*** A VERY UNUSUAL 1800 T.C SALOON ***
Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2009 12:38 am
I'm not a fan of novelty answer phone messages,and especially not ones that have Anne Robinson telling you to leave a message then saying "you are the weakest link goodbye!" but on this occasion i persisted and left a message in response to a previously left message by an ex-Marina owner about "some stuff he had for sale.I didn't have to wait long for my call to be returned and given the details of the "stuff" i have a five set of Rostyle he went on to say,"T.C wheels" i said "no Rostyles the same as the Cortina 1600E had fitted to them" intrigued i arranged to go over and see the items he had and one lot in particular the wheels.
I arrived at the fellas house and was shown to an old ABC type corrugated sheet garage at the bottom of what can only be described as a plastic feature grotto,the doors of the garage were opened and creamed inside amongst the off-cuts of timber and half used tins of paint leaning against the side of the garage were 5 chrome and black Rostyle wheels in the unusual format of 13"x 6.5j and not the more common 13"x 5.5j,"that's them" he said "Marina Rostyles" i then went back to my car and brought back a front hub to check the wheel PCD,after offering one to the other they made a perfect match "told ya" he said when i asked how he had come to owning them i was told the story that now follows.
Rostyles fitted to 1969 prototype
In the latter part of 1973 The British Steel Corporation (BSC) placed an order through the local British leyland dealership of Kennings to supply 20 new Morris Marina 1800 cars the order was to be made up of 18 Marina 1800 super deluxes cars for the sales team and 2 Marina 1800 T.C's for the managers,the cars were to be divided between 3 BSC production plants Rotherham,Scunthorpe and Sheffield on the face of it a simple order and just a matter of replacing the previous cars with new ones,but this was 1973 and the mists of the 3 day-week.for those who can't remember this The Three-Day Week was one of several measures introduced in the United Kingdom by the Conservative Government (1970-1974) to conserve electricity,the production of which was severely limited due to industrial action by coal miners.The effect was that from 1 January until 7 March 1974 commercial users of electricity would be limited to three specified consecutive days' consumption each week and prohibited from working longer hours on those days,and the problem of British Leyland strike ridden production plants there were very few cars being made,and not nearly enough cars were available to meet the buyers orders.In the early spring of 1974 almost 2 months over the promised delivery date Kennings were given an ultimatum by BSC,either supply the cars we have ordered or we will go elsewhere,Kennings were not wanting to loose an order worth Over £30,000 and the possibility that any further orders might be lost,they some how managed to source 12 new cars 10 Marina 1800 super deluxe saloons and 2 1800 automatic T.C saloon cars (Kennings knew to keep the managers happy as it was them who would place subsequent orders for new cars)
Rostyles fitted to prototype coupe
The car we are interested in arrived at BSC Rotherham in March 1974 a burgundy/red (perhaps Damask or Flame red) yet without the vinyl roof that the car should have had at this stage,but this was not the only difference to the standard T.C saloon of the day,there were many other differences to the normal cars,on the outside the car had a T.C grille but had no T.C badge on the boot and displayed no other British leyland badges,the cars headlights were halogen H4 units under the bonnet every thing looked pretty standard apart from the fitting of sound insulation adhered to the underside of the bonnet (at a later stage the car was found to have a modified cylinder head larger valves and porting) as well as the automatic gearbox, a tinted laminated Triple X windscreen was fitted as well as tinted glass all round,the seats were a combination of dark tan fabric and vinyl without the provision to fit head rests,and the steering wheel was the 3 spoke MG sports wheel with drilled holes in the spokes (known as the finger trapper) and the car sat on the chrome Rostyles.The car was bought by the fella who now had the wheels for sale (as he worked at the plant as a charge hand till being made redundant in the early 90's) off BSC in 1978 for the sum of £500 having covered 47,000 miles with full service history and a "do whatever needs doing" repair policy,the only difference from new was now that car had a tow bar and electrics fitted,and a Motorola 8 track tape deck.The car was in everyday service up to 1985 when MOT repairs costs made the car no longer a practical proposition (mostly welding) having covered only 61,000 miles and not yet 10 years old the car was sold for scrap all that was saved were the wheels.
**** while the car was being examined to gauge the amount of welding that needed doing 3 Gold Leaf cigarette butts were found under the carpet ****
The underneath of the car had very little under seal applied to it and leading the owner to thinks this particular model was originally destined for either South Africa or Rhodesia hence the poor rust protection,or perhaps somehow all the available Marina Parts were assembled to make one car, perhaps we'll never know? Could this have been the same type of car.
a possible candidate
the description matches
Well that's the story if you have managed to read through to this part you must have found some bits of this epic tale readable,and i hope the five minuets you have taken to get this far has not been too painful,if i find any more details i will post them as soon as i can thanks for reading as it really does keep me of the streets as my care worker would say.
