Morris Marina owners response to THAT burning.
Discussion
It might be somewhere within the TG thread, but I thought their own thread deserved its own mention. Ok, the schoolboy in me can't help but smile as the awful realisation of it all slowly dawns on them, but they've got a point.. haven't they?
Unless all is not what it seems..?
http://www.fastmarinamagazine.com/viewtopic.php?t=...
Edited: spolling.
Unless all is not what it seems..?
http://www.fastmarinamagazine.com/viewtopic.php?t=...
Edited: spolling.
Edited by Ginge R on Monday 8th December 22:49
It is a classic! Isn't it? 
BBC monkey said:
"As I explained, the actual decisions on what we might end up doing with a Morris Marina are still a bit up in the air at the moment, but given the usual stuff we get up to, the cars are usually largely still in one piece by the time we're done."
(apparantly)Morose Marina chap said:
"OK, your admin has called and asked me to come along and clarify a couple of things. So I will.
First of all, yes, that is a (riveted) repair to the car used in the destruction sequence which was originally a blue car, given a quick spray job to make it look like the nice one. GJR said that the decent car was in the compound and, for a while, so it was, but we haven't spoken in a week or two since when the Marina has found a new home in the hands of an enthusiast who refuses to use any forum because of the rubbish that tends to be talked about these very things!
The scrap car had to have a framework fabricated and fitted into the floor and chassis areas (sills, suspension mounting areas etc.) as it was really quite the rustiest thing we could have found, this made it safe to use on the "race" segment during which the interior trim from the good car was used in close ups.
Prior to the fire, that trim was replaced to the good car and the remains of the scrap one filled with a bed of poly peanuts and flour to give the impression of an interior fire.
No interior trim was destroyed, nor any usable parts. Even the windows were replaced with sugar glass. The car was obtained from a man who had intended to use it for racing of the oval track variety, but as it had no structural integrity, he gave up on that idea and gladly took the BBC's cash! As I said to GJR when asked by him to break cover and write this, the information is all available in the public domain, no secrets, no myths, and this is why the comments posted on the Marina site were so roundly criticised by him, they were purely speculative and had no basis in truth.
So go ahead and take a dislike to Top Gear, but please, Marina fans, acquaint yourselves with the facts of the situation before condemning something armed only with wild inaccuracy and assumptions.".
First of all, yes, that is a (riveted) repair to the car used in the destruction sequence which was originally a blue car, given a quick spray job to make it look like the nice one. GJR said that the decent car was in the compound and, for a while, so it was, but we haven't spoken in a week or two since when the Marina has found a new home in the hands of an enthusiast who refuses to use any forum because of the rubbish that tends to be talked about these very things!
The scrap car had to have a framework fabricated and fitted into the floor and chassis areas (sills, suspension mounting areas etc.) as it was really quite the rustiest thing we could have found, this made it safe to use on the "race" segment during which the interior trim from the good car was used in close ups.
Prior to the fire, that trim was replaced to the good car and the remains of the scrap one filled with a bed of poly peanuts and flour to give the impression of an interior fire.
No interior trim was destroyed, nor any usable parts. Even the windows were replaced with sugar glass. The car was obtained from a man who had intended to use it for racing of the oval track variety, but as it had no structural integrity, he gave up on that idea and gladly took the BBC's cash! As I said to GJR when asked by him to break cover and write this, the information is all available in the public domain, no secrets, no myths, and this is why the comments posted on the Marina site were so roundly criticised by him, they were purely speculative and had no basis in truth.
So go ahead and take a dislike to Top Gear, but please, Marina fans, acquaint yourselves with the facts of the situation before condemning something armed only with wild inaccuracy and assumptions.".
SHAME ON YOU JEREMY, FOR NOT EVEN HAVING THE BALLS TO DESTROY A CLASSIC.. PROPERLY. norman156 said:
durbster said:
Isn't it strange how people are outraged at stunts like this on TV, and yet in most action films you'll see cars being battered, sunk, destroyed, blown up, sawn in half etc.
Exactly, for the last 2 bond films they wrecked something like 8 Aston Martin DBS (whatever the plural is of that) and these people are complaining about some leyland peice of crap being destroyedOn another note, and given the tone of the piece (ie; having a pop at mass produced, publically funded, wasteful, turgid and poorly cobbled together state produced crap), I wonder if the irony of them both being employed by the BBC struck them at all?
Number 5 said:
Ginge R said:
Sorry, but thats nice. No bloated bulges, no blandness.. just the result of a bloke and a pen.
It's s
t and to add to insult someone has sprayed it blue and could'nt be bothered to spray the harvest gold metalwork on the inside..... an absolute pile of dog muck!I'm not suggesting its an esoteric delight, but it was never intended to be in the first place. Yeah, its a crap car, but as a crap car which slogged working class families around, 35 years ago, it has a certain charm. I suppose its the difference between understanding the price of something, and its value.
Incidentally, I spent 2 years at Greenham (and have fond memories of racing USAFE Chevy Blazers over those GAMA bunkers). We had a Marina that we used to smuggle one or two of our favourite smellies onto camp, so that they could grab a hot shower in winter. Caning that Marina around the peri-track in winter was a blast.
Good points.
As I recall, the Mk3 Tina rusted like a bd, the Avenger drove like a crock and the Viva was a swine to be driven in. But its not so trendy to knock them.
As I recall, the Mk3 Tina rusted like a b
d, the Avenger drove like a crock and the Viva was a swine to be driven in. But its not so trendy to knock them.red_rover said:
Whether you liked it or not - the Marina sold in very large quantities and supplied BL with an income it so desperately needed between government hand outs.
Like the Metro - it was just a car that lived too long and never got replaced. It was only supposed to be a stop gap car but like most things BL related - it ended up having to live SO much longer than it was originally intended for. By the end of production (as the Ital) it was hideously out of date but when it was first launched it was easily comparable with the Ford Cortina. Basic RWD layout, 3 box saloon with a simple range of engines and trim levels. Its a little fact that the Marina was designed by Roy Haynes - the guy who designed the CORTINA mk2.
From austin-rover.co.uk this was supposed to be the replacement until money totally dried up
ADO77 was to have been BLMC's answer to the Ford Cortina Mark III, but unfortunately, the money ran out to develop the concept much further than this. This meant the Marina was forced to soldier on long after its sell-by date.
Like the Metro - it was just a car that lived too long and never got replaced. It was only supposed to be a stop gap car but like most things BL related - it ended up having to live SO much longer than it was originally intended for. By the end of production (as the Ital) it was hideously out of date but when it was first launched it was easily comparable with the Ford Cortina. Basic RWD layout, 3 box saloon with a simple range of engines and trim levels. Its a little fact that the Marina was designed by Roy Haynes - the guy who designed the CORTINA mk2.
From austin-rover.co.uk this was supposed to be the replacement until money totally dried up
ADO77 was to have been BLMC's answer to the Ford Cortina Mark III, but unfortunately, the money ran out to develop the concept much further than this. This meant the Marina was forced to soldier on long after its sell-by date.
I accept that the BBC has to pander to the masses – after all, look what it has done for tarted up ballroom dancing and karaoke. But its still a shame it can't offer niche programming anymore and instead has to reduce everything to a committee obsessed, box ticking puerile mush, which is what Top Gear (with the best will in the world) has become. I mean, what was that bit at the end all about.. ‘Happy Yule’? That’s why 5G appeals to me more. It might not be as slick, but it doesn’t give as much a damn about keeping 19 year olds called Courtney happy.
Not that that’s wrong in itself mind, but doesn’t Courtney also have the X Factor? But I suppose that now that geography and history at school are going to be mulched into something called ‘Self being, awareness and internal harmony’ (or some such bolleaux) we’ll have to accept this dumbing down of everything. So I await the day when Jason Plato has a spot on the 9 O Clock News, just to keep those happy who tuned in but who might not really be interested in whats happening in the world and who need entertaining as well.
I accept the point about the Jag wrecking but there are thousands of Jags still around but only a handful of Marinas and (always the bastion of the self righteous this..) 2 wrongs don’t make a right. The fact that it wasn’t a good car isn’t the point and although I’m not suggesting we evangelically hoard everything we should at least take a step back. In the 1940s, 50s and 60s, lets remind ourselves how many beautiful country homes our parents and grandparents demolished for the stone, but who now wring our hands in despair at?
Perhaps Top Gear is the wrong battlefield, but if it won’t accept some level of responsibility, then who will? Yes, put a shiny Lightning in your front garden if all you care about is the glamour and not the reality, but if JC pulled QRA for a few weekends in Northern Scotland and tried to repair a leaking Lightning with numbed hands and THEN say its not a piece of junk too, then I’d doff my cap to him. It was a swine but it got to 30,000 feet rather quickly just as the Marina got us all to Skeggy in 1976. So to say something can be trashed simply because it didn’t corner well is to miss the argument and admit that this is all about knowing the price of something and not the value.
Which would appeal to Courtney of course. Not that she’d know about it, or hear you say it. She’d be trying to lip read you while listening to her iPod and MSN’ing someone at the same time. Still, she’s a viewer.. right?
Not that that’s wrong in itself mind, but doesn’t Courtney also have the X Factor? But I suppose that now that geography and history at school are going to be mulched into something called ‘Self being, awareness and internal harmony’ (or some such bolleaux) we’ll have to accept this dumbing down of everything. So I await the day when Jason Plato has a spot on the 9 O Clock News, just to keep those happy who tuned in but who might not really be interested in whats happening in the world and who need entertaining as well.
