Morris Marina - was it really that bad?

Morris Marina - was it really that bad?

Author
Discussion

anonymous-user

53 months

Monday 25th November 2019
quotequote all
My friend had one a 1750 HLS Marina that was one of the last types built as a Marina on a '79 plate
It was actually a good car genuinely good
In 1983 I bought an Ital as a between car that was effectively same spec that too was a good car

Mr Peel

478 posts

121 months

Tuesday 26th November 2019
quotequote all
British Motor Museum at Gaydon has just taken delivery of a lovely 1971 1.3 deluxe.
https://www.britishmotormuseum.co.uk/news/museum-n...

baconsarney

Original Poster:

11,990 posts

160 months

Tuesday 26th November 2019
quotequote all
Mr Peel said:
British Motor Museum at Gaydon has just taken delivery of a lovely 1971 1.3 deluxe.
https://www.britishmotormuseum.co.uk/news/museum-n...
Made me smile... brilliant little story smile

Sticks.

8,707 posts

250 months

Tuesday 26th November 2019
quotequote all
baconsarney said:
Mr Peel said:
British Motor Museum at Gaydon has just taken delivery of a lovely 1971 1.3 deluxe.
https://www.britishmotormuseum.co.uk/news/museum-n...
Made me smile... brilliant little story smile
I was just reading that. 130k! (miles, not £s).

rasto

2,188 posts

236 months

Tuesday 26th November 2019
quotequote all
What a lovely story smile

I've mentioned this thread to my Dad and he reminded me of some more things. We had 2 coupés and my Dad also had a van that he ran for quite a few years. He remembered fitting the 'tennis ball' suspension fix to the leaf springs too.

He chose the Marina as it was relatively cheep and easy to maintain and he used to do all the maintenance work on it, he did mention the front suspension being a bit of an issue and having to fix it several times in order to pass the MOT.

The car I eventually inherited had a broken passenger door handle, it snapped in half one cold morning - I think these were the same handles that ended up on the Lotus Esprit?

We used to go camping in Cornwall in the 70s and we somehow managed to fit a very large tent, 2 adults, 2 children a dog and enough equipment to last 2 weeks inside a 1.3 2 door coupe with a roof box. I'm not sure how we managed it and I doubt I could do the same in my 1 series today.

s m

23,164 posts

202 months

Tuesday 26th November 2019
quotequote all
baconsarney said:
Made me smile... brilliant little story smile
Me too

Just shows things can last if looked after

otolith

55,899 posts

203 months

Tuesday 26th November 2019
quotequote all
I had an Ital as my first car. It had a 1.3 litre engine, and was brown.

It was bloody abysmal in almost every respect.

lowdrag

12,869 posts

212 months

Wednesday 27th November 2019
quotequote all

Pericoloso

44,044 posts

162 months

Wednesday 27th November 2019
quotequote all
I like the Ital pickup ^^^^ but the saloon 1.3 would be a present for someone I don't like....biggrin

Turbobanana

6,160 posts

200 months

Wednesday 27th November 2019
quotequote all
aeropilot said:
2xChevrons said:
The Daimler V8s (2.5 and 4.5) are absolute gems and were criminally underused by Jaguar thanks to the devotion to the good-for-its-time-but-quickly-dated XK6. The V8s offered more power cube-for-cube, were much smoother, much freer revving, much more suited to continual high speed driving, had infinitely more tuning potential and were much longer-lived in service. Had these things been decided purely on engineering merit then the V8s would have been used in preference to the XK.

Imagine a Series 1 XJ in Daimler Sovereign trim but with the 2.5 and 4.5 V8s instead of the unhappy 2.8 and charismatic-but-clunky 4.2 XKs? What a wonderful machine that would have been!
yes
When I owned my V8 250, a mate had a barn find Majestic Major which he delighted in keeping just about road legal (fixing bits when they broke, with whatever he could find at the time) and never washed - it literally looked like it had been dragged from a barn that morning.

