Fast Marina Magazine

According to a thread on the OzMarina Yahoo Group, next April is the 40th birthday for the Aussie Morris Marina.

I was able to do a partial search of the NZ Rego database back in 2009 (running a "spider" that trolled the plates beginning "GA" through "GI", roughly April 1972 to April 1973), which found 257 Marinas, of which only 12 were still "live".

These are the oldest Marinas I found :-

(UK) GC6383 1275, First registered 11/03/1972, cancelled 29/10/1995, Engine No 12VEH48120, Chassis No MA45A510260IM
(UK) GC6332 1800, First registered 17/04/1972, cancelled 15/04/2002, Engine No 16045, Chassis No MH25980173M
(Oz) GF2759 1750, First Registered 06/07/1972, written off 29/10/1995, Engine No 110, Chassis No 595

And the oldest survivors
(UK) GE7520 1800, First Registered 26/07/1972, Engine No 18VEH45798, Chassis No MH4S9S126983M
(Oz) GC1682 1750, First Registered 25/07/1972, Engine No 20246, Chassis No 81373

Of the 247 that are still on the register, only 12 show with live plates

The third oldest is GG7286, Chris "Coupe+Rust" of Oamaru's Nissan powered Coupe (First Reg 26/09/1972, cancelled 11-10-1997). :P

Wow, third oldest survivor, that just makes it that little bit more special (to me at least)

Very interesting information.

My other coupe, interestingly GO163 was first registered on the 15/12/1972, not sure where that puts it on the list though

Unfortunately I never found out what the plates were off my third coupe...

i was offered a marina last year that was in a paddock and had a fair amount of rust but it turned out to be an Australian T.C. auto
going by the ADR plate and chassis number. it had been re-powered with the later Leyland motor and manual box.
the striking thing about the car was it was built in February '72 and the colour also was not the usual Marina colour
as it was painted with Jet Red (had a Morris 1500 painted that colour).
the sad part of this story is i had no money, no transport no anything just enthusiasm.

marinacoupe+rust wrote:My other coupe, interestingly GO163 was first registered on the 15/12/1972, not sure where that puts it on the list though

Unfortunately I never found out what the plates were off my third coupe...

10th on my (incomplete) list.

If you've got the engine or chassis number from your other coupe, I can see if it's on my spreadsheet.

How about mine? 16th November 1972? chassis number 41115. Thanks car jam
Marina coupe+ rust you've definitely beaten me with this one, congratulations sir

charlie safari wrote:How about mine? 16th November 1972? chassis number 41115. Thanks car jam

7th on my list , although that rego is showing as dead - lapsed 20 May 2002. Curiously, the TradeMe ad for your car had the plate listed as GU7400 :? , which is still live and "on hold".

7th on my list , although that rego is showing as dead - lapsed 20 May 2002. Curiously, the TradeMe ad for your car had the plate listed as GU7400 :? , which is still live and "on hold".[/quote]

Yep I got ripped off, wasn't the rego for the car, he had removed the plates from GU7400 and put them on my car as they were live and on hold. I've just found out, anything I can do about this? I dont want to lose the car as I've spent heaps of time and money on it so far. I guess I'm just going to have to re rego it

I don't think you'll have any trouble getting it registered again, since you can prove it was registered before. You'll still get stiffed for the vin fee, but you won't have to get it certified.

Sent you a PM with the name and number of a good bloke to talk to.

Thanks Bryan
Much appreciated
I'm still a quite angry at the seller tho, I can't believe he did that, I'm going to have a meeting with him Sat and I think I'm going to insist he hands over the vin fee :roll:

You can also complain to TradeMe, as it breaches their rules, and give the guy a negative report on the feedback link.

I think I'm going to have to
But I've got a meeting with him on Sat and I'll see what he wants to do about it first, you never know he might be reasonable about being caught out Can't believe he did something so stupid and thought he would get away with it.
Actually he would have got away with it, if I hadn't been so into Marina's I would never have found out

He's not the first. Someone down south listed a Marina 262 that had been re-engined with a 1800, but was listed on plates off a 1300.

I think it may be legal to buy a rusty hulk on live plates, and a good car on dead plates, and transfer the good car's chassis and engine numbers to the live plates. Have a feeling that has happened with classic race cars, when the original shell was beyond repair. That may be one way to avoid having to pay to re-vin - a chat with Neil or the rego people should clarify that (entirely possible I misunderstood Neil last time we spoke ).

Unfortunately it's a pretty common thing these days.

Same thing happened to me, I was disappointed to find my coupe had dead plates but the 'car dealer' I purchased it from, lied his way out of it saying that the other plates the car came with (CGB9 a 1976 sedan I believe) were live and it was perfectly legal to use them as long as I informed them I had reshelled the other car? :roll: Too bad Im too poor to afford revinning

Also Bryan, I think I found the engine number for that coupe. 1702 1462. Hopefully the right one, I dont have the best memory but I think I took the engine out of that coupe, put it in my orange one, then took that out for the SR20DET, then put it into my yellow coupe, and if I get this car Im looking at today, the engine will go into that

But don't bash the seller of your coupe just yet, he may have been completely unaware... its not unheard of :shock:

I see that Blekkja has listed his wagon on TradeMe (for parts), and that it had been re-registered, so he might know what hoops had to be jumped through. :roll: