Morris Marina - was it really that bad?

Morris Marina - was it really that bad?

Author
Discussion

Yertis

18,016 posts

265 months

Tuesday 19th November 2019
quotequote all
s m said:
Similar to the 70-odd TR7 Sprints that were built I guess?
Similar but easier to find ;–)

We've looked at Soxboy's idea too.

P5BNij

15,770 posts

105 months

Tuesday 19th November 2019
quotequote all
If BL had been more proactive with product placement in films and TV shows they would have been onto a winner, some great product and potential good will was let down by a piss poor attitude. When the first series of The Professionals was being shot in '77 they had a golden opportunity to push cars like the SD1, Dolly Sprint and TR7 into the limelight but the production crew were let down so badly with unreliability and promised vehicles failing to turn up that they went to Ford instead, returning the BL cars with great haste. Ford's PR people were much more on the ball than BL's.

coppice

8,564 posts

143 months

Tuesday 19th November 2019
quotequote all
The Dolomite - shudder . Nice car, lovely inside and brisk . My dad had an 1850 HL . It went through 5 replacement gearboxes in 20,000 miles and only after dad went into meltdown and wrote to Lord Stokes was the damned thing fixed . It helped that dad was a GP who really , really needed a car to work .

Oh , and then the accursed heap started to run on (up to 30 seconds clanking and banging to itself after you'd locked it and walked off.)

That got sorted - decoke I think - and then the bd thing decided to collapse its n/s front suspension on me. At 80 mph , going over an A1 viaduct .

He drove Hondas the rest of his life ...

Edited by coppice on Wednesday 20th November 07:29

anonymous-user

53 months

Tuesday 19th November 2019
quotequote all
s m said:
Raygun said:
daqinggegg said:
BL did put out some decent cars, however, they were often poorly packaged. I wanted a Mexico or RS2000, but decent one’s, were beyond my budget. Enter the Dolomite Sprint, looked like a scaled down Triumph 2000, bit of an old man image, Hence my reference to packaging.
I picked up a very tidy 10 year old example, for far less than aforementioned cars, yes, it looked dated compared to the others. It was, very comfortable and with overdrive went like stink, to me anyway, I think performance was on par with the RS2000, although handling was not as progressive.
Yes BL produced some howlers, but some good and innovative stuff was made as well.
Shows you how we're all different.
I always thought at the time the Dolomite Sprint looked more classy than any Ford, 127bhp, twin exhaust in yellow looked the biz.
I thought they were nice little saloons, British 2002tii in many ways and a bit more upmarket than the Escort......and I say that as someone who owned a few Escorts.

The overdrive was a novelty back then - they were/are still a pretty quick little 4-door



Here is a friend’s old S-reg - o/drive on 3rd and 4th
That's how I remember them mainly because someone had one on our street exactly like that in the late 70s.
Does the old mantra apply to Dolomites like it did stags in that the early ones were made of British steel and the later ones made from foreign sourced steel meaning the early ones were a bit less prone to rot?

LuS1fer

41,086 posts

244 months

Tuesday 19th November 2019
quotequote all
P5BNij said:
If BL had been more proactive with product placement in films and TV shows they would have been onto a winner, some great product and potential good will was let down by a piss poor attitude. When the first series of The Professionals was being shot in '77 they had a golden opportunity to push cars like the SD1, Dolly Sprint and TR7 into the limelight but the production crew were let down so badly with unreliability and promised vehicles failing to turn up that they went to Ford instead, returning the BL cars with great haste. Ford's PR people were much more on the ball than BL's.
You're forgetting the Avengers - Steed's "racing" XJ, Purdy's TR7 and Gambit's Range Rover. The series featured many BL cars although I gather Ford were very professional and BL were a bit of a shambles.

hilly10

7,076 posts

227 months

Tuesday 19th November 2019
quotequote all
I always thought the Dolly looked the biz o

P5BNij

15,770 posts

105 months

Tuesday 19th November 2019
quotequote all
LuS1fer said:
P5BNij said:
If BL had been more proactive with product placement in films and TV shows they would have been onto a winner, some great product and potential good will was let down by a piss poor attitude. When the first series of The Professionals was being shot in '77 they had a golden opportunity to push cars like the SD1, Dolly Sprint and TR7 into the limelight but the production crew were let down so badly with unreliability and promised vehicles failing to turn up that they went to Ford instead, returning the BL cars with great haste. Ford's PR people were much more on the ball than BL's.
You're forgetting the Avengers - Steed's "racing" XJ, Purdy's TR7 and Gambit's Range Rover. The series featured many BL cars although I gather Ford were very professional and BL were a bit of a shambles.
Brian Clemens was hopeful of good service from BL when making The New Avengers but the reliability of those cars wasn't exactly good, he had to be persuaded to carry on with BL when starting on The Professionals. Things got so bad on the latter that production was put back by several weeks, a special meeting was convened with their BL contact to get it sorted asap but said contact failed to turn up! Stunt co-ordinator Pete Brayham stepped in and said his contact at Ford who he'd worked with on The Sweeney would be only too happy to help. Originally Gordon Jackson was supposed to drive an XJ6 but it failed to materialise so the SD1 was chosen instead, the same car as used in TNA, albiet with a bit of hastily placed black masking tape on the number plates. The blue TR7 was awful apparently, it often refused to start and had to be pushed into shot, at one point Lewis Collins took it for a thrash during a break in filming and almost wrote it off due to the poor brakes. BL kept promising that all of the niggles would be sorted so filming could get back on schedule but they never were. Shambles just about covers it, but they did look good on screen!

