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[TheBoy]

Imagine what the one with the fireblade engine in it would be like....or a Dax which has a stifer chassis!

Good to see a Marina get exactly what it deserved

Is the Dax the one that looks similar? If so, I had one of those event days in one with a locked up diff - never had so much fun in 1st and 2nd gear


The Marina, and subsequently Ital, represented everything bad about BL

[Andy B]

......
The Marina, and subsequently Ital, represented everything bad about BL

Completely agree .... have you driven one? But if in another 15 / 20 years you were looking for a reasonable door for your Omega, you'd be a bit miffed if you saw a presentable Omega being battered around a track & then set fire to.      

[TheBoy]

......
The Marina, and subsequently Ital, represented everything bad about BL

Completely agree .... have you driven one? But if in another 15 / 20 years you were looking for a reasonable door for your Omega, you'd be a bit miffed if you saw a presentable Omega being battered around a track & then set fire to.      

Oh yes, driven lots of Itals both vans at work and a saloon which an ex had, and a mate when I was younger had a fascination with Marinas.  Crap, crap, crap.  Made even Fords and Vauxhalls of the time look good.

[Mr Skrunts]

Imagine what the one with the fireblade engine in it would be like....or a Dax which has a stifer chassis!

Good to see a Marina get exactly what it deserved

What about a 4WD version with a spare engine to get you home in case some tit breaks one.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=u3qtfY0Ps74

[supermop]

my favourite bit was "What if I wanted to do a beach assault with the Royal Marines?"

[TheBoy]

my favourite bit was "What if I wanted to do a beach assault with the Royal Marines?"

Fair play, that was quite deep, I expected it to conk out...

[Andy B]

...... that was quite deep, I expected it to conk out...

I was really surprised it didn't!  :-?

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

Imagine what the one with the fireblade engine in it would be like....or a Dax which has a stifer chassis!

Good to see a Marina get exactly what it deserved

British Leyland really did produce some prize shite in the seventies.....The marina was one of the worst cars ever made. :-? :-?

Although I did own an Austin Princess in the late seventies that had ABS.....anti -lock brakes.............of a sort.......but only because the stoppers were so piss poor that it was impossibe to lock the wheels under any conditions.

[TheBoy]

Imagine what the one with the fireblade engine in it would be like....or a Dax which has a stifer chassis!

Good to see a Marina get exactly what it deserved

British Leyland really did produce some prize shite in the seventies.....The marina was one of the worst cars ever made. :-? :-?

Although I did own an Austin Princess in the late seventies that had ABS.....anti -lock brakes.............of a sort.......but only because the stoppers were so piss poor that it was impossibe to lock the wheels under any conditions.

Not just marinas - all the shit from 70s and early 80s.

Ital,Allegro,Dolly,Princess/Ambassador etc.  They must have been bad, as I remember one of the motoring mags saying how good the maestro and montego were, and they weren't great!

Wasn't until they tied in with Honda that things got back on track, and they made decent cars, reasonably well put together (I'll exclude the 800 from that as it was built cheap for the yanks)

[Martin_1962]

70s and 80s cars

Basically the Marina - Ital was a joke. Morris Minor suspension!

Other cars of that era were better, Escort was pretty good despite cart springs, nothing wrong with the Cortinas

GM had some good cars, Chevette was a nightmare to work on engine wise.

Rootes also had some nice cars - I used to own a Sunbeam hatch - descended from an Avenger.

[Martin_1962]

Maestro - not a bad car, roomy - better than the WWD Escorts, this is from the Mk2 Astra era.

Astra was OK for what it was but 1800 and up were overpowered.

1300 was surprisingly good if you thrashed the nuts off it

The corresponding Escort was shite

[TheBoy]

Maestro - not a bad car, roomy - better than the WWD Escorts, this is from the Mk2 Astra era.

Astra was OK for what it was but 1800 and up were overpowered.

1300 was surprisingly good if you thrashed the nuts off it

The corresponding Escort was shite

Astra Mk1 was crap, Mk2 even worse.  Escort Mk3 bloody lethal (yet to drive a fwd Escort and not crash it - and I've driven a few!).  Maestro hatchback let down with dreadful lift-off oversteer - the vans we had at work didn't suffer this, but had a dangerous issue of no front end traction under braking in the wet.

Everyone produced shite in the 80s!

My brother and my best mates missus both had Shitvettes, I thought they were quite nice to work on  :-/

[albitz]

Thought the shovitt/viva engine was pretty simple to work on.
The HS engine was a bit of a challenge for someone who had never done a full rebuild before,especially as it was rebuilt in a small garden shed with no door or window in winter time. It did run well afterwards though.

[waspy]

Lets face it, there wasn't many cars that where any good back in the seventies. Please don't come back & say "oh i had a ?? & it was fantastic" they where crap The early seventies cars where good, but then something went wrong at around 1974 :-/ How any of the major manufactures stayed alive is beyond me

[bob.dent]

Only Clarkson could come up with something as mad as those Fiesta tests. "What would you do if you were in a shopping mall and you got chased by baddies in a Corvette?".......priceless!!