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Dolomite in N. O. Show

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poolboy

poolboy

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I see there was some interest in this car so I wanted to post these:
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Yep.
 
I thought the Dolly always had more grunt than the wedge. Not so?
Maybe different in UK.
 
I owned a yellow 1973 Dolly. Beautiful car. The only down to it was it had an automatic. Nice and easy, but just wasn't the same.
 
Roger said:
I thought the Dolly always had more grunt than the wedge. Not so?
Maybe different in UK.
Click to expand...

It did have more grunt than the regular TR7. But with the addition of the Sprint engine, the 7 was improved. The decision was made, however, to continue with the standard Wedge engine (which, if I'm not mistaken, was the same on the bottom end - just a different head), and the V8 for the TR8.

I believe there was a good bit of debate over whether to include the Sprint option, but given the condition of the British auto industry at the time, it apparently didn't make economic sense to do so. Not sure how many Sprints were made, but the number was very small, and there aren't too many true ones left. Some conversions are out there, same as with the TR7/V8.
 
I love "different" stuff and the Dolomite head ranks way up there. It's a 16 valve head with a single overhead camshaft. The exhaust and intake valves run off the same cam lobe.

Marv J
 
Yeah, from what I have read the TR7 was supposed to come in 3 different versions. The standard TR7 with 2.0 engine, the TR7 Sprint and the TR7 V8. The TR8 designation was mostly a marketing thing that attempted to separate the V8 cars from the bad press the TR7 recieved. Less than 30 Factory V8's being delivered to the UK and less than 30 factory Sprints made as well.

The Sprint engine was also used with some success in open wheel racing. Formula 2 if memory serves me well tonight.
 
The sprint engine in single-seaters (it was F3, btw) was never really competitive with Ford and others, but the Dolly Sprint in the hands of Andy Rouse and Tony Dron was very successful in British Saloon Car Racing.
 
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