1954 Swallow Doretti

The Doretti sports car was built at Walsall in Staffordshire by the Swallow Coachbuilding Company (1935) Ltd., which was the part of William Lyons' empire that specialised in building motorcycle sidecars. Somewhat paradoxically, another of Lyons' companies, Swallow Sidecars, made the 'SS' cars that adopted the 'Jaguar' name post-war. Sold by Lyons to Tube Investments after the Second World War, and facing a declining market for sidecars, Swallow used its spare capacity to launch the Doretti sports car in 1954, aimed at the Californian market.

The stylish two-seater adopted the Triumph TR2 engine and running gear, which went into a bespoke chassis fabricated from Reynolds 531 tubing and clothed in aluminium outer body panels supplied by Panelcraft. The design was the work of one of TI's engineers, Frank Rainbow, who, working alone, managed to get the Doretti from drawing board to the prototype stage in a mere ten months. Robustly built with a chassis longer and wider than Triumph's TR2, the Doretti handled more securely and had more refinements including a heater and fitted luggage. The 18-strong workforce at Walsall turned out about five cars per week. The styling was unashamedly borrowed from the contemporary Ferrari 166MM 'Barchetta' and the name 'Doretti' was an Italian derivation of the first name of Dorothy Dean, a California Triumph distributor. Offering 100mph performance at a relatively bargain price, (although more expensive than the TR2), the Doretti sold well in California where its hand-built exclusivity had much appeal. More than half of the total production went for export.

One of it's chief rivals was the Jaguar XK120, consequently, Lyons was not best pleased and pressured TI to axe the Doretti, threatening to look elsewhere for the components they supplied to Jaguar. TI complied and the Doretti ceased production in 1955 after only 276 had been completed. Testimony to the build quality and the discerning nature of the original customer base is the high survival rate of the marque and model.

First registered in September 1954, this particular Doretti is believed to one of just 66 that are still known to exist in the UK out of about 180 world wide. It's finished in Vermillion Red with a black interior and hood and has been restored in recent years by a retired engineer to an extremely good and eminently useable standard. When initially stripped, it was found to have an incorrect engine necessitating a search for a correct TR2 engine which then encouraged some further mechanical enhancements during the rebuild including 86mm pistons and liners increasing the capacity to 2,138cc, a fast road cam with hardened valve seats, a rare Le Mans inlet manifold with twin HS6 carburettors mounted to a low-port cylinder head. The transmission was also to receive attention including the Laycock overdrive which was completely overhauled as required. Other improvements include a high-torque starter, a new fuel pump and hydraulic master cylinder. With a minimal 500 running-in miles covered, the Doretti is now ready to be enjoyed once again by its next lucky custodian.