This Triumph Dolomite Automatic must surely be one of the earliest surviving examples as it has a very early chassis number and an build date of late 1971.

The car is currently based in the North East of England and has been in the possession of its current owner since the latter half of 2008.  The car, which is finished a Sienna Brown, had covered 40,800 miles since new and has had just 2 previous owners.  The underside of the car is also in very good condition as it has never been welded in the 37 years since it left the factory.  The interior is also suprisingly fresh for a car of its age.

As purchased, work was required on the front wings, however the philosophy of the owner is towards preservation rather than restoration and he plans to retain as much of the original paint work as possible.  The wing repairs involved letting in new metal rather than replacement of the wings given that the rust was caused purely by neglected stone chips and every inner panel is perfect.

With the car's mileage now around 50,000 miles, it still uses no oil or coolant and in these days of economy-minded motoring it is interesting to note that this early '70s, automatic, with old-fashioned carburators, has returned an average of 37.4 MPG in the 10,000 miles since purchase.  This figure would have been even higher but for an hours long journey through snow in 2nd gear, but even under these conditions a figure of 28.2 MPG was acheived.  The proud owner, who logs every drop of fuel purchased, attributes this to properly setting up the original Stromberg carburators and reports the best figure achieved on a tankful was an amazing 42.07 MPG.