The rise and fall of the big Aussie six

[dazza2623]

This article is in this months "Australian Muscle Car Mag ".
The Marina & P76 get a mentionplus some small pics.
They bagged the P76 calling it ill fated,pretty tough I think,they are a good car.
The Marina got off lightly this time:The Bastard child of a British body and a Downunder driveline.
Star crossed lover was quick in a straight line but had too much engine for available grip.
Very few were ever sold,even to ambitious Police forces trying to chase down V8 muscle cars,XU-1 Toranas & stove hot Minis.
It was a death trap,it handled like a lead tipped arrow.
The only reason the Aussies did it was because the British said it could not be done.
All in all pretty positive article I think
There are some good pics in it of the minis kicking mustang butt at Amaroo Park.I miss Amaroo Park.
Some pics of Toranas & V6 Capris getting in to it as well.

[bigcarle]

aahh Amaroo Park, the old AMSCAR series also the PRO-AM series with one make of car (TR 7, Laser, Renault 12 etc)
my first experience of Appendage J was at Lakeside many years ago, my wife couldn't believe what the Mini's where doing to the
big Chev Impala, it took the Chev over 5 laps to finally get past the Mini properly

[dazza2623]

I remember watching 3 Cooper S minis trying to get around an Impala at Amaroo.The Chevy was always sideways across the track so the minis had to finally go off track to get around it.Top race.

[charlie safari]

Aha
My 1750TC handles really well thanks to the beefed up suspension and body, oh and the fact its much lighter than a B series (and an E series 6 !) Leyland Oz were really inventive, and the cars were actually well built and quite fast.

God help me, but I really have a thing for the P76, and its only a matter of time before I buy one, or put its engine in the Marina

[dazza2623]

My Marina 6 handled better than my Cooper S.I really never understood the comments of them being slow & never handled.I only had slight modifications to it so am looking forward to seeing how one goes with the extra mods I am currently working on.The Bathurst race Marina was very mild but was good enough to hang on to the v8 toranas over the top of the mountain.

[locost_bryan]

Kilroy "road-tested" a standard 262 auto a wee while back, and compared it favourably to his lowered fat-tyred swaybar-equipped O-series auto MkIII .

I thought the early Aussie "Morris" Marina TC had the same shell and front suspension as the English cars, but the later "Leyland" Marina 175 got all the 262 body and suspension mods. My old 1750 Super Coupe could have done with sway bars to reduce the body roll (and that extra carb), but was still fun to drive on the twisties .

[dazza2623]

Yes alot of people who have written articles on Marinas or P76s have never really driven one.If you read the original wheels magazine road tests the articles were not that bad really even compared to the others on offer from ford & Holden.Peter Molesworth had a 6 Marina
& would see off his mates V6 Capri all day,that was with 1 SU carb.If you get a 6 Marina now days they are in a bad need of a revamp.They are treated as a bit of a myth & everybody wants to see what they have got,even if they are already clapped out,this can leave people a bit disappointed.My old blue 6 Marina was able to sit side by side with a TR7 when we had a run at Brookvale in Sydney when I was younger,the marina had already done 300k ,there was 5 of us in the car with 5 surfboards on the roof,this was in standard form from factory.No wonder the guy in the TR7 looked shocked.
A few years back I worked with a guy who had a Ford TE50,400hp Falcon with cold air kit & all the bells & whistles.We had a race down the Western freeway.I left work behind him & as usual Brett would give his car a squirt,I followed him this time & was 2 car lengths behind him until he backed off. The next day he asked me if I knew how fast I was going,I didn't as the speedo was broken,He told me 180kph.This Marina had done over 300k,had twin SUs & a 4 speed not bad for a 34 yr old car with a tired engine.Brett was amazed that it had a 6 in it & was quite impressed with it.
I really can't wait to get mine on the road again.