Fast Marina Magazine

saturday just gone the road was wet and i was going around a corner in 3rd doing about 30mph and i hit a pretty big pot hole and caused my marina to oversteer i nearly had heart failure and so did my passangers but i was able to keep control of it and brought it back into play. when i go any high bridge aka the Manchester one the wind pushes on the car really bad and its super scary lol.

i have bigger tyers on the back 185/70/13

has anyone else had a scary experience in there marina ?

Yeah loads! That's why I like driving it
Are the tyres old? ( hard ) or over inflated? That speed/gear/weight in car you wouldn't expect it.
But a pot hole can cause the suspension to load and unload and cause such things.

Scary (brown trouser) moments are all part of the fun of driving a marina
What tyre pressure are you using in your rear tyres.

Check the condition of the rear spring hanger bushes, if the rubber is knackered the rear axle can move about causing it to wander and snap.

Also as others have said check that the tyre pressures aren't too high.

Losing control from bumps is most often a statement about shock absorbers.

The front units on these cars were not very capable when new - so they are far from it when old.

Fitting rebuilt front shocks is about the best single thing you can do to improve handling.

In my opinion...

Although 7" wide alloys goes a long way..

haha my capri wasent this scary and that thing was tail happy :P. but the tyers are new ive not put any air in them for the last few weeks and i tend to put 35psi in them normally i normally read whats on the tyer and put it a small bit below as my car is like a bouncy jack in the box lol

You just have to alter your driving style to suit the car, same with any car really.

I've had a few near brown trouser moments when going a little too fast around bends, once as I was understeering away a rally replica MK1 Escort came the other way, that would have been an expensive crash

35 is too high. Try 27 and see if there is a difference.


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Standard wheels like 13/60/165 size normally 26PSI rear 24PSI front, I guess there is to much pressure in yours dude!

My BMW 18/35/255 tyres have 42PSI but they need that and a modern car has more pressure for a low profile tyre.

Always 2 PSI difference between front and rear.
Correct me if I am wrong!

Thought it was 26 front and 28 rear?

That's what the manual says Josh, but most road period tests reckoned the Marina handled better with 2psi higher in the front tyres - 30psi front, 28 rear. That's what i run with, but i suppose its a matter of personal preference.

Have to agree, half the fun of owning a Marina / Ital is driving on the edge, I think your tyre pressures are definately to high, I run my pickup with 30psi all round, handles surprisingly well for old van. I drive my pickup quite hard but it's never caught me out, although it has surprised many other road users
Cheers
Steve

From playing with the suspension for a few years it seems the Marina always had terminal understeer, ie the front tyres losing grip before the rears.

If the positive camber at the front is changed to negative camber (knock kneed) this helps a lot, but excessive rolling in corners doesn't help hence the reason BL finally put on a front anti-roll bar. Atleast the outside tyre is more upright when cornering and so better grip.

By only fitting wider tyres to the rear you have increased the grip at the rear garanteeing more understeer.

Wider tyres front and rear will help balance the cornering, plus negative camber using walford or later trunnions and an anti-rollbar if you haven't already got one.

A rear anti-rollbar as well will give some oversteer (more fun) on maximum power.

The tuning mag of the time (CCC) experimented with tyre pressures and came up with 28psi all round as the best option, but its all about how it feels to you.

Best of luck, Brian

littleburner1 wrote:saturday just gone the road was wet and i was going around a corner in 3rd doing about 30mph and i hit a pretty big pot hole and caused my marina to oversteer i nearly had heart failure and so did my passangers but i was able to keep control of it and brought it back into play. when i go any high bridge aka the Manchester one the wind pushes on the car really bad and its super scary lol.

i have bigger tyers on the back 185/70/13

has anyone else had a scary experience in there marina ?

Avoid big pot holes?

If it's twitchy in a crosswind, could be you need to check for worn bushes in the front suspension or steering rack, as well as worn bushes at the rear (or all of the above!)

I have 185/70/13 tyres on 5.5x13 alloys on my tc .i put 28 psi all round and have had no problems.
But i also have van rear springs+2inch lowering blocks on the back. + ital tele front shockers on the front.