Mike and Elvis Restore An Old 70s Dolomite Sprint With Overdrive | Wheeler Dealers

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Mike and Elvis bring an old 1970s Dolomite Sprint to the garage, hoping to restore the old 'petrol head' car to its former self and repair its overdrive system once considered far ahead of its time.
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From Season 18 Episode 1

[@philipmccarthy6175]

The Sprint , Stag , 2 litre & the 2.5pi were all really good looking cars.

[@stevepearce6689]

These are fantastic cars well deserved to be remembered.

[@Stickleback]

Ask anyone who owed on back int day like, you`l find most were parked up broken down! as nice as they can look, they are infact, crap.

[@paulbradford8240]

Loved the 'Dolly Sprint'. The fastest 2 litre production car of it's time. Imagine if they'd made it a two door and saved weight! They made a few of the TR7's with the same engine, but it should have been standard from the beginning of production. From memory, I believe the overdrive worked on third gear as well as fourth.

[@dontpanicblink]

i love them , but pretty sure alfa and lancia had faster

[@dustymiller7758]

Had a yellow one back in the day with a black vinyl roof. That car was fantastic.

[@stevenclarke5606]

When I think of the Dolomite Sprint it’s always a yellow one with the black vinyl roof.

[@ianmontgomery7534]

@@stevenclarke5606 In Australia they only sold the sprint in yellow which was the reason I didn't but one. It was crazy as you could buy the ordinary one in other colours. I imagine they just produced too many yellow ones in the UK and fobbed them off on the Australian market.

[@Pmjs]

I've always liked the Triumph Dolomite Sprint.

[@moffatt43]

I had a Sprint and she had a lot of work done on her,full Jamspeed exhaust with a Jamspeed manifold,skimmed and re-shimmed head done by Marshals of Cambridge,we upgraded the Air filter Box so that the twin SU’s had more Still Air to use and she was fitted with a quick rack and a limited slip diff. The overdrive was done so she had O/d in 1,2,3 and 4 but it meant you had to make sure you were careful putting her into Reverse. She was Pillar Box Red and she had a original Factory Sunroof,the cloth type one. She was fitted with a alarm system and a immobiliser. I used to get pulled over all the time driving around Cambridge ( mainly because the copper’s just wanted to have a look at her ). Unfortunately she ended up with a blown Engine and on taking the old one out we found she was in bad shape on the Chassis thanks to the Rust monster so she was stripped of parts and then sold to someone down the road for use as a Banger car at Great Yarmouth Stadium ( I was invited for the race but I couldn’t go and watch her go through that ! ) Don’t forget I was of the generation bought up watching Herbie and when Cars had Souls !. She was a Head turner and went like Sh1t off the shovel,many a Porsche Driver got a shock when pulling up next to her at the Traffic lights hehehe. Triumph Spares at Southend were at the time making one into fuel injection !!. After her I went onto ownership of a BMW 525i and it wasn’t the same driver experience 🤷‍♂️

[@dRew-something]

Always loved this car,it was my brothers first car, had soo much fun in it! I think it's a shame they never brought out a 2 door version. Great job on this one! Love the blue!

[@peterhook8033]

Instead of spending have the video on inane waffle, let’s see more of the restoration which is surely what the channel is about !

[@cuebj]

This clip is a weird bit of editing

[@msmrepo3271]

That was the first engine I stripped and rebuilt 😮 loved that car

[@joewyatt2407]

My all time favourite car. Well done for keeping another on the road!

[@ianfrost3529]

My dads friend has a white escort Rs2000 custom he bought new in 1979 and he has a dolomite sprint he brought about 10years ago. He has to admit he prefers the dolomite

[@grahamfox7568]

Loved mine, picked it up from one of my mates when I was in the army. It easily makes it into my top 5 owned cars. Top though will always be my mk1 Astra GTE.

[@jimmy2minutes]

I had one a sprint in white. Its still on the road, its a serious minter. It went like stink. Possibly the best example in the world.

[@warrenvalentino5763]

Great video! WOW!! Awesome car!!! Love watching your videos. :)

[@philipmccarthy6175]

Triumph always made good looking cars , the sprint was a classic.

[@stuartsmith5308]

I think a better comparsion for the 2 litre Dolomite Sprint would of been the 2 litre RS2000 Escort mk.2.

