*** SHOULD THE MARINA HAVE BEEN THE VANDEN PLAS? ***

[The original northen boy]

I wonder in their wisdom did B.L make a mistake when the company choose the Allegro to receive the Vanden Plas treatment rather then the Marina?

In one poll the Vanden Plas Allegro is number 4 in Mini luxury cars http://www.channel4.com/4car/ft/feature/top+ten/1719/4 then strangely becomes a top ten contender in the top ten most ugly cars https://www.tiscali.co.uk/motoring/gall ... wse/472622

I really think that the Marina would have worked better as this luxury model,the leather seats,the veneer dash and door cappings the rear seat picnic tables,deep pile carpets,cloth/leather door panels,and don't start me on electric tinted windows,oh what could have been.

Well did BL choose the wrong car to do the VP treatment on,without a doubt to me they did.

Vanden Plas Allegro

A recently found drawing for the proposed Morris Marina Vanden Plas,this idea never went a ahead and the designer was fired shortly afterwards.

Vanden Plas Marina

Russ

Beckett Bros "if you leave me a hundred times" :roll:

[JIM73]

Are you quiet at work at the moment Russ ?

[JIM73]

And besides ..... Why would you want a Vanden Plas when you had the TC ?

[MarinaCoupe]

Taking the question seriously for a moment, I think that there had previously been a 1100/1300 Vanden Plas so the Allegro was a natural extension of that theme. The next Vanden Plas on was the Princess, so there seems to be a theme of FWD Austins (BMC bias) rather than BLMC.

Now then, what else could they do to the Marina, the grille is the obvious thing, but how about factory soft-top with pram irons on the sides, spare wheel molding on the boot lid, liveried footman with every new car, leather interior, Wilton carpets, burr walnut facia and door capping, full length centre consol on the transmission tunnle with cigarette lighter and ashtray in the rear, fold down picnic tables for back seat passengers, electric windows all round, glass partition - great for when the kids were in the back.

Any other suggestions?

[black tulip tc]

Take a look at the "Grey Lady", on Uncle Frank's workshop pages. Beautiful car owned by Wendy Leggett (hope i've spelt that right). That's as near as we will get to a Marina Vanden Plas

Dave B.

[The original northen boy]

Chris i agree with you,now that you mention it the Allegro was a continuation of a theme the size and the front wheel drive configuration,and the the previous tradition the natural candidate for the Vanden Plas Treatment was given rightfully to the Allegro,yet sadly the car looks rather unbalanced to me and from some angle also somewhat ungainly as well.Perhaps it's wishful thinking on my part but a VP based on the Marina now that must have been a car worth a second look.

And Jim onto your points,strangely i'm rather busy at work and thank you for asking,but more and more of my day is becoming paperwork,balance sheets and profit and loss accounts,oh and the standard government red tape,and there really is some of that,and dealing with bizarre characters.

Now onto why anyone would want a VP when there was the T.C a good question all i can do is to judge one car against the other,how could i compare the vinyl seats (Bri-nylon on the latter ones) of the T.C against the hand stitched Connolly leather hide of the VP? the T.C's acres of matt plastic dash and Fablon sticky back plastic wood effect inserts,against the burr walnut of the VP? or the,er T.C's beautifully fitted heated rear window warning light,against the fold down picnic tables of the VP?

On a point of interest all the Allegro front seats are the same as the Marina (so the leather Vanden Plas seats will fit) and i think all the rear seats fit as well (i'm sure some one can confirm or deny this) as i can't remember.

Russ

Beckett Bros "if you judge a book by it's cover" :roll:

[Alan The Exocet]

Never seen a Allegro Vanden Plas in person,but i don't think they look that good really,its a bit like a Rolls Royce grille at the front,but i think the car is too small to carry it off,but the inside of them is excellent,and non of the British Leyland stuff apart from Jaguar and Daimler's were as good inside,the Marina would have been great in this level of trim,a lot nicer than even the HL,HLS,or SLX.

Alan

PS i take it that's a real drawing from the planning office?

[Uncle Frank]

The front wheel drive thing wasn`t quite exclusive to the Vanden plas models, surely the best example was the big 3 litre `R` version, based on the Westminster model.
Russ, shame on you..where would you find "acres of matt plastic dash" on a mk1 TC?, surely you must be getting confused with the big plastic dash on the mk3 . the mk1 dash is padded vinyl over steel...not plastic!
Nice artwork there Russ, by the way!
In all honesty, Wendy`s car is probably as near as you will get to what a VP Marina would have looked like, apart from the grille, which to be honest was a thing not suited to a car of this era, the only cars that could pull that look off was the Roller, Jag, Aston, Daimler etc, i agree with your point about the Allegro Russ, it was definately a Mistake :roll:

[JIM73]

Surely you would have to agree Russ that the TC was a working mans car as opposed to the more upmarket Vanden Plas version of the Allegro that unless you were quite well to do , wouldnt have been able to afford all that burr walnut ! That horrible grille just wasnt suited to anything from the 70's anyway and just made the Allegro look worse than its original design ! I dread to think what a Marina would have looked like ! Good point about the seats though ! I know where there are two VP's so i'll have a look at the seats

[The original northen boy]

Jim,
I have to fully agree that the TC was much more of a working mans car then the Allegro VP,and the truly out of place Vanden Plas grille really does look out of keeping (but in a tuned form worked better on the Princess) thankfully B.L resisted the temptation to adorn the VP grille with a mascot a la Bentley/Rolls Royce style you can just imagine a stylised flying V perched on top of that set up.The name Vanden Plas was used on the 80's and 90's (upto the ending of the company) Rover cars to mean top of the range,the Ambassador,Metro,Maestro,Montego,Rover 213/216,Rover,Rover 2600/3500 all received the name but non were adorned with the down slat grille,yet the Daimler Double Six,not only received the name but a version of the ds grille as well,the last car to bear the VP name was the Rover 75 in the UK,but in the United States all Daimler's saloon cars are sold as Jaguar Vanden Plas.

And Frank i stand corrected on the "acres of black plastic" concerning the statement i made about the MK1 Marina dash,you are quite correct the statement should be attributed the the MK3,for the mark one i should have said "acres of padded vinyl over steel" please excuse this error on my part.

Russ

Beckett Bros "get out of my dreams and into my car" :roll:

[Uncle Frank]

Your gracious apology accepted Russ 8)

[locost_bryan]

I doubt if an Allegro VDP ever made it to NZ, but the tag was used on late Rover SD1s.

One of my wilder ideas, is to fit the engine and interior from a P6B Rover 3500 into a Marina, and label it a VDP. Finding the VDP badges should be the easy bit. :P

The V8 engine should be a reasonably easy fit, they had the same Borg Warner 35 auto as early Marinas.

I love the look of the Rovers back seat, with the two heavily padded leather chairs and the fold-down armrest. Would look lovely in the back of a Coupe. Paint it one of those '70s metallic purples, would go great with a white leather interior. 8) Pity someone already has the "DELBOY" number plates.

[Captain Slow]

I did this months ago on AROnline.






The rear lights are from the Marina estate.




I hugely love the Vanden Plas 1500 as it is, but a boot would have evened it up a little. Do excuse the colour, the vinyl roof and the Rostyles, I was going for a more contemporary image than the VP really had.









In that car's absence, and in the absence of the ADO17 VP prototype, a Marina VP would have worked well alongside the VP1500, and alongside a pre-Ryder report VP version of the 18-22 Wedge (Prototype at Gaydon).

[Gee tc]

Great visualisation!

[JoshWard]

Marina VDP for me please... 8) Maybe one day I will make one....