The Swallow Doretti is a British

sports car A sports car is a type of automobile that is designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as Automobile handling, handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving, and Auto racing, racing capability. Sports cars originated in ...

built on Swallow's own custom chassis using

Triumph TR2 The Triumph TR2 is a sports car produced by the Standard Motor Company in the United Kingdom from 1953 to 1955. It was most commonly available in open two-seater form. History Standard's Triumph Roadster was out-dated and under-powered on ar ...

mechanicals, made between 1954 and 1955. It was intended for the US market, as a more refined two-seater than what was available there at that time.

Swallow

The car was built by the Swallow Coachbuilding Company Ltd., a Tube Investments Group subsidiary bought for its 1935–1946 association with

Jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large felidae, cat species and the only extant taxon, living member of the genus ''Panthera'' that is native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the biggest cat spe ...

's prewar motorcycle sidecars.

Name

The Doretti name was derived from Dorothy Deen, who managed the Western US distributorship Cal Sales. The Trade Mark logo and Doretti name are in the ownership of Canadian Peter Schömer. He is building a new limited edition sports car called the Doretti TR250 'Corsa Veloce' using the Ferrari TR 250 chassis and engine from 1957. Trademarks - Doretti
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Design

Some observers find similarities between the Doretti and the 166MM 'Barchetta' and

Austin-Healey 100 The Austin-Healey 100 is a sports car that was built by Austin-Healey from 1953 until 1956. Based on Austin A90 Atlantic mechanicals, it was developed by Donald Healey from his Nash-Healey 2 door sports car, which had Nash mechanicals inste ...

. Based on the Triumph TR2, the Doretti had much improved stability, its track was wider, and its wheelbase longer. The Doretti had a tubular

Reynolds 531 Reynolds 531 (pronounced 'five-three-one') is a brand name, registered to Reynolds Technology of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, for a manganese–molybdenum, medium-carbon steel tubing that was used in many quality applications, including r ...

manganese–molybdenum, medium-carbon steel chassis. Reynolds was another member of the T.I. Group. The double-skinned body had an inner structural skin made of steel and an aluminium outer skin. Power came from a

Standard wet liner inline-four engine The Standard wet liner inline-four engine was an inline four cylinder petrol engine produced by the Standard Motor Company. Originally developed concurrently for passenger car use and for the Ferguson TE20 tractor, it was widely used for Standar ...

. Most cars were supplied with

Laycock-de Normanville Overdrive is the operation of an automobile cruising at sustained speed with reduced engine speed (rpm), leading to better fuel consumption, lower noise, and lower wear. The term is ambiguous. The most fundamental meaning is that of an over ...

electric

epicyclic An epicyclic gear train (also known as a planetary gearset) is a gear reduction assembly consisting of two gears mounted so that the center of one gear (the "planet") revolves around the center of the other (the "sun"). A carrier connects the ...

overdrive and they were capable of 100 mph. 276 Mk I cars were made, including a single fixed head coupe version.Mike Lawrence, ''A to Z of Sports Cars, 1945-1990'' Bay View Books, Bideford, Devon : 1996 The car was designed in-house by engineer Frank Rainbow, and produced in the T.I. factory at The Airport,

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation ''Staffs''.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, ...

, England. Three prototype Mk II cars, called ''Sabres'', were produced. These had a stiffer chassis and better weight distribution. The Doretti was the only car that the T.I. Group ever built under the Swallow name. Production stopped in 1955 when the parent company T.I. Group changed policy. Allegedly, pressure placed on T.I. directors by the British motor industry, most notably

, alleged that Doretti production created a conflict of interest for T.I. by giving Swallow an advantage over other customers in buying its products.

Performance

A car with overdrive tested by the British magazine ''The Motor'' in 1954 had a top speed of and could accelerate from 0- in 12.3 seconds. A fuel consumption of was recorded. The test car cost £1,158 including taxes. The standard version without overdrive cost £1,102. At the time a Triumph TR2 cost £887.

References

External links