The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

Hi all again, just entertain me, can a 1300 bought for under £1k do reasonable MPG and reliable for a 30 mile a day commute?
It would be instead of the Acclaim, which i love for its 40mpg+ and reliability, but it just does not push any buttons when driving it.
I know a bit about the dolomites, having owned a Sprint, and under no impression that it will be anything like it.
1850's are nice but as far as i know you i wont get 30mpg+.

.........1850's are nice but as far as i know you i wont get 30mpg+.

You should! 30's should be easily achievable in an 1850.

Iirc, wasn't JPB regularly seeing 35+ in his?
Mine just wasn't setup properly, plus I hadn't had a license for a year at that point...

Yes, 1850's are great for a daily commute. From today's fill-up I got 31.5mpg over the last week. That's 35miles per day of commute along a mixture of local roads, fast dual carriage way., a short section of motorway and another long fast dual carriageway. Plus the "family things" at the weekend. Just to give a comparison, when I had my Sprint that would give 25 mpg for the same route and the MGB gives 23mpg.
You'll get more mpg if you poodle it , but it won't be as much fun.
HTH,
Tony.

Oli_88 wrote:Iirc, wasn't JPB regularly seeing 35+ in his?
Mine just wasn't setup properly, plus I hadn't had a license for a year at that point...

It was indeed. I matched the brochure claim for 40+, albeit on very long, gentle runs at a steady 60ish mph and as you say, 35 was pretty easy to achieve, especially with the 3.27 diff that the auto Dolomites have.

I have an early 1850 which achieves 35mpg on normal unleaded.
It does not have overdrive but does have a straight through exhaust along with a decent ignition system.

That is about 10% better economy than the Sprint I used to have (which ran on four star).


The roads in northern Scotland, having to contend with the geography, are not conducive to good fuel economy,
eg the Saab 900i I had managed 33mpg on a motorway but about 22 or 23 mpg going to the west coast, some 12mpg less
than the (much lighter and better geared) 1850 does.

I have never run an 1850 for long enough to get accurate fuel figures, so you will have to rely on the other folk above who have responded on that front.

I do have plenty of experience of 1300's though.

The ridiculously short axle ratio (4.11:1) makes a 1300 very busy at motorway speeds, but around town and up to 55-60mph they are very frugal. They also benefit from the lower road tax cost bracket. Typically, a correctly set up 1300 should average 33-40mpg dependent on driving style, road type, shortness of journey - all the usual things. On gentle longer country runs, I used to regularly exceed 40mpg, and I seem to remember my all time best was 48mpg at one stage.

I drove from Bromley in Kent to the then TDCIR at Himley Hall in Humberside at 75-80mph and averaged 36.8 mpg. It was just after I had rebuilt the carb and the car was running very sweetly indeed.

In my experience a 1300 is much more economical than a 1500. If you ever fit a 1300 with overdrive, you end up with the best of all worlds - smart step off with the short axle ratio and relaxed economical cruising.

Thanks, It seems that the 1300 is for me! Economy + Lively little engine with decent torque for its size (well the 1300 in my gf's old 13/60 certainly was!)

Just to add as wel, is the gearbox in the 1300 the same as the herald or more like the Dolomite 1850/Sprint?

Single rail, same type as fitted to Dolomite/Spitfire 1500's and very late Toledos!

Three rail spitfire/herald 'box will fit with a different clutch and possibly prop.

Ah cool, i hated the gearbox in the 13/60, more like lucky dip if it was in gear or which gear!

If the commute doesn't involve being stuck in traffic, the bigger engine will be better.

On a run 30+mpg was well within reach in my sprint. And that wasn't tickling along at 60.

In traffic though, it was a bit less good. Driving across Bath in rush hour I was getting about 17mpg.

Dolly 1300, running sweet, over 40mpg.

mbellinger wrote:I seem to remember my all time best was 48mpg at one stage.

Likewise!

I remember once going on a long journey in my Dolly 1300 to collect some parts. I clocked up just over 400 miles on a full tank before I put any more petrol in. This gave me an average of 32 mpg. If I'd have filled up I would've got a more accurate figure.

Cheers on the look out for a Dolomite 1300 or more likely at the moment, a Toledo, ideally 2-door, but there are more 4-doors in my budget.

Cant wait!

As you can see from my signature, at the moment it appears that my 1300 is doing 34.1 to the gallon - that's mostly M62 miles but they were 4 up and also over the Pennines which is very hilly. I've still got more tuning and fiddling to do, but bear in mind that when I got the car some rough calculations on these very forums showed it was doing about 21mpg so it's going in the right direction!