LuS1fer

41,086 posts

244 months

Tuesday 19th November 2019
quotequote all
The Dolly got an honourable mention when pitted against the RS2000 and the Droop Snoot Firenza (the easy winner) although, technically, the Firenza's natural competitor was the Capri (BL had only the Marina TC in the way of 2 door 4 seaters and that was never going to win any test).

Always lusted after the Frenzy, aged about 13 but saw the Dolly as a bit "old man's car" and the RS2000 as a bit dull next to the Frenzy. How or why Vauxhall blew that remains a mystery to me.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/triggerscarstuff/alb...

aeropilot

34,302 posts

226 months

Tuesday 19th November 2019
quotequote all
LuS1fer said:
P5BNij said:
If BL had been more proactive with product placement in films and TV shows they would have been onto a winner, some great product and potential good will was let down by a piss poor attitude. When the first series of The Professionals was being shot in '77 they had a golden opportunity to push cars like the SD1, Dolly Sprint and TR7 into the limelight but the production crew were let down so badly with unreliability and promised vehicles failing to turn up that they went to Ford instead, returning the BL cars with great haste. Ford's PR people were much more on the ball than BL's.
You're forgetting the Avengers - Steed's "racing" XJ, Purdy's TR7 and Gambit's Range Rover.
I seem to recall Gambit driving a Jag JXS in one of the series...?

droopsnoot

11,814 posts

241 months

Tuesday 19th November 2019
quotequote all
LuS1fer said:
How or why Vauxhall blew that remains a mystery to me.
From a Vauxhall memo that was on display at the Heritage Centre:

"The ZF gearbox is noisy and initially gives one some difficulty. The reliability of the engine has been suspect. The price is too expensive, considering the specification level. The performance is below the publicised figures. Quality is poor. "

Reading further there seemed to be some genuine annoyance at how the company had handled the launch and distribution of the vehicle. The plan was that the next generation would have a nicer gearbox, fuel injection, better quality control, and be based on the estate shell.

aeropilot

34,302 posts

226 months

Tuesday 19th November 2019
quotequote all
LuS1fer said:
How or why Vauxhall blew that remains a mystery to me.
The Vauxhall board simply weren't interested in sporting cars (or motorsport) other than a token representation. They didn't even have a 'works' rally or motorsport division, DTV (and DOT in Germany) was as close as they got, which was as the name implies, money that came from Vauxhall (or Opel) dealers, rather than Vauxhall and Opel themselves.
GM had withdrawn from motorsport back in the early 60's and there was no sanctioned official support forthcoming from GM to Vauxhall and Opel for a Ford style works factory setup.


s m

23,164 posts

202 months

Tuesday 19th November 2019
quotequote all
LuS1fer said:
The Dolly got an honourable mention when pitted against the RS2000 and the Droop Snoot Firenza (the easy winner) although, technically, the Firenza's natural competitor was the Capri (BL had only the Marina TC in the way of 2 door 4 seaters and that was never going to win any test).

Always lusted after the Frenzy, aged about 13 but saw the Dolly as a bit "old man's car" and the RS2000 as a bit dull next to the Frenzy. How or why Vauxhall blew that remains a mystery to me.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/triggerscarstuff/alb...
Those Droopsnoots were nice but pretty rare
I can only remember ever seeing one at the time
I think I can speak for all of my friends in saying we’d have all loved one! A Lotus Sunbeam was common in comparison - one of us managed to get one of those, another lad got an RS1800......but I honestly don’t think I recall ever seeing the chance to get a Firenza Droopsnoot

Dr Jekyll

23,820 posts

260 months

Tuesday 19th November 2019
quotequote all
I do have a vague memory of seeing a row of what I think were brand new droop snoot Firenzas in a compound somewhere near Tamworth. I had an idea it could actually have been the Reliant factory.

Anyone know what they might have been doing there?

