For all you Triumph history buffs out there, the latest volumn of
Automobile Quarterly (Vol. 34/2)has the best piece yet written on the
Swallow Doretti and an associated piece on Dorothy Deen.
The Doretti piece is the most thorughly researched and accurate story
ever done on this car and gives an excellent insight into the workings
of the British car industry at the time and how eager they were to
produce for the American market. Most of the photographs shown have
never before been published.
The story on Dorothy Deen is first rate as well. I've had the pleasure
of spending some time with Dorothy adn she is as facinating in person
as the story relates. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Dorothy
Deen, she was the first distributor of Triumph cars west of the
Mississippi and was responsible in large part for the success of
Triumph on the west coast. The Doretti is named after her as well.
She influenced Triumph's product development, planning and advertising
heavily during her association. If you ever wondered what happened to
some of those lovely colors on very early TR2's, like Geranium, she
"suggested" some alternatives!
This is all stuff I've been into for years and I provided a lot of
information to Tom Householder that he's organized and expanded upon
that finally went into this article. Its great stuff and I'm glad to
see it finally in print especially in such a quality publication as
AQ.
Kurt Oblinger
'54 TR2 '54 Swallow Doretti '57 TR3.......ad nauseum
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