The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

...and so it begins!

Yesterday Mary & I travelled down to Andover (Hampshire) to have a look at the Inca Sprint that is/was advertised on Ebay. The Sprint is a very late one, March 1981 on a 'W' plate. After a lengthy look around, in, over & under the car, a deal was struck for the car plus a spare engine. I just need to arrange trailering now.

The guy we bought it off, Tony, is an ex member of the DSR and currently has two other Sprints which he plans to make one good one with some 'go faster' bits on. The shell he is scrapping was featured in a magazine many years ago. It is French blue with a dark blue stripe down the sides & over the bonnet. The bonnet has four louvres in but the first thing I noticed about it was the Marina door handle conversion. Anyone remember this one?

Anyway, some pics...

Wow.....that looks quite solid.

I take it this will be finished to your usual standard

Excellent, yes that is a late one, it should be interesting to see if you spot any differences in spec as you begin the rebuild.

Mad Mart wrote:. It is French blue with a dark blue stripe down the sides & over the bonnet. The bonnet has four louvres in but the first thing I noticed about it was the Marina door handle conversion. Anyone remember this one?

Yes I believe I saw that car at a SODIT I attended.

Have you let Tony know about this thread Mart? Be nice to get his memories and any photos he has of the old DSR days.

If your signature gets any longer I'll be needing a computer with a bigger screen !
May I suggest you move the Sapphire one down to start a second row please.


As usual, interested to see how this goes.
Good luck.

Hi Mart

Looking forward to this already, winter read here we come.

All the best

Darren

sprint95m wrote:If your signature gets any longer I'll be needing a computer with a bigger screen !
May I suggest you move the Sapphire one down to start a second row please.

I was only thinking that yesterday. I shall remedy that in the near future.

Now I've bought it I can't wait to get started.

Does anyone have pics of what the fog lights look like on a late Sprint? The holes are there for mounting them but Tony doesn't have the fog lights. I have two here (don't know where they came from) but would just like to know if they are the correct ones.

Mine fit via the bumper mountings. I'll be replacing them that way too as they're nice lights.

Damn you, Mart! It should have been my Sprint!

I have a spare 81 Sprint rear bumper with standard single fog down at the yard, I'll take a couple of pics tomorrow for you!

Steve

Exellent Mart, Inca Yellow and a late one, no seams in the vinyl roof.

Is it a VA comm number or a TW.....AT comm number. In addition to XAA I also have a late model Inca July 80 on the W plate and perhaps one day I will have one time again.

those fog lamps are not correct, the std units were square.

Team England Racing, winners of the 2012 Formula Junior TKM Inter Club Challenge, that is where all my time is spent, Kart Race circuits. http://Www.mattenglandracing.co.uk

OK cheers for that.

It's a TW.......AT with a squarish comm. plate (not like the ones I'm used to).

I make that five you'll have done in the time I've been doing mine; and mine will be rubbish in comparison to any of them. Shameful, frankly.

Brilliant Mart. Another great thread to follow. Look forward to it all.

Four bonnet louvres, blue and Marina handles. Is this the one do you think?

Hi Mart,

It was great to meet you & your wife yesterday, I am please VHK is going to be restored to your high standards.

Sorry to you guys who missed out, but Mart was the only person to contact me who wanted to see the car, so although I had over 160 people watching on ebay I wasn't sure there were any serious bidders.

So I am into Sprints again, I hope to have mine ready for next years 40th celebrations.

As Mart said I used to be in the DSR back in the late 80's early 90's, I was a poor student so most of my beer tokens went on cider 'n' black in the student bar rather than club days.

I used to go to the Southern meetings at a pub in East Meon, with Ed Bishop, Andy Cripps and others whose names escape me. Also went on a few race days when Ed was racing his Magenta sprint.

I remember we were invited on the New Forest to Bournemouth run in 1990 by club Triumph, in those days the Sprint owners just wanted make our cars go as fast as possible, so when we all ripped passed the Stag & TR owners it was frowned upon, we didn't get an invite the following year.

I did attend the Sodit at Tatton Park in Manchester, about 8 Sprints went up in convoy from Southampton, it was great fun, good times...........

Anyway enough of the old days here are the pictures

Hi Andrew65,

Yep that's my new project, I was 18 when I saw in in FastCar magazine in 1989, so when I saw it on ebay a couple of months ago I had to have it.

The body is rotten, but it will be reincarnated soon.