As you can tell from my channel name, my passion is Ford based, but I have always liked the "lovely" old Marina's, Allegro's, Metro's etc, they are just as good as any other car, and deserve to be loved, cared for and treated as a classic, I thought it was great when they started to turn up at classic car shows, many years ago, and i defended their right to do so, I remember this episode from 1992, and loved seeing the Marina's on it,at the time, having spent over £22,000 so far on restoring one of my Cortina Mk.3's on my channel, I adore my Fords, but always have, and always will, admire a fellow classic owners car, like the Marina.
As different Old Top gear was from the current version, as similar their attitude towards the Morris Marina has remained. You can tell that the presenter is going "What a bunch of nutcases" the entire time. Careless Airways apparently wasn't in business yet.
You have to remember this is from 1992,car programs were very different then "they were about cars" and not exotic locations half way around the world,or tear-arsing around a motor circuit or doing a pointless pre-rehearsed set of comic tasks. JOHNATHAN WRIGHT for prime minister,vote "The Smoothrite Hammerite party"
Simplicity at it's very best! I loved my Limeflower green 1.8TC Coupe. They were (and are) very useable (the TC sounded exactly like an MGB)! It was my third car (after a Fiat 124S & an Austin 1300GT). The Marina taught me understeer, oversteer, axle tramp etc. at legal road speeds. The undersquare 1800 B series had enough low end torque to pull away smoothly from idle without 'judder'. At every opportunity, I'd be under the bonnet, finely tuning the SU HS4s' and tightening the brass manifold nuts! Such fun. Happy days indeed!
@@Martindyna The 124 Special had much sharper handling with double wishbones at the front, coils and disc brakes all corners with a well located (four trailing links and panhard rod) live rear axle. The oversquare 1438cc engine liked to be revved.
In the early 80's a friend of mine bought a 1976 Marina, it was not expensive and there were never big defects on it. Yes there were rust but the VW Golf in this years are rusted much more and the Opel had often electric problems. And i like the design of the Marinas very much it looks better than a lot of german cars of these days. Surely the quality of the Marina is better than the quality of my english.... Today british cars like Jaguar or Land Rover are excellent quality on same level like Mercedes or BMW but nothing can beat the old Marina feeling ! Greetings from Germany
Glad that the Marina was liked by some people in Germany. Just out of interest what engine size Marina did your friend have? When I was young the company I worked for had a fleet of Marinas for the Service / Commissioning engineers to use to get to work sites. The first thing the Company garage did was replace the rear springs with Van springs because the standard springs did not like the weight of the engineers' toolboxes etc. I only got to drive the 1.3 cars but my boss had a 1.8 (single carburettor) and he used to say that he would forgive the car not going around corners too well because it would go well on the `A' roads and motorway. The 1.8 had ideal gearing for top speed (95 mph, 153 km/h) since it coincided with the maximum power RPM of the engine; it also sounded good, having basically a detuned MGB engine under the bonnet. Your English is good, greetings from the UK.
Interesting to see an American spec Austin Marina that made it back to Britain. I'll never understand BL's decision NOT to offer the Marina Pickup in America-- the biggest pickup market in the world. It could have done very well here as an alternative to the small Japanese pickups that were selling well here in the 1970's, but unfortunately BL was never known for its foresight. Would love to own an Austin Marina if I could find one.
@@kernals12 Yep, I learned about the “Chicken Tax.” It was a truly unnecessary, spiteful “tit for tat” mistake by the US government, and it kept a lot of good vehicles out of our reach. Japan came up with a way around it: manufacturing the Datsun and Toyota pickup cabs and chassis in Japan and importing those as “passenger vehicles,” then installing the pickup boxes after they arrived in California. That wouldn’t have worked for the Marina Pickup, with it’s unitary design. I’m still not clear, however, how VW managed to market it’s vans over here. In an almost laughable avoidance of the Chicken Tax-supposedly enacted to protect them from foreign competition in their home market-Ford imports a European-made version of the Transit as a passenger vehicle, then destroys the backseat upon arrival in Baltimore. At least, this was fairly recently. Not entirely sure they’re still doing this.
@tpvalley the 1700 didn't arrive until 1978, and ask anyone who's driven an 1800 B series engined Marina, as to what the weight distribution of a large cast iron lump up front, does for the already poor handling, and you have your answer.
These cars were NO WHERE NEAR as bad as they were made out to be. I knew of several people who had YEARS of trouble free motoring with these vehicles. They were just as good as any of the competition of the day. 1
Thanks for posting the video Brian , good to see people perserving the old Leyland Favourites. I think Classic is what every the car means to the person who owns it.Many of us grew up with these cars and have many happy memories. Growing up in New Zealand in the 1970's my parents had many Leylands Maxis, 1100 & 1300's , Allegro's no Marina's but just about brought a bright yellow estate 1800 in 1979 but brought a 1300 Austin Allegro LE dark metallic brown with gold pin strips and a fawn coloured vinyl roof. These cars had there problems but so did the Cortina's, Escorts,viva's,Avenger's no worse , my parent's had a Great run from their Austin's traveling 1000's of km's over 1970's New Zealand roads .The Marina was one of the best selling cars for British Leyland sold in many countries South Africa, Austraila,New Zealand ,USA to name a few. Growing up in New Zealand many Power Companies and tradesman used Marina Vans and many families use the cars , they offered simple mechanics and lots of room for a family.The Australian & South Afrian models were sold with 2.6 litre E Series engines and were certainly fast.The last models sold in New Zealand were branded just Morris 1700 sold up to about 1981 the Ital never sold in New Zealand.Think there's a place for all these cars , different people enjoy different cars for different resons easier to keep one of these Marina's going than many other more complicated cars.