I accept the point about the Jag wrecking but there are thousands of Jags still around but only a handful of Marinas and (always the bastion of the self righteous this..) 2 wrongs don’t make a right. The fact that it wasn’t a good car isn’t the point and although I’m not suggesting we evangelically hoard everything we should at least take a step back. In the 1940s, 50s and 60s, lets remind ourselves how many beautiful country homes our parents and grandparents demolished for the stone, but who now wring our hands in despair at?
Perhaps Top Gear is the wrong battlefield, but if it won’t accept some level of responsibility, then who will? Yes, put a shiny Lightning in your front garden if all you care about is the glamour and not the reality, but if JC pulled QRA for a few weekends in Northern Scotland and tried to repair a leaking Lightning with numbed hands and THEN say its not a piece of junk too, then I’d doff my cap to him. It was a swine but it got to 30,000 feet rather quickly just as the Marina got us all to Skeggy in 1976. So to say something can be trashed simply because it didn’t corner well is to miss the argument and admit that this is all about knowing the price of something and not the value.
Which would appeal to Courtney of course. Not that she’d know about it, or hear you say it. She’d be trying to lip read you while listening to her iPod and MSN’ing someone at the same time. Still, she’s a viewer.. right?
Scuffers,
If you thought they were so bad yet had 2, what should we assume about your opinion now
?
The truth remains. Less than 1 Marina for every 1000 built still exists, and Barratt houses are built like crap, so shall we demolish all those as well? Or were 1.3 million people between 1971 and 1980 (I stand by to be corrected) all wrong?
The irony is, what the BBC giveth, it taketh away. If Life on Mars used a Marina I'm sure we'd all be eulogising, seal like, about its rightful place within our cultural history.
If you thought they were so bad yet had 2, what should we assume about your opinion now
? The truth remains. Less than 1 Marina for every 1000 built still exists, and Barratt houses are built like crap, so shall we demolish all those as well? Or were 1.3 million people between 1971 and 1980 (I stand by to be corrected) all wrong?
The irony is, what the BBC giveth, it taketh away. If Life on Mars used a Marina I'm sure we'd all be eulogising, seal like, about its rightful place within our cultural history.
Scuffers said:
Ginge R said:
Scuffers,
If you thought they were so bad yet had 2, what should we assume about your opinion now?
LOL!If you thought they were so bad yet had 2, what should we assume about your opinion now
? Look sunshine, it was 20+ years ago, at the time it was in the budget I could afford, does not make it a good car though, they were an out-dated Bag-O-s
te then and still are now (with some added rust).SkinnyBoy said:
.. but I wouldn't write into a TV show bemoaning the fact that they destroyed a piece of my interest. There are more pressing matters to worry about in this world than the demise of a single truly hideous vestige of our dark past.
I make no apologies for my opinion and probably most people would agree, adenoidal nerds lamenting a morris marina are no better than people who collect spoons or snow globes, both are bordering on behavior befitting an institution.
.. but just because you wouldn't, why shouldn't someone else? And just as you don't have to apologise for your opinion, neither should anyone else have to apologise for theirs either. I make no apologies for my opinion and probably most people would agree, adenoidal nerds lamenting a morris marina are no better than people who collect spoons or snow globes, both are bordering on behavior befitting an institution.
Setting aside what you might or might not think about Marinas, they do have a certain rarity and they do have a certain significance. Ok, they might represent a bleak hour of our history but by the same token, lets destroy Inter City 125s, Supermarine Spitfires, Avro Vulcans.. (oh, they did didn’t they? Now we want to save as many a spossible). You won't find a single Avro Vulcan that is the same size or complete shape as another, and you ask the guys who worked on them, and they'll rant and rave about the shortcomings.
The issue is; on one hand should simply something be destroyed for no other reason than as many people think they're bad as who think its good? And what is being served by destroying it, apart from poking fun at people perceived as anoraks and fuelling spite and malice? Why does negativity have to be promoted by hiding behind the modern argument of 'Hey, why shouldn't I do it?'.
This g'ment decided to do away with fox hunting and smoking in bars for no other reason than it could. Whilst I have no love of either, I hate even more, this relentless drive towards polarisation and marginalising of people's feelings that seems to pervade everywhere these days. The Marina is a harmless car and the people who love 'em are harmless people. So what has been gained by p#ssing them off and laughing at them?
Marina owners might be nerds and they might not and the Marina might be a crap car and it might not be and I might be precious about this. But thats all missing the point completely because when an ailing show needs a shot in the arm, everything is expendable. The Marina and Marina owners are deemed as fair game and thats what pisses me off more than anything - one man's opinion is given undue weight over anothers, not through virtue of the bigger picture, but because theyw ere fair game.
Incidentally, if you watched HiGNFY last week, it was interesting to see how JC was. He's fine gobbing off at Marina owners and fat yanks in a rehearsed piece to camera, but in the company of more insightful and quicker thinking minds, he was pretty subdued. He strikes me at heart, as a bit of a bully and a gobshyte (yes, a funny one on many occasions). The Scottish comedian's gag about him leaving TG made me roar, so.. who will replace him then..?
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