Apparently the larger, 4.5 V8 as fitted to that was the darling of early drag racers (including one S. Allard Esq.) and the bottom end would happily cope with up to 1,000bhp without modification.

aeropilot

34,299 posts

226 months

Wednesday 27th November 2019
quotequote all
Turbobanana said:
Apparently the larger, 4.5 V8 as fitted to that was the darling of early drag racers (including one S. Allard Esq.) and the bottom end would happily cope with up to 1,000bhp without modification.
yes

There an English ex-drag racer who moved to the USA and runs a well known hot rod shop in LA, who has a 4.5L Daimler fitted into his 1932 Ford roadster..........and causes no end of confusion at US shows given it looks like a Chrysler Hemi, until they look closer and then the confusion starts laugh


ceesvdelst

289 posts

54 months

Wednesday 27th November 2019
quotequote all
My Dad had an Ital and I distinctly remember him test driving one of those puke yellow/green Marina's

The ital was hideous, but better than the Maxi it replaced, same colour, orangey red.

But there is one thing I will never be allowed to forget, the vinyl roof.

Especially after me and a friend played cops and robbers with trigger activated products over it one day in the garage!

A deserved fine thrashing ensued!

anonymous-user

53 months

Wednesday 27th November 2019
quotequote all
One thing I liked really liked was the 4 spoke steering wheel in mine This is from a Marina but the Itals was the same



And I actually liked the front end too: This was similar to my mates Marina 1700



Genuinely it was good for me.
Each to their own

Edited by anonymous-user on Thursday 28th November 13:52

Flying Phil

1,578 posts

144 months

Thursday 28th November 2019
quotequote all
Turbobanana said:
aeropilot said:
2xChevrons said:
The Daimler V8s (2.5 and 4.5) are absolute gems and were criminally underused by Jaguar thanks to the devotion to the good-for-its-time-but-quickly-dated XK6. The V8s offered more power cube-for-cube, were much smoother, much freer revving, much more suited to continual high speed driving, had infinitely more tuning potential and were much longer-lived in service. Had these things been decided purely on engineering merit then the V8s would have been used in preference to the XK.

Imagine a Series 1 XJ in Daimler Sovereign trim but with the 2.5 and 4.5 V8s instead of the unhappy 2.8 and charismatic-but-clunky 4.2 XKs? What a wonderful machine that would have been!
yes
When I owned my V8 250, a mate had a barn find Majestic Major which he delighted in keeping just about road legal (fixing bits when they broke, with whatever he could find at the time) and never washed - it literally looked like it had been dragged from a barn that morning.

Apparently the larger, 4.5 V8 as fitted to that was the darling of early drag racers (including one S. Allard Esq.) and the bottom end would happily cope with up to 1,000bhp without modification.
Not quite correct as Sydney Allard used a Supercharged 354 cu in Chrysler Hemi engine in his dragster. There were a couple of 4.5 Diamler drag racers, but the quickest (Russ Carpenter and S Read) used the smaller 2.5 engines .....1000HP on nitro and supercharged.

Flying Phil

1,578 posts

144 months

Sunday 22nd December 2019
quotequote all
Further to my post 14th Nov (and the digression into Daimler V8 drag racing) I found the picture of my Marina TC at the Pod....

BigMon

4,155 posts

128 months

Sunday 22nd December 2019
quotequote all
I really like the Ital pickup above. £4K is a lot though, but if I had a spare garage slot and money to waste I could have been tempted by it.

Wacky Racer

38,099 posts

246 months

Sunday 22nd December 2019
quotequote all
Of course it wasn't bad. It was no better or worse than any other car of that ilk at that time.

Nothing fancy, just basic family transport.

anonymous-user

53 months

Tuesday 24th December 2019
quotequote all
BigMon said:
I really like the Ital pickup above. £4K is a lot though, but if I had a spare garage slot and money to waste I could have been tempted by it.
Me too, always liked them myself in Marina and Ital form.
Many years ago I nearly bought a real unicorn from a garage in Lenwade in Norfork a Maestro pick-up once owned by the Foresty Commission in it's green livery.

SunbeamSteve

204 posts

65 months

Wednesday 25th December 2019
quotequote all
bristolracer said:
Some interesting Marina facts nicked from wikipedia

Marina was the first car to use platform engineering
It was available in some European export markets with a 37hp diesel engine
It was rallied in South Africa with a Rover v8 lump in it
Some of its components have been used elsewhere, Lotus doorhandles, Indicator stalk used in the Diablo
Until the Metro, it was BLs 2nd best selling car and often came second in the sales charts behind the Cortina.
Hyundai bought 2 of them and used them as a template to start building their own cars, i.e the Pony. I wonder where Hyundai would be now if they had chosen a Cortina?
They did, the stellar was based on the mk5 cortina.

finlo

3,731 posts

202 months

Wednesday 25th December 2019
quotequote all
Hyundai built Cortina's and Granada's for Ford for many year's.