Fast Marina Magazine

Going through some old papers today and i found my original Marina Owners Club membership card my number is 62 (only one below Fergus) are there any other members whose number is lower than 62? i know some of the people involved in the early days of the club have left or even sadly passed away great shame some lovely people who are no longer here with us.

So can anybody beat membership number 62 ( and possibly i have the longest ownership of any club car the same car owned by the same person from new in 1979)?

Russ

Beckett Bros "spring in the air" :roll:

Hi Russ,

My membership number is 34. Dave Bristowe from Somerset, (black tulip TC Coupe).

Uncle Frank will have the lowest membership number, 1?

Dave

Ayup Dave,

Remember your name very well,can't put a face to it yet though,so i presuming you didn't cause me any emotional scaring form our previous meetings (unlike some of the others who have come and gone in the club)

Early membership number that one,i wonder if the only ones who might be abel to beat that are the Dunster brothers,Gary and Phill,out of the Northern Boys i'm the earliest member,then Brian,Grahame and Matt.

I still have my original reply back off Frank,when i addressed the letter to Mr F R Phillips,and his singing off was "Call me Frank" seems such a long time ago when we used to write letters,but that was when you had a choice of Marinas starting at £25,the cheapest one i bought was a MK1 1300 Super deLuxe taxed and tested for £30,iffy second gear but fitted with a Binatone radio cassette and rear back shelf speakers,no part of the cars electrical system did not have some form of electrical suppressor fitted,and the sound from this "sound system" pretty awful by today's standards but back then with a home taped cassette not that bad.

Russ

Beckett Bros "when i was young i'd listen to the radio" :roll:

Not sure of our membership number without looking but not as low as yours Russ ! Dad joined back in the late 80's but i think my TC (Tony Free's old car)is probably one of the oldest club cars left !

Hi,

I can't claim the lowest number at 577, but I'll have a go at the longest one owner car, I bought my TC new in 1972.

Brian

At 228 I'm well off the mark but I've been a paid up member without a break since I joined in March 1989 :roll:

Good evening gentlemen,
some very interesting responses there,thought that your membership number would have been a lot lower Matt,it just goes to show you how fast the club numbers grew in the early days,i must have joined the MMOC in 1987 and to gain 166 new members in that time and when the Marina receive lost of hostility for being simply a Marina was fantastic.And unbroken membership,outstanding.

Jim i must have meet with your dad at that time,because the events were far lower key things as a whole,you did get to meet people in a more than just passing context,i'm sure i must have spoke to him,i remember Tony Free very well,the last time i saw him was at the first club AGM in 1988 at Stanfordhall and the T.C as well the Meeting was chaired by the Legendary Clive (T.C) Talkington.

And onto Martec's car yes i stand well beaten on that count by a good seven years,has the car been on the road all that time or like myself the vehicle has been garaged up for some years?

Interesting stuff.

Russ

Beckett Bros "and it's a 2,4,6,8,motorway" :roll:

Tony actually popped down to the island last year Russ and popped into ATS while i had the TC there ! She's looking a lot different to the last time he saw her 10 years ago ! And i think you must have met Dad , i was still at high school when he joined the club :roll: , so that was around 88/89 !
Dad reckons we got our first marina (mk2 1.3 saloon in flamenco) about 81 when he traded in the last moggie we had at Prices Austin Morris dealership ! Thats strangely enough where Frank and i managed to get the last edition to the fleet ... the J reg !

Hi all,

As for club paperwork, I think I have all my letters/correspondence right back to late 1986/ early 1987 somewhere in the loft, (I am a hoarder). I remember the early days, writing letters to Frank.
My car then was a mk1 1.3 super coupe in glacier white. A very late one registered in November '75, a bit of a hybrid with several mk2 parts on it from new, including front shockers with the small holes!
I found some photos of it at longleat on the forum among Frank's old club photos. I sold it in 1990 and bought a Rover 216 Vitesse,(what a car!), then found my black tulip TC Coupe in Autotrader in 1991, which I have owned ever since with no intention of ever selling it, (my son wouldn't let me anyway!!!)

Dave B. member 34.

There was me thinking I was the only oldy left in the club (eligable for a bus pass).

My TC was only off the road for 3 year to rebuilt (derust) it, plus 2 months to fuel inject it recently.

It can't be off for long as it has to tow a trailer to the tip.

Brian

Ay up fellas,
I've got some old club photos,from the first (i think) Morris Marina Owners Club show meeting at Beaulieu,i'll dig them out and see if we can put names to the faces,and i'm sure i have a photo or two of your T.C Jim form the same time,when she belonged to Tony the condition then was original,shall we say.

And onto the subject of keeping things I'm with Dave B,i have somewhere hidden in the loft all the papers i have ever had concerning the MMOC and the early club news letters A4 photo copies that by today's standards look some what primitive,but this was before the Internet,Photo bucket,and "point and shoot computers" The thing back then was there seemed to be a far wider span of the model range (apart from the commercials) MK1 1300 were plentiful as were the estate cars and even the GT's, I must have turned down well over a dozen T.C both saloons and coupes in automatic and manual form,and even the odd jubilee the MK3 had only been out of production for 8 years and the Ital for only 5 years at the most,and prices were basement to say the least,And Brian i was really only a boy when i joined the club,well that my story and i'm sticking to it,

And as the saying goes "you don't what you had till it's gone" I shall get on to the old club photo as soon as possible,and get them on here.

Russ

Beckett Bros "a long long time ago" :roll: