2long Posted January 19, 2020 Report Share Posted January 19, 2020 Always found it interesting that the ‘Doretti’ name predated the car. Cal Sales used it for their accessory line, as pictured on this Cal Sales steering wheel. Then they sold the name so it could be used for the car. Its a nice-sounding invented name! Cheers Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Dic Doretti Posted January 20, 2020 Report Share Posted January 20, 2020 Hi Dan The popular story about the naming of the Swallow Doretti is at a meeting between Eric Sanders of Tube Investments (the parent company of Swallow) and Arthur Andersen also the owner of a tubing company in California among other things, a plan was concocted to market a Swallow sports car. This car would be called a Doretti, an Italian version of Dorothy who was Arthur Andersen's daughter who ran his car accessories business and would market the Doretti. In fact, as you pointed out the Cal Specialities Company had been marketing car accessories under the Doretti trademark since 1950 and Eric Sanders actually purchased the Doretti name for his sports car, I guess its all about marketing. The TR2 and Swallow Doretti were launched on the West Coast in January 1954, an event at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles organised by Dorothy Deen (replicated at the NEC a few years ago) the Doretti and a rolling chassis travelled over on the Queen Mary with the designer, Frank Rainbow. The fledgling company run by Dorothy Deen eventually became the largest Triumph distributer in the world. There is a very detailed article about Dorothy Deen and her varied career and another one on the Doretti in Automobile Quarterly July 1995. Cheers Richard Quote Link to post Share on other sites
2long Posted January 21, 2020 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2020 Thanks for all the history Richard! Apart from Piggott’s color photo in his ompendium, have you seen any other shots of that Ambassador event? Cheers Dan Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Dic Doretti Posted January 21, 2020 Report Share Posted January 21, 2020 Hi Dan Mike Nangreve, a Doretti owner in Bristol has some high quality black and white pictures of the event which we used when setting up the stand at the NEC. He also has a picture of the "production line" at Swallows which is quite quaint, boiler suits and ties. Cheers Richard Attachments_201565.zip Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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