P5BNij

15,770 posts

105 months

Tuesday 19th November 2019
quotequote all
aeropilot said:
LuS1fer said:
P5BNij said:
If BL had been more proactive with product placement in films and TV shows they would have been onto a winner, some great product and potential good will was let down by a piss poor attitude. When the first series of The Professionals was being shot in '77 they had a golden opportunity to push cars like the SD1, Dolly Sprint and TR7 into the limelight but the production crew were let down so badly with unreliability and promised vehicles failing to turn up that they went to Ford instead, returning the BL cars with great haste. Ford's PR people were much more on the ball than BL's.
You're forgetting the Avengers - Steed's "racing" XJ, Purdy's TR7 and Gambit's Range Rover.
I seem to recall Gambit driving a Jag JXS in one of the series...?
Yes he did, in one episode there was a chase sequence with this and an early Aston DBS V8.

LuS1fer

41,086 posts

244 months

Tuesday 19th November 2019
quotequote all
Dr Jekyll said:
I do have a vague memory of seeing a row of what I think were brand new droop snoot Firenzas in a compound somewhere near Tamworth. I had an idea it could actually have been the Reliant factory.

Anyone know what they might have been doing there?
We stumbled across a compound full of purple Magnum Sportshatches, in Capenhurst, not far from Ellesmere Port. Vauxhalls were far more common in the area.

finlo

3,731 posts

202 months

Tuesday 19th November 2019
quotequote all
LuS1fer said:
We stumbled across a compound full of purple Magnum Sportshatches, in Capenhurst, not far from Ellesmere Port. Vauxhalls were far more common in the area.
We had one of those, only 197 made and all in that colour.

aeropilot

34,302 posts

226 months

Tuesday 19th November 2019
quotequote all
s m said:
Those Droopsnoots were nice but pretty rare
I can only remember ever seeing one at the time
I think I can speak for all of my friends in saying we’d have all loved one! A Lotus Sunbeam was common in comparison - one of us managed to get one of those, another lad got an RS1800......but I honestly don’t think I recall ever seeing the chance to get a Firenza Droopsnoot
I was considering one back in 1983, but ended up with the RS2000. Used to see Snoots for sale relatively often in Muttering Screws back then, considering they only made 204, but good ones were still up around the 1900-2000+ mark and the rough ones were down in my price range of 1500-ish. Went to see one at that price, but the ZF gearbox clearly needed a rebuild, among other things, which meant walking away.
Mind you, the RS2000 I ended up buying wasn't all it seemed rolleyes
Oh, the impetuousness of youth laugh


Touring442

3,096 posts

208 months

Tuesday 19th November 2019
quotequote all
aeropilot said:
The Vauxhall board simply weren't interested in sporting cars (or motorsport) other than a token representation. They didn't even have a 'works' rally or motorsport division, DTV (and DOT in Germany) was as close as they got, which was as the name implies, money that came from Vauxhall (or Opel) dealers, rather than Vauxhall and Opel themselves.
GM had withdrawn from motorsport back in the early 60's and there was no sanctioned official support forthcoming from GM to Vauxhall and Opel for a Ford style works factory setup.
That was just crackers. Opel made quite a few nice sporting cars - Vauxhall had the Chevette which had superb handling out of the box (way better than a cooking Escort), a 2000 Cavalier engine and box, brakes etc and they could have knocked together a very good RS2000 rival for peanuts. I guess that's why GM got tired of them and got Opel to run the show in the 1980's.

spaximus

4,230 posts

252 months

Tuesday 19th November 2019
quotequote all
The Dolly Sprint was a really quick car that should have done better however the seating made you feel sat on not in. It was a confusion of design, like a sprinter in a Harris tweed suit in never jelled.

Also when the head gasket went, as they did, if more than a few months old getting the bottom head studs out was a nightmare which stopped the head coming off if not removed.

As for product placement, I read an article in a magazine which said that BL gave cars to use on the New Avengers but they hadn't got the right ideal on continuity. One day they would send a red car then next a white one etc. The only consistent car was Steeds jag as there was only one like it

aeropilot

34,302 posts

226 months

Tuesday 19th November 2019
quotequote all
Touring442 said:
aeropilot said:
The Vauxhall board simply weren't interested in sporting cars (or motorsport) other than a token representation. They didn't even have a 'works' rally or motorsport division, DTV (and DOT in Germany) was as close as they got, which was as the name implies, money that came from Vauxhall (or Opel) dealers, rather than Vauxhall and Opel themselves.
GM had withdrawn from motorsport back in the early 60's and there was no sanctioned official support forthcoming from GM to Vauxhall and Opel for a Ford style works factory setup.
That was just crackers. Opel made quite a few nice sporting cars - Vauxhall had the Chevette which had superb handling out of the box (way better than a cooking Escort), a 2000 Cavalier engine and box, brakes etc and they could have knocked together a very good RS2000 rival for peanuts. I guess that's why GM got tired of them and got Opel to run the show in the 1980's.
Which is effectively just exactly what Opel did with the 'sister' Kadett when they created the Kadett GT/E....... smile