That's a myth the Marina used no parts from the Morris Minor, same type of suspension set up as the Minor but that was all no parts are interchangeable. PS...the handling isn't that bad and as good as many cars from the 70's...don't believe the myths.
@rover214brian, it was a metallic brown with a brown vinyl roof, can't remember what clour the interior was, didn't get it in the end, someone offered the guy more than me :(
The `E' series was always 3" bore but with two different strokes & 4 or 6 cylinder give the 4 engine sizes 1500, 1750, 2200 & 2600. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMC_E-series_engine
Yes this is true, I have seen it with my own eyes, in the back of the wardrobe, where I keep all my spare Datsun 120Y repair sections to be welded in on a weekly basis, next to the lampost
Oyster metallic 1300HL with sorrel interior by any chance? Good choice with the O series, however the back axle will be the wrong ratio 3.9 to 1 as opposed to 3.6 to 1. Brian :0)
Had a 1974 Jubilee 1800 T.C, yellow with a black trim strip black V-Roof Was a very rapid car, and had a growl about it, Identical sound to the 1800 TC M.G.B./G.T.. (Same engine..)
Kevin Baboolal I suppose how they enjoyed mucking around together was entertaining to a lot of people but I have never found destruction enjoyable or bulllying ..... in the case of the Marina owners club for example,, the more annoyed they got, the more they picked on the car, finding examples to destroy. Not that I believe the Marina to be an outstanding vehicle by any means.
BL introduced the Marina to compete against the Cortina MK2. But shortly after that Ford came with the MK3 and a few years later the MK4 and in 1982 the new Sierra. BL moved on with just a few small face lifts and the Ital until 1984.
As far as I know, yes. The Wolseley 1300 had a 65 hp TC engine while the Austin 1300GT, MG & Riley 1300s all had a further tuned (different cam i think) 75 hp TC engines. Riley always was a sporty marque. Again the 1800 `B' series SC Marina engine was I believe identical to the landcrab SC engine & the Marina TC the same as the MGB engine, making a lovely noise from the engine & rasp from the exhaust (especially if the baffles were past their best - reminded me of the Fiat 124 exhaust rasp - of course the Landcrab 1800S & Wolseley 18/85S were also capable of making the same awesome exhaust rasp).
True very true. The Marina is not a classic, nor will it ever will be a classic car, the very definition of a classic car, is a car which was desirable when new, somthing the humble Marina could never be accused of. As to your treatment you received from members of the MMOC, I can hardly say I'm surprised, as a former member, I left mainly due to the backwards thinking of the Club & it's members.
I saw this at the time - with some amusement. A friend in the early 90s had a thing about Marinas, he even had a coupe at 1 time, strange beasts they were!
My dad bought a 1700 O series estate, when I passed my test and stole his Mini, sadly he included me on the insurance for the Marina. The handling was a right handful. Too make it worse, it was in that Leyland s*** brown colour. Only redeeming feature was the room in the back if you folded down the rear seats. Nudge, nudge, know what I mean!
@1100HondaCB Hi there,you are indeed correct in your Marina mk recognition and i agree the the Marina isn't a bad looking car,in fairness it wore pretty well for a car designed to have a 5/6 years production life (it lasted another 7 years after that) although the Ital really does devide opion on this point. The Ital really is a mk4 Marina in all but name but sadly it's the same underneath just a few suspention tweeks yet they do drive rather well in fact like the car should have done from new.
This is what people want to see, actually, yeah! You do have the choice whether you watch it or not, and judging by the people that look at my Marina at car shows then say; Wow, look at that, haven't seen one in years, I used to have one, and have good memories of the car, then thankfully people like you are in the minority! I hardly think it was Englands worst, though, it was on a par with the Vauxhall Viva and the Ford Escort, I've driven both back to back with the Marina, and they're similar!
its a shame that these days people cant accept that some people dont like what they like,and might not care what people think about them or their cars.Just let those that do enjoy them!
This was my convertible at the time. It took about five takes to get this short clip. It was raining and by the time they finished my upholstery was well damp. It had Spax adjustables on the front and estate car rear springs to stiffen it up. This was the 1800 TC It was lighter than an MG so faster in a straight line, but still a bit of a B!"£$%^& when it came to a sharp corner.
