Fast Marina Magazine

Hey all.
Tonight - in a break with tradition - I drove a Mk1 estate several miles in rather nasty weather.
Steady rain but with strong gusty winds.
Could not believe how badly the car steered.
I was once given a lovely original Mk1 estate, and drove it briefly around town before giving it away. Now I think about it, it had similar steering characteristics.
I am hardly surprised the motoring press of the day would have slated it.
I would consider it bordering on dangerous.
Admittedly, it is not my vehicle, and I did not check the condition of the various rubber components in the front suspension - notably the radius rod bushes, and the shock absorber to swivel joint bushes - as these are bound to create vague steering when aged badly.

Hopping from that estate into my slightly modified Mk3 estate was like having the sun come out.! (it didn't..)
There is no comparison whatsoever between these two cars - seemingly the same externally.
I think the Marina never recovered from the initial unfavourable reports that dogged the Mk1.

On Sunday I spoke to an old Morris dealer, who told me that the 1750 (Australian) Marina 'went like stink'.
I imagine - in the mid 70's - they probably did go quite well. Certainly would have given the equivalent Cortina a run for its money.
Also on Sunday, I pitted a 2 litre Marina against an ultra-modern Honda coupe over 30 miles of gravel road.
We gave nothing away at all.

I sometimes feel that we - as a group - can almost be a bit apologetic for our choice of car.
No need.
These things can still cut it.

Mind you - if I had a Mk1 I would be modifying the front suspension...

Cheers,
Kilroy

Wow! Lovely photo!

How do your car (s) handle with such fat wheels?

Better.!

If I fit standard wheels and try to blat around my usual roads, I scare myself silly.
I must say - I have still experienced understeer with the 7" wheels on.
In fact today, in pouring rain.
Traveling at my usual speed - testing the envelope I guess you would say.
Had the owner of a VW Golf V6 pull over to let me pass around the twisties here - after which I nearly overcooked it by leaving my braking a bit late.
My tyres are not the best when it comes to rubber - but they are cheap and last a long time, so I give away quite a bit of performance.
In the dry though - very hard to find the limit of adhesion, and braking is tops.
When you drive the car with these wheels, it immediately feels a lot more stable, and much more willing to go around corners.
Because the wheels are widened outwards only, they roll fore and aft around the point at which the steering pivots.
This means the wheelbase extends on the outer side, and reduces on the inner side.
Not sure what effect that has, but it must have some.
For example.
In this pic, front wheel is at front of wheel arch..





.. and in this one, wheel is at rear of arch.





Thats interesting..

This, on the other hand, is just naughty...

but the understeer can be stoped with a touch on the handbrake

Kilroy wrote:On Sunday I spoke to an old Morris dealer, who told me that the 1750 (Australian) Marina 'went like stink'.
I imagine - in the mid 70's - they probably did go quite well. Certainly would have given the equivalent Cortina a run for its money.

The single carb 1750 wasn't overly quick (well, mine wasn't :roll:, but it would hang on to Fiat 124 Coupes on the twisty bits :twisted: ), but it was about 40kg lighter than the 1800, so the Aussie TC would have been noticably quicker and more nimble than the English TC. 8)

the advert for the australian TC at the time said in big type
that it was quicker than an MGB and only $2775
this is the 1750 twin carb

iirc even the English TC was quicker than the surpisingly heavy MGB.

In the seventies, my mother had an Aussie TC manual. My dad knew there was a bit of a problem with it as the car was a bit ordinary performance wise. One day he was playing around with it, reving it constantly, with his head under the bonnet when it gave a strange sort of bang noise. All over the place at the back of the TC was this pink stuff :shock: ....It had blown the contents of the glass pack muffler out. It went much better then. I was always amazed at how fast mum could take off from the lights and leave everyone else behind. She would say that she wasn't trying to race anyone, it just flew. :roll: