15 replies to this topic

[Klevdo2202]

http://www.ebay.co.u...9#ht_481wt_1417

Don't care how bad the Marina is, I'd love to have it...


Shame he won't get anywhere near the amount he spent on it......

[cradley-heathen]

that is just beautifull!

i love marinas and itals, i had a later marina coupe only a coupe of years ago, bright orange 1275, i loved it.

its on £3900 now, if it had a ford badge on the front it would be on about 8k!

[Big Sam]

Don't tell Top Gear, they might drop a piano on it.

[CobraV8]

Pity they are just so clumsy and old man jersey looking. If that was a ford rs1800 it would not only be twice the price it would be twice as fast and ten times as cool.

[Cooperman]

I was asked recently by a guy who is writing a book about rallying what was the worst car I ever rallied in. I replied that there were wo worst cars. the first was a Simca 1500 (Google it!) and the second was a Marina 1.8TC Coupe. 'nuff said!

[Klevdo2202]

Hopefully, I'd like to look for a Marina as a "next project" but keep the mini at the same time.

Cooperman, were they really that bad? I've read the 1.8 verged on dangerous, especially the earlier ones, and that the 1.3 didn't handle as badly due to it being less powerful....

Still probably sounds better than most euroboxes!

[CMXCVIII]

The Marina was really just an old [late 50s onwards model] Morris Oxford in a 1970s party dress! They lurched and rolled and ploughed into understeer and weren't the least bit sporty - but they weren't meant to be, in spite of the Twin Carb models which had stripes and a rev counter!

The 1.3-litre A series engined cars lurched and understeered less because the front end was less heavy than the 1.8-litre B-series models.

I do, however, remember the first time I drove one at the age of 17 that I was very impressed by the driving position! Quite low and legs straight forward, steering wheel well positioned; far more akin to an MGB than I had expected!

[M J W J]

My dad once said really loudly at a car show when we went past a marina 'God! Who would bother to save a marina. They were awful.' The guy who owned it over heard him and started having a go at my dad.

I asked him afterwards were they really that bad. My dad said yes and continued on explaining all the other bad cars he would rather have.

My dad isn't really a car person. He thinks that his 1.8 diesel focus is the best car ever as it is economical and practical. For him to avoid a car must mean it really is bad.

My mate Jack had one briefly and I mean briefly. Think he used it for all of 3 days before it was put at the end of his drive with a for sale sign on it. he bought a Toyota Corrola from the scrap yard for £30 and did every bodge to it necessary to get it through its MOT so he could use it instead of the marina. I think he sold it to the local scrap yard in the end. It was worth more in its weight of steel than as a car to someone.

[Cooperman]

A little story: The day the Marina was launched I had an invitation from the BLMC dealers in Stevenage to go and drive one and have some champagne afterwards. So out I went with a salesman in a 1.8. We went out onto the B-roads and I actually thought that the tyre pressures at the front were wrong or that we had a low pressure tyre, there was simply so much understeer. I got out to look, but they were both fine. The car rolled into corners and understeered dreadfully. It was dangerous. When we got back he asked me if I was interested in buying one. I asked him to come with me and drive my 18-month old Cortina 1600E, which he did. Afterwards he said "Yes, well now I know why you won't be buying a Marina". Too bloody right there! It was, quite simply, a dreadful car of which BLMC should have been ashamed.
My rallying buddy Cec Offley had a BLMC dealership up North and got a 1.8TC to rally in. We did about 3 events and actually got it into the top 10 of a Motoring News Championship event, but it was just so awful Cec got rid of it and we went back to his previous car, an A-H Sprite with a 1293 Downton engine.
To think BLMC were trying to sell that load of junk in competition with the Escort and Cortina ranges.

[Tanya]

I helped organise the Morris Marina Owners Club and Morris Ital Register return to MINI Plant Oxford last year as part of their 40th celebrations. From memory, about 44 made it which wasn't a bad turn out at all. One had come from Denmark to join in the celebrations and there were a couple of concours spec ones which was a surprising treat!

Here they are coming home


In front of T Building





And a lovely TC

[CMXCVIII]

At the risk of upsetting Tanya, even now, in my mid 50s, I occasionally see a photograph and think "You know, Molotov Cocktails can make the world a better place!"

[Tanya]

At the risk of upsetting Tanya, even now, in my mid 50s, I occasionally see a photograph and think "You know, Molotov Cocktails can make the world a better place!"

Don't worry, you won't upset me as I don't have a personal Marina attachment I have a fondness of all Cowley and Longbridge build cars and other than Mini, the only ones I really care about are Maestro and Montego and I'm well used to getting abuse for being a fan of them

[CMXCVIII]

other than Mini, the only ones I really care about are Maestro and Montego and I'm well used to getting abuse for being a fan of them

Oh, poor you!



... or is it a Masochism thing?

[CobraV8]

They are as bad as vivas, maybe even worse. At least there were some fast vivas. I couldnt believe it when vivas were released again a few years ago, minis - made sense to use the heritage, but vivas? Can you imagine a new marina now?

[cliche]

my next door neighbour had a black Morris Marina TC with raised rear suspension and truck side exit exhausts.

I was about 4 years old then. I loved it. If I could find a black TC saloon, I'd buy it in a shot.

Lovely pictures Tanya, thanks !

Edited by cliche, 05 September 2012 - 10:43 AM.