Russ
Beckett Bros "come back and finish what you started" :roll:s
I arrived at the fellas house and was shown to an old ABC type corrugated sheet garage at the bottom of what can only be described as a plastic feature grotto,the doors of the garage were opened and creamed inside amongst the off-cuts of timber and half used tins of paint leaning against the side of the garage were 5 chrome and black Rostyle wheels in the unusual format of 13"x 6.5j and not the more common 13"x 5.5j,"that's them" he said "Marina Rostyles" i then went back to my car and brought back a front hub to check the wheel PCD,after offering one to the other they made a perfect match "told ya" he said when i asked how he had come to owning them i was told the story that now follows.
Rostyles fitted to 1969 prototypeIn the latter part of 1973 The British Steel Corporation (BSC) placed an order through the local British leyland dealership of Kennings to supply 20 new Morris Marina 1800 cars the order was to be made up of 18 Marina 1800 super deluxes cars for the sales team and 2 Marina 1800 T.C's for the managers,the cars were to be divided between 3 BSC production plants Rotherham,Scunthorpe and Sheffield on the face of it a simple order and just a matter of replacing the previous cars with new ones,but this was 1973 and the mists of the 3 day-week.for those who can't remember this The Three-Day Week was one of several measures introduced in the United Kingdom by the Conservative Government (1970-1974) to conserve electricity,the production of which was severely limited due to industrial action by coal miners.The effect was that from 1 January until 7 March 1974 commercial users of electricity would be limited to three specified consecutive days' consumption each week and prohibited from working longer hours on those days,and the problem of British Leyland strike ridden production plants there were very few cars being made,and not nearly enough cars were available to meet the buyers orders.In the early spring of 1974 almost 2 months over the promised delivery date Kennings were given an ultimatum by BSC,either supply the cars we have ordered or we will go elsewhere,Kennings were not wanting to loose an order worth Over £30,000 and the possibility that any further orders might be lost,they some how managed to source 12 new cars 10 Marina 1800 super deluxe saloons and 2 1800 automatic T.C saloon cars (Kennings knew to keep the managers happy as it was them who would place subsequent orders for new cars)
Rostyles fitted to prototype coupeThe car we are interested in arrived at BSC Rotherham in March 1974 a burgundy/red (perhaps Damask or Flame red) yet without the vinyl roof that the car should have had at this stage,but this was not the only difference to the standard T.C saloon of the day,there were many other differences to the normal cars,on the outside the car had a T.C grille but had no T.C badge on the boot and displayed no other British leyland badges,the cars headlights were halogen H4 units under the bonnet every thing looked pretty standard apart from the fitting of sound insulation adhered to the underside of the bonnet (at a later stage the car was found to have a modified cylinder head larger valves and porting) as well as the automatic gearbox, a tinted laminated Triple X windscreen was fitted as well as tinted glass all round,the seats were a combination of dark tan fabric and vinyl without the provision to fit head rests,and the steering wheel was the 3 spoke MG sports wheel with drilled holes in the spokes (known as the finger trapper) and the car sat on the chrome Rostyles.The car was bought by the fella who now had the wheels for sale (as he worked at the plant as a charge hand till being made redundant in the early 90's) off BSC in 1978 for the sum of £500 having covered 47,000 miles with full service history and a "do whatever needs doing" repair policy,the only difference from new was now that car had a tow bar and electrics fitted,and a Motorola 8 track tape deck.The car was in everyday service up to 1985 when MOT repairs costs made the car no longer a practical proposition (mostly welding) having covered only 61,000 miles and not yet 10 years old the car was sold for scrap all that was saved were the wheels.
**** while the car was being examined to gauge the amount of welding that needed doing 3 Gold Leaf cigarette butts were found under the carpet ****
The underneath of the car had very little under seal applied to it and leading the owner to thinks this particular model was originally destined for either South Africa or Rhodesia hence the poor rust protection,or perhaps somehow all the available Marina Parts were assembled to make one car, perhaps we'll never know? Could this have been the same type of car.
a possible candidate the description matchesWell that's the story if you have managed to read through to this part you must have found some bits of this epic tale readable,and i hope the five minuets you have taken to get this far has not been too painful,if i find any more details i will post them as soon as i can thanks for reading as it really does keep me of the streets as my care worker would say.
Russ
Beckett Bros "come back and finish what you started" :roll:s
