The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

Grreetings...

My Sprint does not 'sit' how I would expect being quite high at the front and also rolls more tha expected... A fried who also has a Sprint measured the height of the front and rear wheel arches to compare - his are 22" at the rear and 23" at the front. This compares with mine at the rear but mine is 24" at the front... How does this compare with others please?

Obviously it looks as though the front springs require upgrading - what recommendations have people? I believe the dampers are standard...

Many thanks in advance.

Brgds

My 2 owner, unmolested '79 pageant blue car sits at 24in front and 23 rear on 175.70x13 with a third of a tank of fuel. The racecar at 23.5in front and 22.5 rear on 195.60x14! I prefer to measure from the centre of the wheel vertically to the wing as this measures just the suspension effect and removes any differences due to tyre profile. Doing it this way the standard car is 340/325mm and the racecar 320/300mm. Both look fine to me.
A lower profile tyre on standard wheels will make the car sit lower to the ground (and can look a little too small for the car) whereas a 185.70x13 will add half an inch to the ride height.

Hope this helps
Geoff

Was just about to post something similar. My Sprint is on 185/60/13 Yokohama A038Rs which are great for trackdays but not ideal elsewhere. I plan on using the car more this year hopefully so am thinking of putting something more sensible on it. The other problem with the Yokos is that they don't fill the arches, and the front looks particularly "high", as seen here:


Twins by binaryimage, on Flickr

Any suggestions? It's on lowered adjustable Spax.

Edit: it's the one on the right with the wrong stripes!

Just to add....

Looking at these Factory pictures of two different Dolomite Sprints we can see that when new that they sat high on their suspension;

Dear miniman, can I please buy your partworn Yokos when you're done with them? Sorry to hijack the thread! Steve

Carledo wrote:Dear miniman, can I please buy your partworn Yokos when you're done with them? Sorry to hijack the thread! Steve

Yes certainly. You might have to come and get them, not sure whether I could courier them!

gmsclassics wrote:My 2 owner, unmolested '79 pageant blue car sits at 24in front and 23 rear on 175.70x13 with a third of a tank of fuel. The racecar at 23.5in front and 22.5 rear on 195.60x14! I prefer to measure from the centre of the wheel vertically to the wing as this measures just the suspension effect and removes any differences due to tyre profile. Doing it this way the standard car is 340/325mm and the racecar 320/300mm. Both look fine to me.

DSCN3283A.JPG

A lower profile tyre on standard wheels will make the car sit lower to the ground (and can look a little too small for the car) whereas a 185.70x13 will add half an inch to the ride height.

Hope this helps
Geoff

My car sits on 185/70/13's and from centre of the wheel to the wheel arch is 300mm at the rear (looks pretty reasonable) and 370mm at the front... My friends Sprint (on 175's) is 290mm rear and 320mm front... Bit of a difference!!!

Cheers

How new are the springs?

Afraid I don't know, though thy look relatively 'fresh'... Only bought the car in September and it had been off the road for around 11 years..

Brgds

That might be it - the car will tend to settle a bit after being driven so it may be that the springs are brand new - the front will settle more than the back I think.