History
The Dolomite was the final addition to Triumph's complex small-car range (codenamed "Project Ajax"), which had started in 1965 with the Triumph 1300. Designed to be a replacement for the rear-wheel drive Triumph Herald, the 1300 was originally fitted with a 1,296 cc (79 cu in) engine and front-wheel drive. The later model, introduced in September 1970 as the Triumph 1500, featured a remodelled front and rear, styled by Michelotti, and a larger 1,493 cc (91 cu in) engine.
Triumph were however dissatisfied with the market performance of the 1300; although successful, the higher price and greater complexity meant sales never reached the levels of its predecessor, the simpler and cheaper Herald. To this end the car was comprehensively re-engineered to be cheaper and simpler to build and maintain; launched in September 1970, was the Triumph Toledo, a cheaper and more basic variant with conventional rear-wheel drive. This was assembled alongside the now larger-engined front-wheel drive version. It was launched at the same time as the 1500, adding further complexity to the model range.
Read more about this topic: Triumph Dolomite
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Certainly there is not the fight recorded in Concord history, at least, if in the history of America, that will bear a moment’s comparison with this, whether for the numbers engaged in it, or for the patriotism and heroism displayed.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“When we of the so-called better classes are scared as men were never scared in history at material ugliness and hardship; when we put off marriage until our house can be artistic, and quake at the thought of having a child without a bank-account and doomed to manual labor, it is time for thinking men to protest against so unmanly and irreligious a state of opinion.”
—William James (1842–1910)
“In nature, all is useful, all is beautiful. It is therefore beautiful, because it is alive, moving, reproductive; it is therefore useful, because it is symmetrical and fair. Beauty will not come at the call of a legislature, nor will it repeat in England or America its history in Greece. It will come, as always, unannounced, and spring up between the feet of brave and earnest men.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)