73.

Wonder what was considered as full production? I would have thought 5000 was enough for a decent start.

Jonners

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Note from Admin: sadly Jon passed away in February 2018 but his humour and wealth of knowledge will be fondly remembered by all. RIP Jonners.

Jonners, that is definitely wrong. As some of us already know, the launch of the Dolomite (1850) was delayed due to strikes so it would've been launced in 1971 were it not for the strikes. The K suffix registration predates October 1972 so it blows that out of the water completely. My own 1850 was registered about that time which also rubbishes it.

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Toledo Man

West Yorkshire Area Organiser & forum moderator
Meetings take place on the first Wednesday of the month at 8.00pm at The Old Brickworks, Wakefield Road, Drighlington, Bradford, BD11 1EA

1972 Dolomite 1850 auto (NYE 751L - Now for sale)
2003 Volvo XC90 D5 SE (PX53 OVZ - The daily driver)
2009 Mercedes-Benz W204 C200 CDI Sport (BJ58 NCV - The 2nd car)
1991 Toyota Celica GT (J481 ONB - another project car)
Former stable of SAY 414M (1974 Toledo), GRH 244D (1966 1300fwd), CDB 324L (1973 1500fwd), GGN 573J (1971 1500fwd), DCP 625S (1977 Dolomite 1300) & LCG 367N (1975 Dolomite Sprint) plus 5 Acclaims and that's just the Triumphs!

Check my blog at http://triumphtoledo.blogspot.com
My YouTube Channel with a bit of Dolomite content.

"There is only one way to avoid criticsm: Do nothing, say nothing and BE nothing." Aristotle

I think it means that the expected production rate, i.e. full production, wasn't achieved until 72. What it says on AROnline is "In fact, the Dolomite was ready for introduction by late 1970, but because of mounting industrial strife, the launch was put back until 1971. Disappointingly, stikes [sic] at Canley and Speke ensured that Triumph could not build up enough Dolomite stock..." Since this AROnline article is already used as a reference, I'll have a go at changing the production start date and adding it in that section, and see if it sticks.

As a matter of interest, there's a copy of the Daily Express Motor Show Review 1972 Motor Show for 1973 Cars that's used as a reference for this section, and presumably that full production wasn't achived till 72, on eBay at the moment for £7.99.

Graham.

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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).

Slight problem - the AROnline article doesn't give a month for the start of production in 71, just October 71 for the launch. Since I'm replaceing Anybody got a date for this? Any BMIHT certs for an early 1850 might help, if there's no citable ref for the production start date.

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).

I once saw a really early WF I think in the 100's and that was on a K plate so must have been registered after August 71.

Mine is April reg and around 5000 as I said. I dont remember them being launched in 71 - I reckon it was early 72 but
its a long time ago....

Jonners

_________________
Note from Admin: sadly Jon passed away in February 2018 but his humour and wealth of knowledge will be fondly remembered by all. RIP Jonners.

It's weird. All the online refs I can find have launch in October 71, but only state full production achieved in Oct. 72. Presumably, if they had production cars for the launch, some production, rather than preproduction, happened before Oct 71. I'll ring the BMIHT today, and see if they can given me any build dates. I can then reference their archives.

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).

Does anybody remember the oldest known surviving 1850? It was WF929 (WOD 850K) which was rescued by Roy (triple tango). It was registered in Jan 72 which meant it was built in 1971. The resto thread is HERE

_________________
Toledo Man

West Yorkshire Area Organiser & forum moderator
Meetings take place on the first Wednesday of the month at 8.00pm at The Old Brickworks, Wakefield Road, Drighlington, Bradford, BD11 1EA

1972 Dolomite 1850 auto (NYE 751L - Now for sale)
2003 Volvo XC90 D5 SE (PX53 OVZ - The daily driver)
2009 Mercedes-Benz W204 C200 CDI Sport (BJ58 NCV - The 2nd car)
1991 Toyota Celica GT (J481 ONB - another project car)
Former stable of SAY 414M (1974 Toledo), GRH 244D (1966 1300fwd), CDB 324L (1973 1500fwd), GGN 573J (1971 1500fwd), DCP 625S (1977 Dolomite 1300) & LCG 367N (1975 Dolomite Sprint) plus 5 Acclaims and that's just the Triumphs!

Check my blog at http://triumphtoledo.blogspot.com
My YouTube Channel with a bit of Dolomite content.

"There is only one way to avoid criticsm: Do nothing, say nothing and BE nothing." Aristotle

Just spoken to one of the BMIHT Archivists, who tells me the build records for the first 58 cars are missing, but they have some dispatch records for them. However, they haven't anyone to go look and get any of the dates from the fiches. He also said that they don't have much info to hand immediately, because they don't get anywhere near as many requests for saloons as they do for sports cars, like the TRs, etc.

So if we want to correct this Wiki article, we either need what Wikipedia considered to be a "reliable source", like a build record search certificate for a very early car, or someone's gotta go and trawl the BMIHT records at Gaydon. Sorry.

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).

The emerald green one I saw at the Ace meet about 4 years ago was much earlier. It may even have been sub 100.

Jonners

_________________
Note from Admin: sadly Jon passed away in February 2018 but his humour and wealth of knowledge will be fondly remembered by all. RIP Jonners.