Swallow Doretti

The Swallow Doretti was a sports car built by the Swallow Coachbuilding Co (then owned by the Tube Investments Group) between 1954 and 1955 using mechanicals from the Triumph TR2. Production of the car stopped after only 10 months, apparently because Jaguar, a major customer of the TI Group, were so worried about the effect on sales of their XK120 that they threatened to look elsewhere for a supplier of their components if manufacture of the Swallow Doretti continued.

This is a Swallow Doretti that I photographed at the Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in June 1984. It may be difficult to make out, but the badge on the bonnet of the car isn't that of a Swallow Doretti - it actually depicts a scorpion. The car was built and owned by a Mr Jim Williams of North Wales and has a very interesting history, which you can read about here.