My dad use to own one, Red 1.3 coupe on a k reg, There was only one thing i use to hate was the plastic seats, use to burn your legs like hell if it been in the sun and were wearing shorts. Just to give you an idea how long ago this was , i am now 40 , lol
i went to look at a really superb 74 M reg 2000E just before the first series of LOM started being sold by a local dealer,the car was in green metallic,with a unmarked interior,87,000 genuine miles,and only two previous owners. The only problem was the car had been scratched all over by the previous owner using car washes. Yet before my test drive the dealer had to give the car a squirt of Bradex to get it to start (honestly) T&T and was only £2700.and i turned it down,what a mistake.
the reason why that car handled so badly was due to cost cutting, the car was to get McPherson Struts up front but management decided to use the front suspension from the Morris Minor, a car that went on sale in 1948
@ukeuro23 It was considered old fashioned in 1971 because of its very dated mechanics. For example, the suspension was from the 1948 Morris Minor, and the engine was the 1950s A-Series.
Nothing wrong with the `A' series engine but the decision to offer a car with 1940s suspension was a mistake. The Marina would have been more successful had it had more modern suspension / handling like the Hillman Avenger.
This video seems far removed from some of the members of the Morris Marina Owners Club of today,I meet a load of them at the Heritage Motor Centre very rude and more interested in themselves than encouraging others to join them or forward the marque.The club looked fun then and it says it had 400 members now their site says it has 300,not surprising the MMOC is in decline with this type of attitude,The Marina wasn't a classic car then and isn't now but the owners club seems obsessed it is,so sad
Hey, nice to see. It was a reasonable car at the time - better than the Allegro in my opinion. I had an old 'P' reg 1.8L in 1985 which went very well at the time...
Wow! Not only Marinas, but also Top Gear before it was entirely taken over by car snobs, industry shills and boy racers. The Marina was my first ever car, I got through a few of them in the mid and late-nineties, the era when it was basically a stoner's car. Flipping brilliant thing.
Thanks for your honesty buddy,i got the distinct impression that the owners club only came as far as Birmingham no good for me in North Yorkshire,the club has very defined status levels,set by the Marina you own,mk1 tc cars carried the most prestige then a filtering down mk2,mk3 then Ital's,the worst thing about my dealings with them was my son had been very ill in hospital asked to sit in a members car and the guy wouldn't let him,it's only a Marina for Christ sake i thought,you sad man.
Couldnt agree more. Clarkson is driving these old daily run around cars as if he is driving a modern ferrari round the track when there is clearly no comparison. At least this states good and bad points about the car rather than ripping into it constantly.
The marina was BL's take on the Cortina. a simple, 4 door RWD family car. compared to the Mk2 cortina-its rival when at the design stage- it was a total contemporary
Just as well it was not Clarkson doing this - he would have likely had one crashtested!!! One thing they didn't mention - in Australia and South Africa, one could buy the Marina sedan and coupe - with a 2.6L OHC 6-CYLINDER under its bonnet!
I had a Blue Marina van (Company) thought it was great - unlike the Escort van which kept trying to kill me with its stupid economizer carb (suddenly opening at lights - and closing when crossing junctions !
Might i recommend my friend, Mr Tumnas who has now set up a small business the "Faun Auto service centre" turn left at the lampost,then 2km on the left in the snowy woods you can't miss it,20% discount on body repairs to all 120Y's (ask about the courtesy sledges and the loyalty scheme) All work guaranteed **unless turned to stone** Argh more Turkish delight!
Anyone who feels the need to post comments on this video which include obscene language, will find their post deleted. It's all in good fun, let's keep it that way! Brian.
@spikemilliganfan Mmm, nice idea, the O series is not a bad old lump, however what about a T series, with M series water pump, coupled to a 5 speed LT77 gearbox :0) Brian
@themaneatingchimp My dad had a 1977 (s-reg) Marina 1.8, which I presume is a mk2, then he had a 1979 (t-reg) 1.7 which I presume is a mk3. I like the mk1 and mk2. I suppose the mk3 was an attempt to bring the car up to date to be inline with the likes of the mk5 Cortinas and such. The Marina isn't a bad looking car at all. If the suspension was up to date, it would have been a much better car. I guess the Ital could be regarded as the mk4, but I guess it's a totaly different car underneath.
@@rover214brian I prefer Hammered black paint now, I have got it down to a fine art using a paint brush & a sponge roller for the perfect finish on all my home built HiFi equipment.
@@rover214brian - Was you there at Temple Newsam in Leeds on the day?, as I can not remember you, lol, I know Mark Coulthard who was/is the Leicestershire branch guy for MMOC, I spoke to some of the members, to learn how to fix my car a year or two before this show & even got to Longleat on 3 cylinders (well National breakdown) got me there & from there had to get a new water pump gasket & correct lenth bolt for the water pump to get me back to Leicestershire - them were the days.....
@@rover214brian - If you was actually there then you would asked other members who I was & everbody has a budget for a car & thats what I got from the age of 17 to 20, I pretty sure it would of been more rust free than your marina all over, since I rebuilt it at a young age, I also re-wired the loom conector to conecter, 1 by 1, AT 17 year old...
