Motors Triumph Dolomite, Mk1 Escort or Mk1 Cortina?

Which one to go for? Experiences/Opinions most welcome on all- good or bad!
Things like;

1. Condition relative to cost
2. Reliability
3. Ride
4. Interior
5. Efficiency/Speed
6. Availability and cost of spares
7. Ease of maintainance
8. etc. etc.

 

Ok well for a mk1 escort

1. More expencive than the dolo but less than a mk1 cortina
2. Good, escort and cortina are pretty much the same, much better than a triumph relly
3. Depends on spec of car relly but handleing on a mk1 scort is pretty damn good.
4. Ok, pretty bog standard interior for a 60s car
5. again depends on what kind/size of engine its got etc. Generaly good and very easy/cheap to improve, best of the 3
6. Very easy to get hold of, All Parts are redly avalible, Loads of non standard uprated and tuning parts avalible, easly best of the 3
7. Very easy matinance. better than the triumph
   

I dunno if thats what your after?

 

Yeah thats great- thanks Adam. The idea is to get as many pros/cons as I can for each car I am looking at.

 

mk1 cortina has a steering box so teh steering is pretty vague, most of them also have drum brakes all round so teh brakes are crap unless you get a 1500 model which have discs up front, I've had 3 of them and they look great and are certainly a headturner, parts are getting very few and far between now, especially panels like wings, headlight surrounds and doors all of which rot out for a past time , cortinas also rust on chassis outriggers

mk1 escort would be my choice, proper steering, easily upgradeable using ford parts (basically use mk2 escort and capri components for brakes engine gearbox etc reliable, fun to chuck around (the 'tinas a bit large to be throwing around specially with teh dodgy steering box setup), loads of parts available if you know where to look more expensivce than a mk1 cortina but generally in better condition as the design is 10 yrs younger and doesn't rot quite so badly

the ford stuff is easy to maintain and most parts are interchangable between models up to about 1985, cortina interiors are very basic , escorts are a bit better and theres more available, the cortina is a pre crossflow engine and front sumped so bits are getting hard to find, the escort is a crossflow (kent) engine which is basically the same as the cortina with a different head design
but is rear sumped so if you kill it a pinto from a mk3/4/5 cortina, capri and sierra will fit with a bit of sump massage

never owned a dolly so i cant comment on those but i hear the sprints a bit of a laugh to drive

good luck with finding a decent one

 

Can only really comment on the Escort really as that's the only one I've ever driven - they are fantastic fun, sound amazingly rorty with a decent pipe on and go pretty well with just a standard 1600cc xflow. I like them but can't afford to have a 2nd car. I heard the Dolomite Sprints are cool too, but not all that reliable.

 

Heh, Dolomite trumps all of those in every respect (In my hideously biased view )

1) Condition - can get an excellent on for ~1200 (sprint) try that with an 'Scort

2) Sprints - Reliable as hell if the rad's sorted - otherwise may overheat - (Done 4000 miles, quite a lot of ~150 mile round trips in my 1850, no probs)

3) Ride - Excellent, well geared steering, absorbs the bumps well (assuming suspension in good cond.)

4) Interior - Excellent quality, good materials, tough

5) Efficiency - fairly good actually, got 38mpg out of my auto on the M1, performance 0-60 in 9 secs on the Sprint

6) Spares - Cheap, numerous, upgrades a plenty - infinitely more availaible than ford bits and higher quality too

7) Easy to work on - standard tools etc...not that' y'all ever need to

8) Looks cool, sounds great, needs no work as standard to have a brilliant fun little car

Slightly biased, but all the Fjord's I've been in are sheds compared to the dolo's.....and aren't quick as standard, handle alright, fall apart etc etc and cost a lot to maintain.

 

Sorry i know this is an oppinions thread but that is simply not true. Ive worked with 100s of differant classics and i assure you parts avalibility for Ford Escorts is only seconded by the Mini. You can get nearly everything new and there are loads of upgrade options avalible. Alot more than a dolomite.

I think you will find a 1600gt scort could give a dolly sprint a good thrashing.

(but then again im bias am i not )

slater..

 

This is the same with teh dolo so maybe we shud just call it a draw

1600GT scort is ' 9.9 seconds to 60 isn't it......slower than a Sprint

 

LoL i have no idea what the 0-60time is. It depends on alot more than that to diside which is the faster car.

If you wanna play like that then maybe i should throw the twincam, rs1600 or even rs1800 into the equation (but that would be cheating as both are near impossible to find nowerdays)

 

and hideously expensive to boot!

 

....Found this article on google when searching stuff on Dolomites...lol

Get a Dolomite, probably cost more for one in good condition £1000 ish, but simple adaptable interior. take some of those computer mods to a higher level!

Easy to restore yourself, and FAST AS SH*T

O-60 in about 7.5secs, pisses on most modern builds.
Also stupidly cheap to insure, as its a classic car.


but you made this post a few months ago...so what have you chosen?

 

I haven't actually- The plan was to get something that needed minor work done, and restore ready for my 17th in February. My mum didn't like that idea so it looks like I am going to wait for a while. I also had 2 other suggestions- Mk2 Escort and Mk1 Golf, so I am completely undecided.

 

For Mk2 escort read Mk1 escort, same bits underneath just new packaging the only other difference is that a lot of MK1's are tax exempt in the uk (pre jan 73) whilst no mk2's ever will be

Mk1 golfs are a nice classic to own, good luck finding one tho they're getting expensive these days, parts are readily available for them and with a few minor mods they can be turned into a veritable gokart, typical vokswagon reliability and build quality but fwd so a lil bit less fun in the wet, escorts , dollies and the like have windscreens that wind down if you drive em the right way (sideways all the way)

BTW the rarity of stuff like MK1 and MK2 escorts etc is entirely down to like of me and my friends buying most of them up back in the late 80's early 90's and basically stripping all the crappy ones for spares to keep ours on the rd because we drove them so hard that bits kept breaking (bear in mind in them days an escort was worth about 200 quid with an MOT and 10 quid upwards without one)

still regret selling my MK1 mexico back in 95 when it was worth bugger all
not like prices these days

 

As na ex Dolly owber i say go for teh Dolly, it's a heck of a different beast to the Fords but if you get a Sprint you 'll have a smile from ear to ear. (then again you can just about shoehorn a V8 into it with a bit of metalwork)