Hello Phil,

Thought you might be interested in these for the website. They show one of only 2 mark 2 Dorettis ever built and were seemingly taken at the Standard works. I think the Doretti shown is that now belonging to Jill Royle which was at Churchill last year and in 2004, so a modern picture would make an interesting comparison if you have one. The car was converted to a soft top when restored some years ago. 

Peter Lockley

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Yes, I do have a shot of the car today, below  and indeed it is now a softtop. What were the differences in the Mark II?

Webmaster

Phil,

       There is some confusion over whether 2 or 3 mark 2 Dorettis were built. The general belief is that 2 were built, 1 hardtop, 1 soft top. Of those one is now in Canada and the other belongs to Jill Royle, the car in the pictures, 60 HRF.  Before she bought it, it was owned by Mike Jennings of Oxford who restored it from a wreck as a soft top. I have never seen it with its hard top, either in the flesh or in modern pictures. About 6 Doretti mark 1 hardtops (not necessarily on cars) also exist, built in aluminium, which are removeable.

There was a third mark 2 Doretti which appeared in the 1990s but has since disappeared again with a mark1 front and mark 2 rear which is reputed to be a 3rd mark 2 which had a smash and was repaired with a mark 1 front. It was reputedly built for Standard and used as a test car to develop the TR range, being easier to modify than a TR for development purposes. However these pictures of Jill Royle's car at Standard indicate that it could have been there for development purposes.

 

The mark 2 Doretti differed quite considerably from the mark 1 as follows:-

1.It had a larger boot with  different shaped bootlid and rear wings.

2.The fuel tank was repositioned which meant the spare wheel could go lower which also increased boot capacity.

3.It had wind up windows.

4.It had flatter wheel arches.

5.It had a different grille.

All in all it was a better car than the mark 1, but sadly never got into production.

 

Peter Lockley

Below are two further pictures of the Mark II at the factory