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Post by Deleted on Oct 19, 2017 20:10:02 GMT
I had a Triumph Toledo, wasn't that a 1300 engine? and certainly it looked like a Dolomite without the butch bits.
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Post by Humph on Oct 19, 2017 20:42:02 GMT
They were a bit of an oddity, in that I'm certain mine ( the Triumph 1300 ) was FWD, but I'm also fairly sure Dolomites were RWD, and yet outwardly, they looked very similar.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 19, 2017 21:44:30 GMT
The Dolomites were indeed RWD, as I am *fairly* sure was my Toledo.
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Oct 19, 2017 21:58:16 GMT
I remember my grandad having Triumphs in the late 70s (his mid-70s): a yellow Toledo, a blue Toledo, then a blue Dolomite 1300, which had four doors and a much nicer interior. I have no idea which wheels it drove through, though.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 19, 2017 22:08:36 GMT
But the obvious one would be an NSU Ro80. How can you say that? the technology upon which it was based was disastrous then, and remains so today. An Audi 100 of the time was a better car in every conceivable way. Nope. The engine was so smooth, the seats like armchairs, huge amounts of internal room, cavernous boot and a great ride, all surrounded by a wedge body. We had five in the company and one Audi 100. No contest. Yes the engines were fragile but they were like modern diesel engines, only drive longer distances and you'll be fine. Every car from the 1970s had issues. Had they used a more reliable engine NSU may still be around. In any event the first aerodynamic 100 (Vorsprung Durch Technik) had a tumble home and rear pillar copied from the Ro80. It wouldn't surprise me if that Audi was in the NSU design department but was renamed after the Wankel debacle.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 19, 2017 22:13:30 GMT
I remember my grandad having Triumphs in the late 70s (his mid-70s): a yellow Toledo, a blue Toledo, then a blue Dolomite 1300, which had four doors and a much nicer interior. I have no idea which wheels it drove through, though. I recall that the Toledo was FWD and everything else was RWD. Not sure if that is accurate but the Michelotti design was pretty much scaled up by 10% from the smaller Toledo to the Dolomite and then again for the Mk2 2500.
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Avant
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Post by Avant on Oct 19, 2017 22:32:10 GMT
We had an old Triumph 1300 as a second car fairly soon after we were married: it used a lot of oil and the starter motor sounded like Hollywood sound effects for the fall of Babylon, but she still remembers it fondly 40 years on as one of the most comfortable cars she's ever had.
The 1300 followed by the 1500 were FWD, but the Toledo (1.3) and Dolomite (1.85) were RWD, and then sometime in the 1970s they dropped FWD altogether and eventually called them all Dolomites. Of all the 'dead' marques, Triumph is the one I miss most.
If I were enough of a mechanic to make a classic car practical (which I'm not), a Dolomite 1850 would be a strong contender. Quick enough and less temperamental than the Dolomite Sprint.
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Post by Hofmeister on Oct 19, 2017 22:36:21 GMT
Yes the engines were fragile but they were like modern diesel engines, only drive longer distances and you'll be fine. The engines were never fine, short, medium or long distance. had they ever been made reliable the appalling fuel consumption and the oil crisis did them in. Mazda finally gave up when they became impossible to engineer to meet emission standards.
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Post by Hofmeister on Oct 19, 2017 22:43:56 GMT
The Dolomites were indeed RWD, as I am *fairly* sure was my Toledo. The toledo was RWD, dolies were RWD, 1500 and 1300 were fwd. Classic example of why BL went bust by their inability to rationalise product.
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Post by tyrednexited on Oct 20, 2017 6:58:19 GMT
The engines were never fine, short, medium or long distance. had they ever been made reliable the appalling fuel consumption and the oil crisis did them in. Mazda finally gave up when they became impossible to engineer to meet emission standards. ...funnily enough, however, Mazda are currently upping the development budget, and considering them as auxiliary engines for EVs, where all the advantages of weight, size and smoothness can be exploited, and few of the disadvantages are of prime concern.
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Post by Hofmeister on Oct 20, 2017 7:31:05 GMT
The engines were never fine, short, medium or long distance. had they ever been made reliable the appalling fuel consumption and the oil crisis did them in. Mazda finally gave up when they became impossible to engineer to meet emission standards. ...funnily enough, however, Mazda are currently upping the development budget, and considering them as auxiliary engines for EVs, where all the advantages of weight, size and smoothness can be exploited, and few of the disadvantages are of prime concern. At first glance you would have thought a rotary engine would be perfect for hybrid applications. Weight, size, spectacularly easy to package, smooth quiet. But they all fall over the emissions problem which is caused by the shape of the combustion chamber and the need to splash oil round the seal. However yes a very small 250cc rotary engine producing 20kw charge is under development
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Oct 20, 2017 12:42:48 GMT
Things don't really rust here, so they're used until they break. Its only in the last few years that they've started to disappear, primarily because they do not have catalytic converters and thus any given day 4 numbers are not permitted on the roads (the last number in the licence plate is used) in Santiago. Still lots of them outside the city though. Seen the following on the school run; This is Otto's fault. Trying to find out what the blue car was, I came across this. It would look fantastic outside my 1971-built house - in this colour, of course. Possibly not quite as easy to live with as our Danish furniture from the same era.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2017 18:25:49 GMT
Oooh A Variant! Not seen one for years.
Think we rented one of these when I was very young (7? in about 1971/72). Seem to remember we were flying on holiday somewhere from Luton or Gatwick and Dad rented a car to drive us down and another to drive us back. No idea why, when he had perfectly good cars at the time. The car down was a Vauxhall Viva and I am sure the car home was a light blue Variant. I recall being bemused, if not concerned, by the rear engine under the boot floor.
I do remember when I was eight or nine flying from Gatwick to Italy (Pisa I think it must have been) and he had a Rover 3500S. Somehow we got six people and luggage in the car. I have no recollection how we did it. In Italy we got a Fiat Multipla (no - not the ugly one).
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2017 20:49:22 GMT
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Oct 23, 2017 8:56:52 GMT
I see: 'styling reminiscent of' the 411/412, but with mechanicals from all over the warehouse. There's something about those groovy rear lights that reminds me of the 450SEL Cozy Powell used to drive when we were neighbours in the 70s. Weren't they supposed to be 'self-cleaning' or some such cleverness?
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