Practically Classics Forum

We had a Morris Ital Estate 1.7HLS as a kid, god it took some abuse!

3xpendable wrote:We had a Morris Ital Estate 1.7HLS as a kid, god it took some abuse!

dad owned a marina coupé as well as the vans & saloons, that as with all my dads cars got lots of abuse too!

rich. wrote:

3xpendable wrote:We had a Morris Ital Estate 1.7HLS as a kid, god it took some abuse!

dad owned a marina coupé as well as the vans & saloons, that as with all my dads cars got lots of abuse too!

Did you ever change the car's oil for your Dad? Some of that oil has probably gone onto to your skin and now you have Marina DNA in your blood. It's the only reason that I can find for your fondness of BL's unmitigated disaster.

My dad had an 1800TC which was an utter rust bucket but it went like the clappers.
I won't claim Marinas are the best car in the world or that I particularly want to own one but I'm glad some people do and that they pop up at car shows from time to time.
You've got to appreciate the work people put in to maintaining / restoring their classic no matter what it is.

TerryG wrote:I won't claim Marinas are the best car in the world or that I particularly want to own one but I'm glad some people do and that they pop up at car shows from time to time. You've got to appreciate the work people put in to maintaining / restoring their classic no matter what it is.

Terry, don't mind me, I'm a tease. Rich and John know it, they also love to give as good as they get, right on the chin.
The Morris Marina and it's derivatives, will probably get more time, love and money spent on them, than they would have got new, when they came off the line at British Leyland. Politics are best avoided on any forum, but the fact of the matter with BL, is that is was virtually, a nationalised body. It had a government minister who had to fight the exchequer for funding. Often that funding was not forthcoming, so BL did the best they could with the limited funds that they had.
The Marina, by comparison to the competition, wasn't in the ballpark. The fact that it sold at all was down to the British public who still thought that British was best. But the difficulties they had with after sales lost a great deal of that, buy British loyalty. I won't mock it anymore if it's a sensitive issue, but to see what I'm saying about funding, or the lack of it, look at Morris cars before, and throughout their BMC life. They may lack technology but their level of trim, their reliability and their resale value were far better than the Morris of later years.
I too, hope that enthusiasts keep the marque alive, if only for the memory of Lord Nuffield, formerly William Morris, one of the greatest philanthropists this country has ever known.

GHT wrote:...they also love to give as good as they get, right on the chin.

True, but I'd be very shocked to find that anyone would find the following Marina anything less than utterly drop dead gorgeous, it's based around the heavier of the commercial Marinas so comes with hubs that aren't limited to Triumph and MGF wheels as upgrades (see the MGB ones fitted in the listing..), it has upstairs sleeping quarters and no, I haven't inhaled anything, this is not only the sexiest of the Marinas, it's also everything that anyone ever wanted in a jalopy rolled into one lovely vehicle that even has a bidet and no, I'm not using the term to mean a rear wash/wipe, I mean it has an actual bidet, though ones backside might be a little too visible when using [the bidet] as there's a viewing window very close. Enough wibble, click the link that follows and see for yourselves the car that makes owners of Bentleys wish they'd waited for next month's salary to go into the bank and bought this instead:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1982-Morris-M ... Swx-9Wy3nw

Isn't this more your style John



I have been looking about and can't find any silly big horse power marinas but it would be fun turning up to a track day in a properly sorted marina sleeper with MG SV running gear.

OK, so whose been swallowing The Magic Mushrooms?

Ooh! orangeness..

Swallowing the mushrooms will be inefficient, apparently. Making a nice pot of tea is the way forward there. So I'm told.

http://www.leboncoin.fr/voitures/935845817.htm?ca=18_s
http://www.leboncoin.fr/utilitaires/933 ... tm?ca=18_s
http://www.leboncoin.fr/voitures/939366146.htm?ca=18_s
http://www.leboncoin.fr/utilitaires/907 ... tm?ca=18_s
http://www.leboncoin.fr/utilitaires/679 ... tm?ca=18_s
another marina

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD96RQ1-wnY