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Nepean Classic Cars, Penrith, NSW

Cars companies love to get the most bang for their buck (or quid in this case). Bodies and chassis (for some reason called platforms these days) pop up in various countries with an assortment of engines and badges.

Back in the sixties Triumph tried their own one-man show with a Toledo/1300/1500/Dolomite range that used the one body for its entire small - mid range fleet.

We will give you the short version of how this came about but rest assured that the full story is more complicated than trying to explain how the Brits finally manage to stuff up the MG-Rover business.

We start off with the front drive Triumph 1300 in to the Toledo. Grow the front drive 1300 in to the 1500 for a while, then make it rear drive and call it the 1500 TC.

Drop an 1850 cc engine in to the TC and call it the Dolomite.

Sounds simple. Why all this FWD to RWD business. Stories abound but the likely scenario goes like this: Let's build something

modern and upmarket from our basic Herald - make it luxury and modern (i.e.front drive).

We'll call it the 1300.

Ah but now we've built it, we've discovered that there's no profit to be made. Let's cut costs, go back a generation, make it rear drive and use it as a Herald replacement. The Toledo.

Now let's grow one of these two into a mid-sector car. The engineer says "FWD" is the way of the future. The bean counter says, "RWD is cheaper to make".

So rear wheel drive it was.

And what of the engine? Well, some years earlier Saab had contracted Triumph to design and build a new engine for the Saab 99. Part of the deal was that Saab should have sole use of the engine for 5 years but come the early 70's that agreement had run out and Triumph has to hand a fully designed and tested 1850cc engine ready to drop into a 1500 body shell. That was the first Dolomite. Over the next 10 years we were to se the Dolomite take over the whole range, with engines ranging from Herald's 1300 right up to whiz bang 2000cc

Sprint version with its Coventry Climax 16 valve cylinder head.

In the Leyland scheme the Dolomite was classified as "small luxury saloon" - very much like the market the BMW 3 series occupies today.

In fact the analogy is quite fitting because the smaller engined Dolomites were quite luxurious but with no great performance (think BMW 318) whilst with the Sprint engine they were a quite formidable luxury sedan (think BMW 330). Perhaps if it were not for the militant unions who all but decimated the British car industry in the mid seventies, the automotive landscape might be a very different place today. But that's another story.

This story follows the life of a white 1850 Dolomite imported into Australia in 1976 and bought by a sprightly 63 year old lady who kept the car for the next 29 years before deciding to "retire" from driving earlier this year at 92 years of age. During that time the car has covered only 56,000 kilometres and the owner has maintained a full record of service over the entire period.

A rare feature of the car is that it came with automatic transmission which, while common in Australia, was fairly unusual in 1970's models out of the U.K. The Borg Warner 65 3 speed is a tough unit though and parts are widely available should the worse happen.

As you would expect given its history the car is in excellent condition. Bodywork is white with beige interior.

The seats are thick and "clubby" and

extremely comfortable. The wood fascia and nice round gauges all add to the upmarket ambience that Triumph targeted with the Dolomite range.

Don't expect break neck performance. The 99-bhp engine is only just OK for the mid-weight body but it makes you wonder how the 1300cc versions kept up with UK motoring traffic. But this car will undoubtedly go to an enthusiast's

home and performance will be more than adequate for the Sunday outing or trip to the local Triumph concours event.

The usual disc front/drum rear brake set up works well and, in spite of having a live rear axle, the ride and handling are ahead of their time.

So it's comfortable, goes well enough, stops as it should and is in excellent condition - what more could any 92 year old ask for?

Seriously this is a nice car mat, if looked after, could well be a very collectable classic in 10 or 15 years time. Well worth a look.

But to wrap up the Triumph story, the Dolomite was sadly the end of the road for the company as a carmaker.

As we now look back at how good this car actually was, you can't but wonder at how the business all went so badly wrong.

Trevor West

 This article was extract from the Just World Cars - Issued July 2005