Fast Marina Magazine

Well speaking from over the wall (Scotlandshire) I can confirm that there is absolutely no divide other than the border between both countries and clubs as far as the Marina/ Ital is concerned. I represent Marina & Ital Club Ecosse and can confirm that both clubs get on very well with each other. The Scottish lads will always have a bit of banter with the English lads and vice versa but that's all it is - Banter!

Sean

Beckett Bros " The only Scottish Beckett Brother!" 8)

Thankyou Sean - well said. Lively banter and discussions about the relative merits of various models and regional rivalry, hey that's what it is all about. It would have been good to hear back from the original poster of this string - 'davekay, but he seems to share his computer with 'alanwright' so 'he' can't post either. The subject posting now seems like a setup to get us all agueing with one another and when it didn't the later outburst was to stir the pot a little. So sad.

Also for the record, 'Alan the Exocet' real name is Alan Wright and the person posting wasn't him.

HI,

Yup theres always someone to spoil it!
Sad really.........

Tony

Hi All,

This subject may well have been started to stir up antagonism and has happily failed, for me it has presented a lot of food for thought on the improvements to the Marina and finally as the Ital. As the body shell was effectively the same from start to finish ie the same stiffness and the same suspension mounting points,did the handling improve over the years????

Unlike a lot of you I have only ever owned and driven my 1972 TC coupe, when new it had some alarming traits like heavy rolling in corners and then understeer, CCC recommended at the time fitting lowered multileaf rear springs (ST) which helped and I have since cherry picked suspension bits from later marina's/itals with the resulting set up of:

front Marina anti roll bar (now shortened by an inch)
front vertical shock absorber and ital roller top link
rear ital antiroll bar
standard rear spring but retempered 1 1/2" lower (a bit tired now)
all sat on the later 5" TC wheels and 175/70/13 tyres (continentals)

for various reasons I have 2degrees of negative camber and the old suicide 5 degrees of caster and the result is neutral handling with power oversteer, all good for a laugh until it is wet.

Can I ask how the later cars handled with the various 'tweaks' that BL made as mine is just a bastard (in the old sense of the word) set up?

Brian

I seem to have missed all the fun last night chaps :roll: , must admit i was a bit suspicious of the original posting when i first saw it ( Russ will back me up on that), the tone and nature of the content was a bit familiar, and i`m pretty sure i know who posted it, a somewhat disgruntled ex member with an axe to grind because everyone else disagreed with his points of view, about pretty much everything :roll: , still he`s out there on his own now, bored and looking for trouble, sad really, i think he needs to "get a life" and move on...we all have.
For the record i have owned 17 mk1`s, 7mk2`s, 5mk3`s and 2 Itals in all the years i have had Marinas, so clearly not just a Mk1 man .
Hi Brian, you raised some interesting points on handling improvements over the years, and yes the later cars were a lot better compared to the mk1, although i always felt that the 1300 handled best in all marks due to the lighter engine, they always felt better balanced, the best handling of them all was the pick-up, put a fast 1300 in a pick-up and you will have some serious fun .
Funnily enough it was nothing to do with power or looks that attracted me to the mk1 TC`s...it was purely that sound!...i love the exhaust note of the TC nothing else in the Marina range sounds anything like it, who needs a sound system in your car when you`ve got a TC to listen to? :mrgreen:

Same Here Frank!
It was always the sound and then I got to like the shiney bits too!

Paul.

:roll: :roll: OH WHAT HAVE I MISSED? :roll: :roll:

Have move this reply now to a full new topic.

Russ

Beckett Bros "in the year 2525" :roll:

HI,
Back in 1982 , I remember that the late 1.3 marina/Ital van with the A+ engine had a loverrrleey exhaust rasp when new with the 'envelope' style silencer boxes as illustrated in the Haynes manual. We had one on the dairy farm I worked on (GFR 347W) .This was completely different from the original A series engine used in the Marina 1/2/3 models. When changed over to the standard boxes in Kwikfit etc they never sounded the same.Our LE suffered this fate too even though it didnt rasp but did sound poor when its original boxes rotted and were replaced. When I went to work for Unigate at their distribution centre we had a fleet of these A+ engined vans, mostly unloved and ragged about...probably myself only enjoying the sounds they made, apart from 1 only by a old guy who polished and dressed it each week and 4 years on looking like the day it came out of the showroom. They kept the vans usually for their useful lifetime and broke them for spares to keep the other vans going via their huge workshop. You can guess where I got some spares for my early 1.3. This was a time when firms kept everything 'inhouse' , working from minis to Bedford 38 tonners!

As for a TC note..well where do I start. A sound sent from heaven! I first heard this in my mates dad's TC around 1978 and got my first ton up in this car! I didnt really hear it again until I went to my first Marina show at Gaydon in 1997 where I saw the recently restored Blue convertible getting put through its paces around the carpark, understeering everywhere and petrol sloshing out of the filler neck sounding very well indeed! Boy was I grinning..........I found some pix of this day recently and will be putting them on now that I've worked out photobucket. I decided I had to have another there and then! However my own TC sounds rough but we'll eventually get there!
The proof of this was that when we attended the annual show at Holker Hall , a Jubilee was coming up the road to the meet and as it got nearer we were all looking like Meerkats watching and listening as it was entering and parking up!

The other memory I have of that day was getting freakily stranded coming home in my Montego diesel with a stone coming up from the road breaking some of the alloy cast that surrounded the bottom pulley and ending up in the cambelt housing where the idler was exposed in the cover. This made the cambelt jump so many teeth that the cam itself broke in 4 places costing me dearly..but the belt was sound!

Tony

black tulip tc wrote:Hi Dave,

This is the MORRIS MARINA Owners Club, not the mk1/ TC owners club.
If you love a particular model, that's great. I have a TC coupe, but would agree that the 1300/1700 engines are smoother and possibly more refined.
To me, the only thing that may make the mk1 more desirable is age and tax exemption

All the best, Dave B.

I have seen most if not all of the standard interiors on Itals + Mk1,Mk2 and Mk3 Marinas, and its only my persoanl opinion, but head and shoulders above everything else has to be the red Mk1 interior .......cant ever be bored with a red interior.......tax exemption is a bonus, but the extra chrome/stainless trim on Mk1 cars compared to the extra plastic on all later models also adds to the quality feel.I also find Mk1 seats very comfortable cmpared to Mk3/Ital..............different strokes for different folks but not really so different as the cars are all one family.
A+ engine is better than the B twin carb.....the sacrifices I must make to keep my cars original :mrgreen: but if I still lived in the UK I am sure I would have converted a TC to A+ for fuel & insurance economy.........

The real Alan (Alan The Exocet) Wright.any other resemblance to either a person living Is dead is purely coincidental (and very unfortunate for them) accept no imitations,the original and best since 1979.

The man the legend

Filmed entirely on location in my kitchen copyright Beckett Brothers International,a Big Russ production MMIX.

Russ

Beckett Bros "Susan beware of the devil"

Frank and my moneys on you, either a stoppage or knock out in the early rounds,but i would have to fancy the Exocet on points if it went the distance :roll: