Fast Marina Magazine

david painter wrote: Sat Feb 02, 2019 4:00 pm I Have thought about badging my Brown Coupe as an MG when fitted the TC 2lt O Series. Not sure if door glass can be trimmed with it being Toughened Glass but just googled it find if heated to 900 deg F in a oven then allowed to cool for 8 hours it can then be cut.
Dave

The customising magazines of the 70s, when roof chops were common, reckoned laminated screens could be cut but not toughened screens. Of course that didn't include heating toughened glass to really high temperatures, but does that mean it returns to normal glass?

Yes from what the web article said. Have seen laminated glass cut on US shows like Fast and Loud that also involved heating the glass
Dave

Yeah, there is no way to cut toughened glass unless it go's through the tempering process again. Not something that can be done in the back garden. The only options it seems is perspex or custom glass, the latter being impossible as it would be astronomically expensive!

The artistic talents on display here make me wonder if someone could sketch up what subsequent generations of the Marina might have looked like if it had ended up like the Mini and carried on production early into this century. I once wrote a bit of a counterfactual history imagining what might have been if Austin-Rover decided they needed to keep a basic RWD model in production and stuck with the Ital until the bitter end, restyling here and there, new engines, new running gear and the like with little attempts at modernising the appearance and finally giving it a good send-off with a retro-styled front end and chrome trim recalling the Mk. 1.

I'd imagine the Montego would have been the Morris Marina if Leyland kept with the name and the Morris brand. Into the 90's I'd imagine it would have been updated to look more aerodynamic with cleaner lines like every other car at that time.

Wel, there's food for thought. IMHO, with budget retraints and an over long production life we could have an Ital shaped monstrosity along the lines of the Hindustan Ambassador, when that ended up with BMW MINI style headlights and body coloured plastic bumpers, or if done properly in a world where British Leyland/Austin-Rover continued to exist, then I suggest the Marina/Ital range would have evolved into something like the MG6. After all, the Cortina's natural successor is the current Mondeo.

I had the "British Ambassador" equivalent idea when reading up on the Chinese Ital and wondered whether it could have ended up seeing off Ladas and Protons in the budget family car market. The thought of a 2 litre O-series diesel Ital with a mishmash of internal trim from Rovers appealed to me in a perverse way.

I've never seen a Chinese Ital before. What kind of suspension did those things have?

Information is annoyingly difficult to find, from what I can tell they were sent an Ital estate fitted with a 2 litre O-series engine (whether diesel or petrol I haven't been able to find out) and duplicated the panels and mechanics and mounted them on a locally sourced chassis, probably from a small truck.

The original 2lt O series built by the factory with a LT77 5 Speed Gearbox The full story can be read at ARonline under the heading Morris Marina/Ital : Huandu CAC6430
Dave

I made a mockup WIkipedia infobox which may either be inspirational or terrifying!

I reckon Roy Haynes took a few styling cues from the AMC AMX for the coupe design:

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/f8/82/7c/f882 ... n-auto.jpg

The rear window shape, door handles (not just for the coupe of course), the curve of the C piller, and the way the rear lights wrap round.
The AMX first appeared in 1968 too, just the time when Haynes would have been looking around for ideas to incorprate into the design.

Tenner wrote: Wed Feb 06, 2019 2:44 pm I made a mockup WIkipedia infobox which may either be inspirational or terrifying!

Marina Infobox.png

I had a go at your 2005 Rover 55. It reminds me of the sort of thing that happened with the 1960s Russian Volga, trying to update it in a closed market. When really as soon as they got the chance, the Russians wanted to drive BMWs and Audis and Volvos like everyone else.

The Rover Marina that never was!

My artistic skills are absolutely minimal, but I do have some ideas for what the generations could have been like.

Rover Marina (1984 - 1993)
An Ital in all but name. Marketed only as "Marina" without a marque. Received a new grille and headlight assembly similar to the Maestro or SD3 in 1988 (though no panel alterations). Coupe received a hatchback, longer doors and MG badge to plug the market gap vacated by the Ford Capri, commercials badged as Leyland-DAF.

Rover 500 (1993 - 1999)
Facelift to blend in with the Rover corporate look, new grille, lights, bumpers and bonnet. K, T and L-series engines added.

Rover 55 (1999 - 2005)
Followed new corporate look, though by now it was increasingly difficult to hide the 1960s origins of the styling without increasing the sale price. so it was marketed as a "funky" budget retro ride. Commercials remained in production until 2006.