[@MyJon64]

Back in the day some police forces used these as Motorway pursuit cars! I think the Triumph 2.5pi and P6 V8 jam sandwich were the preferred choice though!

[@philipmccarthy6175]

The 2.5pi was a great looking car , my family had one in the late 70's , very comfortable on a long journey.

[@carllop1960]

I love ❤ every episode of you guys

[@calebmiles]

Had a yellow Sprint with a full length Webasto sunroof on an M plate with overdrive. Awesome car but I blew the water pump chasing a Harvest Beige MGBGT V8.

[@leroyhamilton3999]

I had one in that bright yellow still miss it racing down park lane all four us😊

[@peterwright9546]

Remember going round Goodwood track 74 or 75 with a racing driver at the wheel BL open day, it was sideways round most of it epic performance.

[@modelrailwaynoob]

I had an 1850HL with overdrive but put a Sprint bonnet on it.

[@maxflight777]

I owned one .. CWK 590K phenomenal car ! Reliable too !

[@markpaul1154]

A simple maths mistake on the Exhaust Manifold design meant it outputted 127bhp instead of 140bhp. When Janspeed developed a new one it outputted 146 BHP standard and add in twin webber carbs and electronic ignition it outputted 154 BHP, which for a 1970s engine is some going.

[@andrewofford1533]

My Father had one on these. I remember as a child, he went to jack it up using a Trolley Jack, only to Jack up th e rear seat, as the floor had rotted out..........

[@keithgoodrick-meech3921]

I owned a yellow pre overdrive sprint. Very fast and handled brilliantly.

[@davidbarnsley8486]

I always wanted one

[@OzziPlYt]

really good car

[@stevefletcher7531]

I had a Dolomite Sprint, when tuned up, at 85 on the motorway, if i flicked out the overdrive and booted it, the wheels would spin

[@maxflight777]

in the wet .. yes

[@stevethompson386]

A Great driving car.

[@stuartheafey94]

My dad had a Triumph Dolemite in same blue black vinyl roof

[@FordForTheWin]

love the dolly sprint however that escort would be my choice still :)

[@grolfe3210]

Why did he remove the gearbox to sort the overdrive? It is easy to get to and can be dropped out on its own. It was a fairly easy mod to add the overdrive to other models. I knew someone that added overdrive to a spitfire, great improvement to not have the engine screaming on the motorway.

[@cuebj]

Triumph paved way for BMW. The only interesting British Leyland cars of mid 1960s to 1970s. Never interested in cars myself but a few rides in the fastest Herald and one of these were eye openers. Only here for the craftsmanship

[@objectiveone5476]

Those solenoids were a known fault on Triumph cars. Was also an issue on the Triumph 2000 and 2.5pi. I had to replace many of those over the years.

[@GiotheGhreat]

What a transformation! is like brand new!! The face of this car has a resemblance of the same BMW's era (or vice versa)

[@stevephillips8719]

I own 2 Fiat X1/9s, both need repainting. I asked for a quote on one under restoration that has been bare metal stripped and primed. Quote AU$15,000 to $25,000. This was repeated by several other paintshops. What do UK painters get paid in, bananas?

[@Cool5380]

They are usally expertly preserved with bondo but a bondo master like mike probably had a magnet with him lol

[@johndavey72]

I had the identical car. As l recall overdrive in third and top . I had the water pump incorrectly replaced which damaged the camshaft . It was terrific in the dry but absolutely hopeless in the wet. The interior was a very refined place to be and the car was the ultimate wolf in sheeps clothing . It won the BTCC in 1975 with Andy Rouse . When Ed said how much he paid for the Sprint l nearly fell over ! And £550 for the vynal !!!! Would love to know what it sold for .

[@maxflight777]

Andy Rouse ! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[@andrewb2475]

My mate had a yellow Dolomite Sprint..........................engine seized!

[@peteb3091]

When Wheeler Dealer's started with Ed and Mike back in the early 2000s, some parts were obviously staged, but this is taking it to another level.. So the J-Type overdrive "wasn't working", Elvis checked power to the solonoid, which you would do to start with, but just because supposedly that the solenoid isn't working, it dont mean its just going to be that, internally the overdrive unidirectional clutch could have failed, the pump cam (common on j-types), cone clutch.. What a suprise it was just the solenoid....

[@kentishman5698]

I think they just put a different colour door and bonnet on it, different colour seat etc, then just changed them back and said it had been resprayed,

[@davidshattock9522]

Even though I don't like broadspeed raced one it was very fast indeed reliability was questionable though as only transport a disaster for me swapped it for a 3009e Capri handled like a tea tray in greased ice

[@iainchambers4724]

Very fast but brittle. I lifted off from 80ish getting off the motorway once and stripped the gears off the jackshaft causing the water pump to fail. I always thhought the radiator and cooling was marginal. Still loved it though.

[@user-wp9jj2qx7y]

Nope, that fault was common in the late 80's and 90's due to a batch of badly hardened aftermarket water pump shafts

[@iainchambers4724]

@@user-wp9jj2qx7y Appreciate the comment, but I'd traded the Sprint by 1983

[@janfswedane]

The Alfa Romeo of the UK..

[@DarkStar-wu9nq]

I love the choice of cars with Mike and Elvis ………. XR3i must be done

[@johnhurley2083]

What mechanic works on a transmission box with a stain free WHITE T-Shirt ? Impossible.

[@jeremykille4689]

Have you seen the cost of the aluminium wheel nuts for the wheels?!

[@robertengland9352]

Used to own one and red

[@neilharrison7555]

"Bullet-proof" engine...NO. Mine cracked a liner AND before that the timing chain/gear assembly came apart, punching a hole in the timing cover. (Trying to start it, thankfully not when running.) Overdrive - usual suspects are the switch itself, the leads/connection, and/or the solenoid itself. I put SPAX shockers on and it handled very nicely.

[@stevesas632]

Wow cut off at the most exciting part 😢

[@Pietervdv]

I think it was more up against the Alfa Romeo Alfetta than the Ford. Both technically advanced cars and sporty sedan for people who wanted something different.

[@gerry5134]

Who do you sell those cars to when they are fixed up. Are they reserved for someone?

[@raytrevor1]

Overdrives were great in traffic.

[@robleary3353]

I'd still have the Ford. Nuff said! 🙂

[@retprof9922]

I've loved this show for years, especially the chance to learn about British cars that are totally new to me. However, it seems to me that cars they describe as super performers would seem a bit tame to us (Americans), especially today. I may be wrong and it may be a matter of then-vs-now and performance (along with other attributes) is subjective.

[@puciohenzap891]

Different markets, UK/EU cars were much smaller and lighter. in general US got massive engines, big bodywork and high mass.

[@Pietervdv]

Different roads ask for different cars. On a British B road, American muscle is pretty much useless, like this Triumph is useless on a drag strip.

[@philcackett1155]

Not really a comparison though is it. 1600cc 1972 escort against a 2000cc 1979 dolly. A mk2 RS2000 would have been a better match up. Lovely finish on the dolly though.

[@xbaldwin97]

Please do an Escort RS Turbo

[@philtowle4683]

Is that Ed's old tool box?

[@rsmit2797]

@ 2:06 bullet proof???? Absolute bollocks!

[@dgschindele]

During the chrome plating segment, a term was used for the balls acting as heat and fume shields. I believe it began with the letter 'C'. Anyone know what it was?

[@daviddenham2971]

Jack Brabham didn't like these. The Torana that he was driving at Bathurst in 1976 got rear ended by a Dolomite.

[@jackwilson8651]

Were the Dolomites any good compared to say an XU1 or a Fiat 124 or Alfa? Too far before my time but curious.

[@TheLemminkainen]

i would stil take Mk1 Essie

[@lewis72]

Triumph missed a trick by not putting the Saab 99 Turbo engine in.

[@guillaumedhennin4830]

C est quoi la conversion e10 je trouve ce carburant hard pour le moteur même sur les moteurs actuels le 98 e5 est plus doux par contre je pense que l éthanol a besoin d esters sur moteur essence mais chez Saab le e85 tourne sur diesel et l éthanol c est mieux sur les diesel la poussee est trop forte sur essence

[@rk22cc]

Elvis is the best

[@knoxyish]

way better than an escort mexico!!!!

[@mickdeverick]

Had a 1500 dolly

[@jtb52]

My mum had one scrapped wish she'd kept it. It was very unreliable

[@cuebj]

As were all BL products. Parents dumped them, and the lousy dealership for Nissan Cherry and Sunny from a new family owned dealer. Far superior cars with better legroom for Dad

[@BangerFleet]

The body is nice and rust free, but the doors aren’t. It’s almost like they added the yellow doors just to make it look worse on TV.

[@ErnestoBrausewind]

Nice Car, no doubt tho I can help it - it is a bit of an Alfa GTV rip off, isn't it?

[@Markcain268]

A British bmw 2002

[@martinclapton2724]

The Escort Mexico in standard form had a 1600cc OHV cross flow engine on a single twin choke carb , producing 88bhp. The standard Dolly Sprint with 2litre capacity , 16 valve and twin carbs had 126bhp - bit of an unfair comparison. The Escort is very rigid and light making it very chuckable , an ideal car for rallying , despite it’s dated suspension, it won every rally in the world pretty much. The Dolly’s suspension may seem more advanced on paper but didn’t work as well. Put the Dolly against the standard 2 litre pinto engined Rs2000 would be a fairer contest. The BDA engine 1.6 RS1600 with 16 valves twin 40s would lose them all, although that was rather a specialty, homologation car. Personally, preferred the Fiat Mirafiori Sport with its Lampredi 2 litre twin cam , or better still the genuine Arbarth model , although again that was a homologation limited edition

[@philtucker1224]

Yes the 2 litre Fiat engines were superb, (almost a direct copy of the Lotus engine).

[@lewis72]

2:04 Bulletproof ? These engine blew head gaskets left, right and centre !

[@georgepiet496]

Had a Dolomite. Awful car. Overdrive leaked a huge amount of oil. Rack and pinion steering wore out horribly. Linkages on carbies fell apart.

[@davidshattock9522]

Also mecico with standard engine would get buried in a race i reckon as mexico performance not brilliant handling great also interior very plastic nasty sprint more classy by far

[@chrissingleton8473]

Why would you wanna convert it to run E10 shite fuel full stop 😂

[@AdeReeves]

Bullet proof engine 🤣... Yeah for 10 mins until the head gasket went... ... i know I owned 2...

[@deanstanley5799]

6k to buy as a shed 🤷‍♂️ no thanks

[@neill4133]

Would you rather be hooning around at 17 in an Escort Mexico or a British Leyland car that your grandad would drive? 😅

[@jamietrev]

Not many of those left ; a tad like those who spend Christmas alone , there’s a a good reason for everything………

[@jezincov]

Why didn't they just be honest and say its been restored to a level and needs finishing, instead of blatantly swapping doors and bonnet on an near immaculate car to make it look rough?. Nearly gave up on Wheeler dealers after this one but rest of series got better.

[@julesandrewdamasco4210]

First

[@PaulBriden]

Typical lazy sensationalistic journalism from this program. They made 23,000 Sprints. They made 10,000 Mk1 Escort Mexicos and, more of a competitor to the Sprint the Mk1 Escort RS 2000 they made around 5000 of these. So they made 8,000 more Sprints than these two put together. How does this make this car underrated. In 1975 Andy Rouse won the British Saloon Car Championship outright by taking the driver's title in a Sprint. In 1976 Broadspeed only ran one Dolomite Sprint in British Saloon Car Championship with Rouse finishing second in the two-litre class. I had a French Blue Sprint PWC 940M as my first car. Those were the days, register the car in dads name and be listed as a named driver. An early car, no overdrive, no headrests, no side mouldings, no gear lever consul. A friend of mine had a silver one, an L reg car. He told me they only sprayed 3 silver. I saw the car, it was genuine, my dad even pulled the floor mats up. Everybody knew the Sprint, Mr Brewer and Elvis forget that a lot of people on here were around then. The Mexico was a totally different market to the Sprint.

[@babylon5mh]

Not as good without Ant ........ sorry !

[@Jay-ru3mu]

Why does mike hate Vauxhalls ??? Essex ? Ford??????..All of mikes co presenters are all better than Mike...

[@Jay-ru3mu]

Elvis is his latest victim

[@chiefrocka8604]

On behalf of every single rs2000 owner these Doloshite were really shhite infact Doloposhite

[@peteb3091]

Dolly sprint was quicker than the rs2000. Dagenham dustbin.

[@sjcea0512]

I always laugh at what the British think is a fast car lol

[@sjcea0512]

The British really make me laugh as to what they think are really nice car is or a fast car is aside from Ferrari and Lamborghini and the mega dollar sports cars every other car on the roads of Great Britain is garbage