I was definitely there all right, mine was the Carmine Red Marina Gt, filmed alongside Russ Beckett's pickup Nell, and Graeme Scurrah's Black Tulip, then Aconite TC Automatic with Geranium interior, and Matt Hetherington's Mumford which he had recently bought from Cliff Talkington. I'd never seen you or your car before or after that at any meet, hence the thought that your car was a plant from the Top Gear production team. In terms of rust, I cannot comment about your car, as if had a very P.O.SH paint finish :0) @@jonathanwright1507
I have only seen one Marina caravanette in my life. It was white, I think a mk1 and seen about 25 years ago. The person who owned it lived round the corner from where I live. The mk2 was a futile update in my opinion and the Ital was a complete joke. The Allegro was an insult to the motor industry and it had to be British. :( However, I have seen the odd Marina van and a couple of cabrilets, but I don't think I've ever seen a pick-up. The mk1 Marina is not that bad at all.
Alas, my trusty 120Y has been wheel clamped by Maugrim , so I have the choice of walking & risking being turned to stone, or on the other hand, I might wait at Mr. Beavers hose, until Rumblebuffin , My esteemed grandfather turns up to remove it using huge amounts of brute force & ignorance !!!!!
Says me !. I like these cars for what they are, warts and all, but they are not classics, just as other bread & butter cars are not, i.e Minors, Anglias, Escorts, Vivas, Cortinas e.t.c..., however, say a Rover P5b Coupe, Jag E type, Ford V8 pilot, and things along those lines, can be defined quite nicely as classic cars, the problem is car manufacturers, such as Ford, and Range Rover, giving their run out models the suffix "classic" devalues this somewhat, Fiesta Classic, I think not !!!!.
Bloody hell,Top Gear would have had a birthday if this guy would have been,spotted by them,apart from the nerd look he seems a decent bloke and talks a lot of sense. At least he's not as full of $h1t as the ones i meet,i really need to move on from that encounter with them,talk about emotional scaring!
As you can tell from my channel name, my passion is Ford based, but I have always liked the "lovely" old Marina's, Allegro's, Metro's etc, they are just as good as any other car, and deserve to be loved, cared for and treated as a classic, I thought it was great when they started to turn up at classic car shows, many years ago, and i defended their right to do so, I remember this episode from 1992, and loved seeing the Marina's on it,at the time, having spent over £22,000 so far on restoring one of my Cortina Mk.3's on my channel, I adore my Fords, but always have, and always will, admire a fellow classic owners car, like the Marina.
Now actually quite a rare beast. Being a "parts bin specal" many Marinas were broken for mechanical parts that fitted more desirable vehicles
As different Old Top gear was from the current version, as similar their attitude towards the Morris Marina has remained. You can tell that the presenter is going "What a bunch of nutcases" the entire time.
Careless Airways apparently wasn't in business yet.
You have to remember this is from 1992,car programs were very different then "they were about cars" and not exotic locations half way around the world,or tear-arsing around a motor circuit or doing a pointless pre-rehearsed set of comic tasks.
JOHNATHAN WRIGHT for prime minister,vote "The Smoothrite Hammerite party"
my first ever car in 1988 was a bright red morris ital estate and i loved it........always had estate cars since then - mainly volvos and mercedes LOL
Simplicity at it's very best!
I loved my Limeflower green 1.8TC Coupe.
They were (and are) very useable (the TC sounded exactly like an MGB)!
It was my third car (after a Fiat 124S & an Austin 1300GT).
The Marina taught me understeer, oversteer, axle tramp etc. at legal road speeds.
The undersquare 1800 B series had enough low end torque to pull away smoothly from idle without 'judder'.
At every opportunity, I'd be under the bonnet, finely tuning the SU HS4s' and tightening the brass manifold nuts!
Such fun. Happy days indeed!
Did you enjoy the Fiat 124S ? I remember the exhaust used to make a great sound. How did the 124S & Marina compare ?
@@Martindyna The 124 Special had much sharper handling with double wishbones at the front, coils and disc brakes all corners with a well located (four trailing links and panhard rod) live rear axle. The oversquare 1438cc engine liked to be revved.
@@Ampex196 I thought so, what the Marina could have been. It’s true that it wasn’t all down to the Unions & Workers that BL failed.
In the early 80's a friend of mine bought a 1976 Marina, it was not expensive and there were never big defects on it. Yes there were rust but the VW Golf in this years are rusted much more and the Opel had often electric problems. And i like the design of the Marinas very much it looks better than a lot of german cars of these days. Surely the quality of the Marina is better than the quality of my english.... Today british cars like Jaguar or Land Rover are excellent quality on same level like Mercedes or BMW but nothing can beat the old Marina feeling ! Greetings from Germany
Glad that the Marina was liked by some people in Germany. Just out of interest what engine size Marina did your friend have?
When I was young the company I worked for had a fleet of Marinas for the Service / Commissioning engineers to use to get to work sites. The first thing the Company garage did was replace the rear springs with Van springs because the standard springs did not like the weight of the engineers' toolboxes etc. I only got to drive the 1.3 cars but my boss had a 1.8 (single carburettor) and he used to say that he would forgive the car not going around corners too well because it would go well on the `A' roads and motorway. The 1.8 had ideal gearing for top speed (95 mph, 153 km/h) since it coincided with the maximum power RPM of the engine; it also sounded good, having basically a detuned MGB engine under the bonnet. Your English is good, greetings from the UK.
