1974 Dolomite Sprint

[Junkman]

Yeah, tank still brimmed with three Dollars worth of gaaaaz.

[John F]

Hmmm... I owned a C-Kadett 1.2 S and a Mk 2 Escort 1.3... they felt fairly similar to me in terms of handling & performance.

There was something wrong with the Opel. I drove a 1978 1.3L Escort for a couple of years as well and used to drive a very early Chevette loan car we had. Originally gold, it was a very early one with a Luton HVS***N number plate. You could just throw it about and take liberties with it that you couldn't in an Escort.

The secret was the rear axle apparently, very well located with a long torque tube. Better than ANYTHING Ford made at the time.

It's entirely possible that the 3 decades or so since owning either of those vehicles (Escort bought in 1986, Kadett in 1991/2?) are affecting my memory of how they drove, especially in relation to each other

[CLINT]

There always has been and still is a huge difference between a Dolly and a Dolly Sprint, Escort and Escort AVO, 1502, 2002, ti, tii and turbo. And that is money.

If you stop comparing apples with eggs and go by the purchase price, the Dolly Sprint, although not cheap by any stretch of the imagination, provided the most bang for the buck by not a narrow margin. The BMW with the same hp figure was the tii, which cost a proper draught from a bottle more and any Essy available to normal mortals had 20 PS fewer.

At least where I'm from this mattered. Maybe the British were so loaded that money was of no significance to them, but for us it bloody well was.

Maybe so but when I was a kid lots of aspiring young drivers had replicas of the sporty Escorts and Fiestas. Some well done, mostly not. I don 't ever recall seeing any Sprint 'replicas ' based on 1300 Toledos.

[Junkman]

It wasn't necessary because they looked the same anyway.
However, I have seen many Dollys with Sprint wheels.

[John F]

There always has been and still is a huge difference between a Dolly and a Dolly Sprint, Escort and Escort AVO, 1502, 2002, ti, tii and turbo. And that is money.

If you stop comparing apples with eggs and go by the purchase price, the Dolly Sprint, although not cheap by any stretch of the imagination, provided the most bang for the buck by not a narrow margin. The BMW with the same hp figure was the tii, which cost a proper draught from a bottle more and any Essy available to normal mortals had 20 PS fewer.

At least where I'm from this mattered. Maybe the British were so loaded that money was of no significance to them, but for us it bloody well was.

Maybe so but when I was a kid all the aspiring young drivers had replicas of the sporty Escorts and Fiestas. Some well done, mostly not. I don 't ever recall seeing any Sprint 'replicas ' based on 1300 Toledos.

My 1977 Escort 1.3L featured such joyful additions as Halfords driving lamps, high-level brake light repeaters, a centre console from an Escort GL, deep dish steel wheels from a Cortina iirc, a shirt button-sized Momo steering wheel and the boot spoiler from a TR7

[Scruffy Bodger]

My brothers first car was a Dolly 1500 TC in around 1992. I drove it plenty and actually liked the way it handled when pushed hard, it was like a big fat mini from what I remember. It had really predictable understeer so the slide was easily accounted for. It also went very well for what it was, especially after the carbs were sorted by Weavers Motorsport in Ludlow. Brazil nut brown with a black vinyl roof, a proper bird puller!

[Junkman]

Hmmm... I owned a C-Kadett 1.2 S and a Mk 2 Escort 1.3... they felt fairly similar to me in terms of handling & performance.

There was something wrong with the Opel. I drove a 1978 1.3L Escort for a couple of years as well and used to drive a very early Chevette loan car we had. Originally gold, it was a very early one with a Luton HVS***N number plate. You could just throw it about and take liberties with it that you couldn't in an Escort.

The secret was the rear axle apparently, very well located with a long torque tube. Better than ANYTHING Ford made at the time.

It's entirely possible that the 3 decades or so since owning either of those vehicles (Escort bought in 1986, Kadett in 1991/2?) are affecting my memory of how they drove, especially in relation to each other

Well, if you remember an Escort driving at all, your memory is very sepia tinted indeed.

[Junkman]

My brothers first car was a Dolly 1500 TC in around 1992. I drove it plenty and actually liked the way it handled when pushed hard, it was like a big fat mini from what I remember. It had really predictable understeer so the slide was easily accounted for. It also went very well for what it was, especially after the carbs were sorted by Weavers Motorsport in Ludlow. Brazil nut brown with a black vinyl roof, a proper bird puller!

Mine was red.

[LynehamHerc]

My 1973 Opel Ascona 1.6S handled and went pretty well with its 80hp.
It didn't even rust much but the Solex carb was a nightmare. The build quality was on a completely different level to Vivas, Cortina's etc..
I can see why Vauxhall was happy to sell the next version as the Cavalier.

[Warren t claim]

My 1973 Opel Ascona 1.6S handled and went pretty well with its 80hp.
It didn't even rust much but the Solex carb was a nightmare

I take it you've never lived a Ford Variable Vagina carb?