Over the years some Doretti owners have used their ingenuity and skill to create their own concept of a sports car and used a Doretti body in their construction, while other enthusiasts have modified an original Doretti as the basis of their project. Some cars have retained their original chassis number but others have been assigned an UID number. Any information or photos of either type of vehicle is always appreciated.
Click on any photo to see a another version or follow the links for more information.
In 1955, Dennis Ramsay took delivery of a twin-tube Formula 2, HAR chassis, modified to
accept a Daimler V-8 engine. He also took the opportunity to purchase a complete body-shell
from Swallow Coachbuilding, after the factory ended Doretti production.
The aluminium panels from the Doretti provided the basis for the stylish bodywork.
OGS 525 was registered as a Daimler in Perthshire in 1960, but it was mostly used for circuit racing. The car remained with its builder for over forty years before it was sold by Coys Auctions in 2004.
TME 924 was built as the result of an ccident to a 1948 Frazer-Nash race car.
In September 1955, John Bain of Kilmarnock the owner of the Frazer-Nash was racing at Charterhall airfield circuit in the Scottish Borders, when the car overturned and Bain was unfortunately killed. The following year the wreck was bought by Clive Bourchier, who rebuilt it with a Swallow Doretti body and a Mercury flat-head V8 engine.
Do you have any photos or information about this car?
This car was built in 1956 by Jim Williams in Manchester as normal two-seater roadster,
with a chassis and parts obtained from the factory after production ended.
However, when Jim William's children were growing up in the early sixties, Jim decided
that he had to sell his Doretti and get something bigger, but nobody wanted it.
So, he got his pencil out and drew a new body for the car from the rear wheels back,
with a hardtop, using the roof off a Triumph Mayflower, which gave tremendous headroom,
extra seating and a big rear window. He then built a rear body to suit those bits,
together with an Austin A40 bumper and Vauxhall lights.
The car remained a four-seater from 1962 until it was returned to its original configuration in 1975.
POU 211 first registered in 1956, may have been intended to be the new sports
model for Paramount Cars, a British company that produced saloons and convertible
vehicles between 1950 and 1956.
The original Paramount had an aluminium body over a wood frame mounted on a separate tubular steel chassis. It was initially designed to have an Alvis engine and suspension, but to reduce costs the production versions used Ford engines.
This special which has a Swallow Doretti front end and a Paramount rear body, was found in the early 1970's and restored by the Denning family in the UK.
WTB 338 an original Swallow Doretti, was modified in 1965 by Derek Pugh after he
rescued the accident damaged vehicle from a car-breaker's yard in north Wiltshire.
After completing mechanical repairs to WTB 338, Derek contacted Shapecraft in Surbiton
for an estimate to have the Doretti fitted with a bonnet similar to a Jaguar E-Type.
In early 1965 Derek Pugh paid for £75 for an accident damaged Swallow Doretti with the registration WTB 338 from a car-breaker's yard, situated between Swindon and Cricklade. The car, which was Chassis No.1152, had damage to the right-hand side front wing and headlamp, the shroud, lower wishbone and a broken front SU carburettor. There were also some marks in the bonnet. Derek had the carburettor aluminium welded, replaced the wishbone and remembers that the car started at the first touch of the button and drove very well. However this now left him with a body problem that he could not do himself. Derek then contacted Shapecraft in Surbiton and they sent someone down to Derek's home in Cheltenham (on a Sunday), to check it over and give a quote. which was £75 again, providing he removed the bodywork back up to the bulkhead. This would now allow him to have a one-piece, lift-up Jaguar E-Type type bonnet fabricated. It was decided that Triumph Herald bonnet catches would be used to secure the new front end. After cutting off the original aluminium Derek drove No.1152 to Surbiton a few days later and parked it alongside an E-Type being prepared for Le Mans so the car was in good company. A fortnight later the work was finished and Derek drove No.1152 back home.
According to Vintage Racing Services Chassis No.1227 was used in England as a street car
from 1954 to 1986. It was then imported to the USA from the UK by Michael Bruce in
approximately 1987. In 1992, Bill Shanahan was invited to compete in the reborn Carrera
Panamericana and Vintage Racing Services of Stratford, prepared the car for the race.
Major engine modifications resulted in a the 2.2 litre four-cylinder Triumph engine
showing an output of 185 BHP at 6,000 rpm on the dynamometer. A Moldex billet steel
crankshaft is fitted with Carillo con-rods with J&B forged pistons and a competition
clutch is bolted to a Tilton alloy flywheel. A fully gas-flowed head has stainless
steel valves, roller rockers and all the trick bits. There are twin 45 DCOE Weber carbs,
headers, an uprated cooling system and Mallory Unilite ignition. Other modification
included the shape of the nose being modified in order to use an egg-crate style
grille and then the car was re-painted cream and green.
Bill Shanahan and Danny Verterelli entered the 1992 Carrera Americana.
This Doretti special appears to have been coachbuilt in Spain and is based on
Chassis No.1102. An article about the car was included in the February 1992 issue of the
Spanish classic motor magazine, Motor Clasico.
Construction of the car has been atributed to Barcelona coachbuilder, Pedro Serra. However an investigation by Alvaro Toledo, (TR Registrar for the TR Club of Spain), resulted in his son (Carlos Serra) saying that his father did not build the the vehicle.
RLT 59 was originally a Swallow Doretti production vehicle, Chassis No.1209,
first registered in London on 20th July 1955. However the origins of it's conversion
to a Doretti special are unclear.
It appears that, at some time the Doretti may have been sent to Ghia for conversion to a coupé, but returned to the Swallow factory after production had finished.
In 1961, a Swallow Doretti was offered for sale by Simmonds (Mayfair Ltd) in Motor Sport, Vol 37, No.3, May 1961. The advertisment read; "Swallow Doretti - TR3 engine: Ghia-designed fixed-head coupé coachwork, disc brakes."
A story heard by Alan Gibb, was that when Frank Rainbow was shown a photo of the car at a TR Register, International Weekend at Donington in 1976, he said it looked like the Ghia coupé, but he had given instructions for it to be scrapped!
This attractive looking coupé with a Triumph TR2 engine, was built in California
by Bill Binney on a Swallow Doretti chassis.
Fabricated structures on the front and rear of the chassis supported a
fibreglass Allied Swallow body.
The image on the right was taken by Bill Oker at the 1956 Concours d'Elégance, held at the Biltmore Hotel in Santa Barbara, California.
For more information about this car see Binney Allied Doretti.
Peter Kirwan-Taylor commissioned the London coachbuilder, Williams & Pritchard, to modify the car with a coupé style bodywork designed by him. The January 20th 1956 issue of Autosport magazine carried a photograph of the car with a rear body conversion, which was descibed as being attractive and "affording greater accomodation and luggage space. It was produced for P. R. Kirwan-Taylor, of 62 Westbourne Terrace, London W.2. who may market the conversion for the Doretti, Austin-Healey and similar cars."
I am interested to see if anyone has any other history on the vehicle as I would like to know which Doretti was the donor for the body-shell.
Although this car is an original factory built Swallow Doretti, (Chassis No.1073) it's
been included in this section as a special because of its unusual history and appearance.
Contact this website via ken@doretti.co.uk. to add photos or information to Swallow Doretti - Cars & Owners.
Ken Yankey © 2006-2024