Fast Marina Magazine

BL were just doing what everyone else was doing;

BL - DL, SDL, TC
Ford - L, XL, Ghia, E for Executive
Vauxhall - E for Economy, L, SL

Etc. etc.

Everyone had a base model.

Then there were the sub-poverty spec models. My first two company cars were an Escort mk2 1.1 Popular and then a Fiesta Mk2 ...

I've already registered my vote but I still think they should do something with the tax excemption. It's annoying to think that Joe Bloggs can go into a garage and buy a brand new car and pay little or no road tax and yet we lovingly look after our cars and preserve them for the greater good and ...

When the FBHVC tested "unleaded additives" for valve seat erosion protection, they used A-series engines specifically because - as a cylinder head design - it is especially prone to valve seat erosion. Then again, the 'test' was arduous, involving prolonged very high speed running under load - the ...

The MoT Testers argued for the "MoT receipt" now issued - VOSA initially said that there was no need for it as "computer says yes" syndrome prevailed at the time.

Hence the half-baked "receipt" now issued (after all, "the public like to take something away to say the car passed") that can be ...

There was an article about a six wheeler Marina estate in Motor magazine dated 23rd February 1985. I have a copy in a TSB article compilation book - but unfortunately the covers and first and last 2 pages have gone AWOL and the article is on (you guessed it) the last page (which has gone AWOL).

So ...

The article in TSB021 (above) says that Evan Green didn't purchase his P76 until 1st March - 8 weeks before the event. He rang John Bryson that evening and asked John Bryson if he'd like to do the rally. By the following Monday the car was stripped out with the help of two other people. BL heard of ...

'Twas May 1974's UDT World Cup Rally - London-Sahara-Munich - and, of interest to us, Foden asked BL Special Tuning to build a 3.5-litre V8-engined Marina for an Army team of Majors John Hemsley (it says) and John Skinner. After 4 stages in Spain, it was running in third position - two seconds ahead ...

MGC gearbox with overdrive, and a 3.01-to-1 Salisbury Powr-Lok limited slip differential.

And after the axle casing broke for a second time, the half shaft was found to have broken into three after crossing the Nigerian border.

From Transport Source Books Ltd - TSB021 "Morrs Marina"; article on ...

See earlier comments BL made at least two, one for the 1974 World Cup Rally, broke it's axle in the Sahara didn't finish.

The axle that broke was a Ford diff - the only mechanical part on the car that wasn't a BL part :( . The people on board had a few trials and tribulations along the way, but ...

Thanks for these links - the "brave new world", eh? :)

While I wouldn't buy a car from this bloke, he comes across much much better than a certain Mr Edmonds a few short years later ;) . Apart from general smugness from this second person, where's the phone number for the sartorial elegance police ...