I would love to hear any more developments on this story as it unfolds.
I acquired an original Gp 1 Dolly a couple of years ago, but this is a Belgian LHD car. I think this is the one that Terry alluded to as "you know who" owning earlier in this thread.
It is one of the four Dolomite Sprints that were entered at Spa 24 hour in 1974. One of the other Dolomites in that event was a RHD Broadspeed car driven by Rouse/Dron under the Butch Tailor colours that came 5th. I would love to know where that car went in the end, if it got rolled into a ball or was developed into something further.
My car, also originally in Butch Tailor colours was driven by J. Vernaeve and failed to finish the Spa 24 hours in 1974. However it was campaigned successfully in various Belgian touring car events and then again throughout 1975 including Spa 24 hours again, but unfortunately failing once more.
The car was then shipped back to the UK at the end of 75, rebuilt with a Don Moore engine which it still has (motorsport block (never seen one before or since), in Don Moore's distinctive metallic blue). It was also painted into Leyland works livery (in which it remains today) and it was raced by Vernaeve, Metge, Pirenne, Pond through to 1979 in a large number of touring car events being sponsored by Leyland Cars Belgium. Unfortunately I don't believe the car ever came to the UK to be raced, which is a shame but I would love to know if anybody knew of the car or worked on it when it was rebuilt in the UK in the winter of 1975/76 with Don Moore.
As for today, the car remains largely unchanged since then, although I have mechanically restored the car, painted the interior and brought it up to modern safety spec. It is now set to debut in the UK next year after having been raced for the first time at Spa in over 30 years in the summer just gone.
Would love to hear more on where some of the original cars are just to compare notes, but equally it seems there is some effort now being made to resurrect the original Gp 1 cars to race and it would be great to see more of them coming out of their hiding places.
Here's a pic at Spa 6hr 2011:
