SPECIAL EDITION DOLOMITE 1500

Andrew Burford reckons that a 1500SE represents the epitome of Dolomite design. Mike Taylor meets the man who likes to champion the underdog, and his ultra-rare example of Triumph’s evergreen Dolomite saloon.

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Among the multitude of Triumph’s classic sports cars and saloons, the Dolomite 1500SE stands out as being one of the rarest of them all. That is just one of the reasons why Andrew Burford is so totally passionate about his Dolomite SE, the car fulfilling all his desires in a specialist vehicle. So what was it that first sparked this passion for the Dolomite family?

‘On leaving school I worked in the motor trade for a while,’ explains Andrew. ‘My first car was a hand painted two-door Triumph Toledo. I replaced things like worn track control arms, balljoints and the brakes – it was all valuable experience.’

In 1978 Andrew decided that nothing less than a total body restoration was good enough and in addition to the mechanicals he also undertook a respray of the whole body, finishing it in Honeysuckle and Russett. However, this sadly proved to be something of a waste of time and energy as the Toledo was then involved in a hit and run accident. Twice! In the end the gearbox synchromesh failed, and at that point Andrew decided enough was enough and the Toledo was disposed of.

‘Working with my two colleagues in the motor trade, I was lucky enough to drive many BL cars of the period as part payment for helping them,’ he continues. ‘Throughout my life I’ve always preferred the underdog, the lesser model, and despite having the chance of getting behind the wheel of the top end Dolomite 1850s and Sprints, my natural affinity has always been for the mid-range models, and in particular the rare SE version of the Dolomite 1500.’