Should BL have launched a 'HOT' version of the Marina?

[marinast]

Sadly the oil crisis killed any real 70s Marina Muscle Car hopes, the ultimate being made with a P76 4.4 litre V8 and a SD1 five speed box. :roll:

[Ado 16]

One of the books I've read recently (possibly Gillian Bardsley's Issigonis book) Spoke of a Marina with an MG grille sitting in one of the design rooms, but nothing came of it apparently because it was likely to step on the toes of one of the other cars.

[JIM73]

One was actually made , and as far as i know sits in an MG enthusiast's collection !! I think Ben or Frank might have a picture ???

[JIM73]

I've found a couple .....

[ice man]

Well I was going to keep mine standard but all this HOT Marina talk has got me thinking about upgrades!

I'm thinking, 70's style racing stripes, big wheels, Stage three head, 10:1 compression, twin carbs and a 2" exhaust.

(just need to win the lottery first...!)

Watch this space (for a long time!)

[vermillion]

WOW, sorry Jim, maybe it's my age, but I can understand why they didn't build any of them. That is ugly. I ain't no oil painting but standing next to that would make me feel a whole lot better . I can't believe that the base for it is a Marina :shock:

[Uncle Frank]

:? I have to admit lads...that is truly one of the ugliest creations i`ve ever seen!, obviously built for the U.S. market with all the thick bumpers etc, i can honestly say i`m quite pleased it was never put into production!, where did you find those pics Jimbo?, all i have ever seen are the ones of the nose of it sticking out of a barn where it currently sits rotting away.

[Marinanut]

Thy're off my other Marina website......

[The original northen boy]

Gents the Marina was only a stop gap car,5/6 years maximum production run,the twin carb engine was used because it was already there so no development costs were involved in it's production,and as Frank rightly said extra performance was on offer via the Special tuning side of BL through any BL dealer at the time where all manner of engine and handling add-ons were available.

The Marina lasted far longer than it was intended to,and soldiered on till 1984 in Ital guise,perhaps if the management had thought this (and the funds were available the curse of British Leyland) other things would have been done to the car in it's production,the Mk2 Marina should have had the telescopic conversion and the rear cart spring set up replaced with a coil over set up, the "B" series engine replaced with a more modern OHC unit,and the coupe made a hatch back,oh and some proper alloy sports wheels.

And were buyers there for an another souped-up family car,as the Dolomite sprint came from the same manufacturer?

Perhaps the time to end the run of the car was 1979,but BL launched the Mk3 in my opinion the best looking of the entire range with the best interior,dropped the ancient "B" series and replaced it with the brand new "O"series (only slightly slower than an 1800 TC and far more economical on fuel) engine and only produced the coupe in 1.3 base and L form the Mk 3 ran only two years and rather than that being the final incarnation for the model the Ital was born in saloon and estate form only,as well as van and pick-up but by now the stop gap car was well past retiring age.And by 1979 the "hot hatch" was well and truly here in the shape of the Golf GTI,and a host of competitors.

The Ital used possibly the best of all the engine range the 1.3 "A"+ plus engine and later cars replaced the lever arm damper with telescopic shock absorbers (standard on all vans and pick-ups)

Perhaps a showroom standard car that did 0-60 in under 10 seconds and handled better would have made the critics look more fondly on the cars,who knows?

Russ

Beckett Bros "still lots more of the same" :roll:

[Number 63]

Have to say that an A+ is as Russ says, probably the best setup in a Marina IMHO. I had an extreeeeemly rusty Ital with the tele conversion and a tuned A+ that revved to 8Krpm, had a slightly different axle ratio if I remember correctly too. Ran it with the TR7 steels as well and that was one fun car. Deffo not the quickest thing but enough to have fun in and could drive sideways all the time.

[Graham]

Hi, Just joined this forum, and this topic seems to have described my Dad's Marina (Ital really, but fitted with Marina grill and lights):
2.0 Rover 820 16V - Fuel injection removed and converted to run on distributor and twin Webers
MGB Gearbox with overdive
Dolly Sprint axle (Converted to leaf springs and rear disc brakes)
Haven't gone down the four pot route on the front, but now run 2 pairs of light alloy calipers each side.





Cheers
Graham

[Marinanut]

Hi, Just joined this forum, and this topic seems to have described my Dad's Marina (Ital really, but fitted with Marina grill and lights):
2.0 Rover 820 16V - Fuel injection removed and converted to run on distributor and twin Webers
MGB Gearbox with overdive
Dolly Sprint axle (Converted to leaf springs and rear disc brakes)
Haven't gone down the four pot route on the front, but now run 2 pairs of light alloy calipers each side.





Cheers
Graham

Hi Graham,
I've seen that estate lurking about at car shows and magazines/forums, it certainly gets some attention.
Mike

[Number 63]

That's pretty cool. 8) Welcome along.

[bigcarle]

i have modified an australian marina MK1 with a dolimite 1850 and a TR7 5 speed gearbox (you tube has a video)
1850 goes in fairly simply although the left chassic rail had to be scolloped to make room for the starter solinoid. difentaly room for a sprint
the 5 speed had to have the tunnel cut and raised 25mm to accomodate the oval crossection of the TR7 box,
tailshaft was the same length butneeded the triumph front yoke. it bought the revs down from 3500 to 3000 at 100kph (60mph).
drove it from Brisbane to Bathurst and back trip was 3000km long averaged around 39mpg.
same car i had on a local hillclimb track in standard and modified form the dolimite engine and 5speed
chopped 4 seconds off my time :shock:
front suspension only had telescopic conversion and the back pretty standard and NO booster on the front disc brakes
that where fitted with kevlar (green) pads stopped very very well.
australia where going to put a V6 in ours which was a modified 4.4 to make a 3.3 6 cylwhich would have gone like a cut cat 8) :shock: :shock:
ST did the V8 conversion for the 1974 world cup rally which would have been pretty hot as well 8)

[pingham]

but I think if BL had really developed the 16v engines then they might have had the upper hand on future markets. Ho hum.Beniboyz.

Interesting point. I'm trying to work out which was the first model (after the Sprint) to be fitted with a 16 valve engine, my memory must be failing.

Was it the MG Maestro/Montego Turbo versions or the Rover 214/216 models?

If it was the latter, it took several years to re-introduce another 16 valve engine to the buying public, a bit strange considering they already had their foot in the door with the Dolly Sprint engine.

Steve

The next 16v motor was launched in the rover 800 - the M series. it is a 16v twin cam head - developed from the combustion chamber shape of the old sprint engine, plonked onto an O series block. with the same 89 mm stroke 5 bearing crank going back to the B series.

It was tested in a vehicle they called the Monstro! it was a Maestro shell with a montego front end and it was fast as f.c.u.k. http://www.mgcars.org.uk/cambs.mgoc/fwd/M16.html

The launch of this engine in the Rover 820 was 1986 with the 16v engine.

It never made it into the Maestro and Montego - but it has been retrofitted with great success.

I have owned 5 M / T series 16v rover 800's and they are very good engines. they seem to suffer with a bad reputation for head gasket failure but its actually the 1.8 K series that fails. The M / T series will happilly do 150 k without intervention.

The K series 16v engine was launched in 1989 in the Mk 2 rover 214 - Mk 2 216's used honda engines.

Mk1 213's were a Honda engine and the 216 used either an S series or a Honda engine. all 8v

Sorry to be picky but the 1.3 Honda engine used in MK1 213's was 12v not 8v