That blue allegro is taxed till Jan 2021 :)
Interesting to see an American spec Austin Marina that made it back to Britain. I'll never understand BL's decision NOT to offer the Marina Pickup in America-- the biggest pickup market in the world. It could have done very well here as an alternative to the small Japanese pickups that were selling well here in the 1970's, but unfortunately BL was never known for its foresight. Would love to own an Austin Marina if I could find one.
2 words: Chicken tax. All imported light trucks are subject to a 25% import duty.
The pickupwould have been subject to the "chicken tax" tariff.
@@kernals12 Yep, I learned about the “Chicken Tax.” It was a truly unnecessary, spiteful “tit for tat” mistake by the US government, and it kept a lot of good vehicles out of our reach. Japan came up with a way around it: manufacturing the Datsun and Toyota pickup cabs and chassis in Japan and importing those as “passenger vehicles,” then installing the pickup boxes after they arrived in California. That wouldn’t have worked for the Marina Pickup, with it’s unitary design. I’m still not clear, however, how VW managed to market it’s vans over here. In an almost laughable avoidance of the Chicken Tax-supposedly enacted to protect them from foreign competition in their home market-Ford imports a European-made version of the Transit as a passenger vehicle, then destroys the backseat upon arrival in Baltimore. At least, this was fairly recently. Not entirely sure they’re still doing this.
Very good cars I had two. The second one I had was a 1700 took my everywhere fond memorys of that car
@tpvalley the 1700 didn't arrive until 1978, and ask anyone who's driven an 1800 B series engined Marina, as to what the weight distribution of a large cast iron lump up front, does for the already poor handling, and you have your answer.
These cars were NO WHERE NEAR as bad as they were made out to be. I knew of several people who had YEARS of trouble free motoring with these vehicles. They were just as good as any of the competition of the day.
1
Yes the Marina Red Six, availiable with either a 3 speed manual, or automatic 'box.
Super!
Thanks for posting the video Brian , good to see people perserving the old Leyland Favourites. I think Classic is what every the car means to the person who owns it.Many of us grew up with these cars and have many happy memories. Growing up in New Zealand in the 1970's my parents had many Leylands Maxis, 1100 & 1300's , Allegro's no Marina's but just about brought a bright yellow estate 1800 in 1979 but brought a 1300 Austin Allegro LE dark metallic brown with gold pin strips and a fawn coloured vinyl roof. These cars had there problems but so did the Cortina's, Escorts,viva's,Avenger's no worse , my parent's had a Great run from their Austin's traveling 1000's of km's over 1970's New Zealand roads .The Marina was one of the best selling cars for British Leyland sold in many countries South Africa, Austraila,New Zealand ,USA to name a few. Growing up in New Zealand many Power Companies and tradesman used Marina Vans and many families use the cars , they offered simple mechanics and lots of room for a family.The Australian & South Afrian models were sold with 2.6 litre E Series engines and were certainly fast.The last models sold in New Zealand were branded just Morris 1700 sold up to about 1981 the Ital never sold in New Zealand.Think there's a place for all these cars , different people enjoy different cars for different resons easier to keep one of these Marina's going than many other more complicated cars.
That's a myth the Marina used no parts from the Morris Minor, same type of suspension set up as the Minor but that was all no parts are interchangeable.
PS...the handling isn't that bad and as good as many cars from the 70's...don't believe the myths.
Not a patch on an Avenger though.
We've had new since 1976 because no one would buy it from us.
@rover214brian, it was a metallic brown with a brown vinyl roof, can't remember what clour the interior was, didn't get it in the end, someone offered the guy more than me :(
In australia they were known as the leyland marina with E series 4 engines and a bored out 2.6 6 version
The `E' series was always 3" bore but with two different strokes & 4 or 6 cylinder give the 4 engine sizes 1500, 1750, 2200 & 2600. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMC_E-series_engine
Yes this is true, I have seen it with my own eyes, in the back of the wardrobe, where I keep all my spare Datsun 120Y repair sections to be welded in on a weekly basis, next to the lampost
Oyster metallic 1300HL with sorrel interior by any chance?
Good choice with the O series, however the back axle will be the wrong ratio 3.9 to 1 as opposed to 3.6 to 1.
Brian :0)
Nothing wrong with the Marina.l liked them,especially the later variants.😎👍
@H HOUR HOTEL
Oh Yes!Why not😂👍
Why get on the usual negative band wagon.No worse than a lot of '70s cars of the time!
The Morris Marina was such an easy car to do work on the engine. You can't on the modern cars electronic this, electronic that!
Had a 1974 Jubilee 1800 T.C, yellow with a black trim strip black V-Roof
Was a very rapid car, and had a growl about it, Identical sound to the 1800 TC M.G.B./G.T.. (Same engine..)
I prefer the original format, as it wasn't a lad mag and had proper journalism.
Yes before they became too annoying to watch, dropping pianos on Marinas for example. They became a laughing stock themselves.
@@Martindyna is that why they became so popular?
Kevin Baboolal I suppose how they enjoyed mucking around together was entertaining to a lot of people but I have never found destruction enjoyable or bulllying ..... in the case of the Marina owners club for example,, the more annoyed they got, the more they picked on the car, finding examples to destroy. Not that I believe the Marina to be an outstanding vehicle by any means.
@@Martindyna I found it hilarious, especially when they destroyed the caravans
Kevin Baboolal Yes I think we can agree that some of their antics were funny, like when they made a train pulled by a Jaguar haha.
BL introduced the Marina to compete against the Cortina MK2. But shortly after that Ford came with the MK3 and a few years later the MK4 and in 1982 the new Sierra. BL moved on with just a few small face lifts and the Ital until 1984.
Has the Morris Marina 1300 got the same engine as the Austin/Morris/Vanden Plas 1300 and the 1800 the same engine as the Landcrab 1800?
As far as I know, yes. The Wolseley 1300 had a 65 hp TC engine while the Austin 1300GT, MG & Riley 1300s all had a further tuned (different cam i think) 75 hp TC engines. Riley always was a sporty marque.
Again the 1800 `B' series SC Marina engine was I believe identical to the landcrab SC engine & the Marina TC the same as the MGB engine, making a lovely noise from the engine & rasp from the exhaust (especially if the baffles were past their best - reminded me of the Fiat 124 exhaust rasp - of course the Landcrab 1800S & Wolseley 18/85S were also capable of making the same awesome exhaust rasp).
True very true. The Marina is not a classic, nor will it ever will be a classic car, the very definition of a classic car, is a car which was desirable when new, somthing the humble Marina could never be accused of.
As to your treatment you received from members of the MMOC, I can hardly say I'm surprised, as a former member, I left mainly due to the backwards thinking of the Club & it's members.
They were right bunch of wankers to me back then, now I would smack them in the mouth for it.
@rover214brian Yes i'm terribly sorry i do indeed mean "The Smoovwoight Hammerwoight, the man is sheer quality,he gets my vote.
@tpvalley You can when it has a bespoke aluminium special tuning head on! :-)
Uncool is the new cool!
Simple to fix and easy to maintain, you don't need a computer and three mechanics for a service.
Doesn't the Rover V8 fit? but then, would you want 155bhp in a Marina?
In Australia, the same was said about Chrysler Valiant's, now days all models are hot property, & "worth" an absolute fortune.
I had an 18TC coupe in Australia. Nothing wrong with it except Leyland reputation. Bright orange with cream interior :)
The old top gear was miles better than the flash car shit it is now, all mega bucks cars and acting like toddlers on haribo.
From when Top Gear was for and made by grown ups
I saw this at the time - with some amusement. A friend in the early 90s had a thing about Marinas, he even had a coupe at 1 time, strange beasts they were!
My dad bought a 1700 O series estate, when I passed my test and stole his Mini, sadly he included me on the insurance for the Marina. The handling was a right handful.
Too make it worse, it was in that Leyland s*** brown colour.
Only redeeming feature was the room in the back if you folded down the rear seats. Nudge, nudge, know what I mean!
Lol, I learned to drive in a 1700 O series Marina estate in Russet Brown :0)
I've no idea what you mean about having the seats folded................
Is Mr. Clifford Talkington still the Chairman of the morris marina fan club as this is an old video? I hope so as he's just *perfect* for the role.
@1100HondaCB Hi there,you are indeed correct in your Marina mk recognition and i agree the the Marina isn't a bad looking car,in fairness it wore pretty well for a car designed to have a 5/6 years production life (it lasted another 7 years after that) although the Ital really does devide opion on this point.
The Ital really is a mk4 Marina in all but name but sadly it's the same underneath just a few suspention tweeks yet they do drive rather well in fact like the car should have done from new.
When Top Gear was actually an interesting programme, before general pointless ratings-seeking twattery ruined the format.
This is what people want to see, actually, yeah! You do have the choice whether you watch it or not, and judging by the people that look at my Marina at car shows then say; Wow, look at that, haven't seen one in years, I used to have one, and have good memories of the car, then thankfully people like you are in the minority! I hardly think it was Englands worst, though, it was on a par with the Vauxhall Viva and the Ford Escort, I've driven both back to back with the Marina, and they're similar!
its a shame that these days people cant accept that some people dont like what they like,and might not care what people think about them or their cars.Just let those that do enjoy them!
The exhaust sound from the convertible TC right at the end is sweet. My Dad had ans old TC and it could shift
This was my convertible at the time. It took about five takes to get this short clip. It was raining and by the time they finished my upholstery was well damp. It had Spax adjustables on the front and estate car rear springs to stiffen it up. This was the 1800 TC It was lighter than an MG so faster in a straight line, but still a bit of a B!"£$%^& when it came to a sharp corner.
My dad use to own one, Red 1.3 coupe on a k reg,
There was only one thing i use to hate was the plastic seats, use to burn your legs like hell if it been in the sun and were wearing shorts.
Just to give you an idea how long ago this was , i am now 40 , lol
00:47 is the marina on the left the car James May used in the rear wheel drive challenge on new top gear.
@rover214brian
why wouldnt they just tune the 1700 or 1.8 engine?
i went to look at a really superb 74 M reg 2000E just before the first series of LOM started being sold by a local dealer,the car was in green metallic,with a unmarked interior,87,000 genuine miles,and only two previous owners.
The only problem was the car had been scratched all over by the previous owner using car washes.
Yet before my test drive the dealer had to give the car a squirt of Bradex to get it to start (honestly)
T&T and was only £2700.and i turned it down,what a mistake.
the reason why that car handled so badly was due to cost cutting, the car was to get McPherson Struts up front but management decided to use the front suspension from the Morris Minor, a car that went on sale in 1948
I had 4 and never had a problem and never let me down very good reliable car it's rubbish whot people say about them
Yes it was essentially a 1940s car in a 70s body. Still I look back on them with a weird fondness.
@ukeuro23 It was considered old fashioned in 1971 because of its very dated mechanics. For example, the suspension was from the 1948 Morris Minor, and the engine was the 1950s A-Series.
Nothing wrong with the `A' series engine but the decision to offer a car with 1940s suspension was a mistake. The Marina would have been more successful had it had more modern suspension / handling like the Hillman Avenger.
This video seems far removed from some of the members of the Morris Marina Owners Club of today,I meet a load of them at the Heritage Motor Centre very rude and more interested in themselves than encouraging others to join them or forward the marque.The club looked fun then and it says it had 400 members now their site says it has 300,not surprising the MMOC is in decline with this type of attitude,The Marina wasn't a classic car then and isn't now but the owners club seems obsessed it is,so sad
Hey, nice to see. It was a reasonable car at the time - better than the Allegro in my opinion. I had an old 'P' reg 1.8L in 1985 which went very well at the time...
Brian, owner of the red GT, UTY 568T, all the way from sunny Newcastle upon Tyne!
Wow! Not only Marinas, but also Top Gear before it was entirely taken over by car snobs, industry shills and boy racers.
The Marina was my first ever car, I got through a few of them in the mid and late-nineties, the era when it was basically a stoner's car. Flipping brilliant thing.
Thanks for your honesty buddy,i got the distinct impression that the owners club only came as far as Birmingham no good for me in North Yorkshire,the club has very defined status levels,set by the Marina you own,mk1 tc cars carried the most prestige then a filtering down mk2,mk3 then Ital's,the worst thing about my dealings with them was my son had been very ill in hospital asked to sit in a members car and the guy wouldn't let him,it's only a Marina for Christ sake i thought,you sad man.
@henryv8 you can get exactly that from, lets say, an old mini and you can be actually cool not just convincing yourself that you are.
Couldnt agree more. Clarkson is driving these old daily run around cars as if he is driving a modern ferrari round the track when there is clearly no comparison.
At least this states good and bad points about the car rather than ripping into it constantly.
I certainly want to see them. for the most part a good reliable car, certainly no worse than any other mass market '70s machine
@themaneatingchimp Don't you mean Smoovwoight Hammerwoight then?
The trunnions in my Morris Major have never given me an iota of trouble...grease every 1000 miles and drive to the limit of the specification.
Sodham G'morris
I do the exact same with the missus.
my dad has just managed to secure me a "V" reg 1.3 auto, but the engine and gearbox have been taken out. i might put a rover "O" series into it.
What is that song at 0:39 ????
Oh my god that is me playing cricket... my dads car is the red Ital... what a random find. you goda love youtube!!
Why can't they do this with Top Gear now, instead of destroying them and talking crap about them!
themanmaschine because they are crap.
The marina was BL's take on the Cortina. a simple, 4 door RWD family car. compared to the Mk2 cortina-its rival when at the design stage- it was a total contemporary
Just as well it was not Clarkson doing this - he would have likely had one crashtested!!!
One thing they didn't mention - in Australia and South Africa, one could buy the Marina sedan and coupe - with a 2.6L OHC 6-CYLINDER under its bonnet!
Yep E series (stretched 1750). Must have been front heavy !
The floors used to rot, but back then you just lifted the carpet and welded a patch or a new pan. Cars these days are not that simple.
my uncle had it , its beautyful
Marina has something in style from Opel Kadett and Fiat 132
Brian call the beckett Bros immediately. IT'S URGENT!
I had a Blue Marina van (Company) thought it was great - unlike the Escort van which kept trying to kill me with its stupid economizer carb (suddenly opening at lights - and closing when crossing junctions !
Might i recommend my friend, Mr Tumnas who has now set up a small business the "Faun Auto service centre" turn left at the lampost,then 2km on the left in the snowy woods you can't miss it,20% discount on body repairs to all 120Y's (ask about the courtesy sledges and the loyalty scheme)
All work guaranteed **unless turned to stone**
Argh more Turkish delight!
Was that MarinaBrian's hand? M.
Anyone who feels the need to post comments on this video which include obscene language, will find their post deleted.
It's all in good fun, let's keep it that way!
Brian.
@spikemilliganfan Mmm, nice idea, the O series is not a bad old lump, however what about a T series, with M series water pump, coupled to a 5 speed LT77 gearbox :0)
Brian
@themaneatingchimp My dad had a 1977 (s-reg) Marina 1.8, which I presume is a mk2, then he had a 1979 (t-reg) 1.7 which I presume is a mk3. I like the mk1 and mk2. I suppose the mk3 was an attempt to bring the car up to date to be inline with the likes of the mk5 Cortinas and such. The Marina isn't a bad looking car at all. If the suspension was up to date, it would have been a much better car. I guess the Ital could be regarded as the mk4, but I guess it's a totaly different car underneath.
My understanding is the Ital was basically still Marina underneath, the suspension was not modernised.
" 4 carbs on 1300" u cant fit 4 carbs onto an a series it only has 2 inlet ports!
CLIFFORD'S glasses need an owners club
Yes, I was there ;)
Do you still like black?, I have to say I was convinced on the day you were a BBC "plant".....Smoovrite Hammerite indeed 😎
@@rover214brian I prefer Hammered black paint now, I have got it down to a fine art using a paint brush & a sponge roller for the perfect finish on all my home built HiFi equipment.
@@rover214brian - Was you there at Temple Newsam in Leeds on the day?, as I can not remember you, lol, I know Mark Coulthard who was/is the Leicestershire branch guy for MMOC, I spoke to some of the members, to learn how to fix my car a year or two before this show & even got to Longleat on 3 cylinders (well National breakdown) got me there & from there had to get a new water pump gasket & correct lenth bolt for the water pump to get me back to Leicestershire - them were the days.....
@@rover214brian - If you was actually there then you would asked other members who I was & everbody has a budget for a car & thats what I got from the age of 17 to 20, I pretty sure it would of been more rust free than your marina all over, since I rebuilt it at a young age, I also re-wired the loom conector to conecter, 1 by 1, AT 17 year old...
I was definitely there all right, mine was the Carmine Red Marina Gt, filmed alongside Russ Beckett's pickup Nell, and Graeme Scurrah's Black Tulip, then Aconite TC Automatic with Geranium interior, and Matt Hetherington's Mumford which he had recently bought from Cliff Talkington.
I'd never seen you or your car before or after that at any meet, hence the thought that your car was a plant from the Top Gear production team.
In terms of rust, I cannot comment about your car, as if had a very P.O.SH paint finish :0) @@jonathanwright1507
only 60 itals left and 300 marina's left
wonder why ?
***URGENT MESSAGE***
Can you please contact Beckett Brothers HQ, ASAP!
1.59 Ha that marina used to be mine-before he had it.
James May 2.19....
Did look at bit like him alright. Lol
My step Dad had a brown Ital from work, didn't like him & I liked the car even less!!
Corrrr! Rachel in the Allegro !!!
You were bang on the money at 6:30 Tony...
if you prefer the original top gear.. watch 5th gear..
12 Volts he made the statement 6 years ago numb nuts.
I take it you towed it up the hill?
I have only seen one Marina caravanette in my life. It was white, I think a mk1 and seen about 25 years ago. The person who owned it lived round the corner from where I live. The mk2 was a futile update in my opinion and the Ital was a complete joke. The Allegro was an insult to the motor industry and it had to be British. :( However, I have seen the odd Marina van and a couple of cabrilets, but I don't think I've ever seen a pick-up. The mk1 Marina is not that bad at all.
we have club for everything in UK
Sweet
Top gear as it should be ! Not some midlife crisis wankers !
@lynnissohot There's hope for me yet then! lol
@lewis72 Wake up, wake up, it's not that boring, and make sure you don't knock over your pipe and slippers rack!
Alas, my trusty 120Y has been wheel clamped by Maugrim , so I have the choice of walking & risking being turned to stone, or on the other hand, I might wait at Mr. Beavers hose, until Rumblebuffin , My esteemed grandfather turns up to remove it using huge amounts of brute force & ignorance !!!!!
Child of Mark Coulthard then?
5:20 "really square and has no style to it at all". Pot, meet kettle :)
haha yes child of mark... well not child anymore... 22 now. who is this?
Says me !. I like these cars for what they are, warts and all, but they are not classics, just as other bread & butter cars are not, i.e Minors, Anglias, Escorts, Vivas, Cortinas e.t.c..., however, say a Rover P5b Coupe, Jag E type, Ford V8 pilot, and things along those lines, can be defined quite nicely as classic cars, the problem is car manufacturers, such as Ford, and Range Rover, giving their run out models the suffix "classic" devalues this somewhat, Fiesta Classic, I think not !!!!.
Look its old dandruff himself!
Bloody hell,Top Gear would have had a birthday if this guy would have been,spotted by them,apart from the nerd look he seems a decent bloke and talks a lot of sense.
At least he's not as full of $h1t as the ones i meet,i really need to move on from that encounter with them,talk about emotional scaring!
Not Ford powered
Splendid