Fast Marina Magazine

I have just been approached by a guy whose dad has owned a pre-production Mk1 pickup from new. It seems that it was one of six 1.3 7cwt pickups built for evaluation by BL garages and sold on and first registered to the current owner as "it was the wrong colour for the garages fleet and it would be too costly to respray". It is Teal Blue and their fleet was white.

All the documentation I have seen elsewhere only refers to 10cwt pickups, so this is probably a unique survivor.

Before anyone gets too excited, it's not for sale.

Hopefully pics to follow.

The pickup was registered on V5 as on 01/10/1973, and confirmed on original bill of sale, the earliest brochure I can find is dated April 1974. Does anyone know the official launch date for pickups?

I can remember back in 1972 when I was working for LEX Newport the stores department were "given" one of these pre-production 7cwt pick ups for evaluation. I can't remember what the original colour was, but during it's time with LEX it was white with orange stripes. They had this vehicle for quite some time before the pick ups were made available to the public, the stores then went on to own a succession of these pick ups, mainly the 10cwt versions as they were the most useful load carriers.
Cheers
Steve
p.s. would love to see some pictures of this truck if possible

Steve

I am waiting for the pictures myself, I'll post them here.

Some pics of badging, waiting for full pictures. The original bill of sale and the V5 both confirm it as a 7cwt Pickup. The full Mk1 parts manual confirms that the chassis number comes from a range that could be a van or pickup. I reckon it's genuine.

Is the owner keeping the suspense on purpose?

Amazing that one should survive from what must have been a very small number made. It would be remarkable if it was a saloon or coupe but a pickup, designed to lead a hard life, very interesting.

Not really Josh, the guy I'm dealing with has to drive 80 miles to see his Dad on his farm. Dad is 70 odd and I don't think that the Pickup is as important as his Dad. Between them they have a collection of classic tractors, the Pickup is a side event.

Evidently when they bought it, they had to sign a waiver to the garage acknowledging that as it wasn't a production vehicle, they might not be able to get parts for it.

My 1300 10CWT Austin Marina Van is an early bird with a chassis No of 3018 and still original, however it needs a full restoration. My pick up is a mish mash and its a 1977 with a bit of every model in it

The pickup I was referring to in my earlier post was around 1972 on an L reg, this one is later on an M reg, can someone else confirm this somehow, my memory isn't what it used to be, but the Lex pickup was deinately L reg.
Cheers
Steve

p.s.
I believe that the other garages in the Lex group at the time, Lex Glouster, and Lex Cheltanham also had these pre production vehicles.

Thanks Steve

Yes this is definitely an M reg, 01/10/1973.

The chassis number is quite low, although it does include the code for a 1973 build.