Pianoed Marina - number plate madness

[MarinaJosh]

3 hours ago, SiC said:

I seem to remember a Marina licker fixed another one of the piano impacted Marinas. Was a huge amount of work but he got it back on the road again. 

Edit: it was a bit rarer example that was restored https://www.facebook.com/share/p/EBNk4RnpcWfAmS7r/

Sadly, I don't think it ever got finished.

In an ironic twist the person restoring it bought an Ital and chopped the roof off that before realising that Ital roofs are different, so it ended up with another dead car! It's a shame as that black MK3 was very tidy, as was the Harvest Gold 1.8 which was the first one destroyed (set on fire) and the white MK2 Special which was a genuine sub 20k mile car. 

As for the point behind it- it was just a running joke stemming from the first one being set on fire. Sadly it led to quite a lot of vandalism of Marinas and also nasty telephone calls and threats of violence towards Marina Club committee members (contact details taken from the club website) and their families. 

At no point did the Marina Club ever make any comment about it. Comments read out on Top Gear were taken from members of an online Marina web forum which was not in any way related to the Owners Club. 

As @captain_70s says not all of the cars featured on TV. There were a few parked up at Dunsfold rusting away. 

It could be done, but I can't see it happening. One of the Marinas I broke late last year would have yielded the necessary panels in the correct colour! 

[Talbot]

The thing is, I can (slightly) see the reason for singling out the marina for being flattened.. it had absolutely no redeeming features, and was intended to be bland.  Almost all cars are designed to be impressive or stand-out in some way, but the marina was intentionally porridge.

It is interesting now ONLY because it's old and it's gained notoriety for the TopGear shenanigans.  Back in the day they were utter drivel that was meant to appease people who wanted utter drivel.  The running gear was dire, the suspension barely modified from the Minor, the styling dreary and overall as a car was just utterly dismal.

The dropping of pianos on them was puerile,  but given the thousands of cars that get destroyed for TV series every year, is an utter drop in the ocean.  The same is true of just about every car that TG got their hands on.. they were pretty much all wrecked in some way or another.

And then compared to the number of cars that are cut up and scrapped every day, it's nothing.  I've scrapped about 6 citroen BXs, as they were utterly worthless at the time.  Probably all would be worth money and it be "a crime to scrap it", but at the time nobody cared.

[goosey]

Couldn’t you just akro prop the worst of the damage out like what was done to that mini clubman that was found under longbridge 

you know MOT exempt and all that 

[lesapandre]

It's just a shame when so few survive. 

I must say I YouTube'd  a couple of cars from the Top Gear era I fancied buying to see what their opinion was.

What struck me was how badly the programmes have aged in terms of their declamatory presentation style and general vibe - I switched off after about 20 seconds.

It will all pass and be forgotten - jokes lost its way.

[MarinaJosh]

16 minutes ago, Talbot said:

...the suspension barely modified from the Minor...

Having owned and worked on both, this is simply untrue but gets repeated ad nauseam. They are different set-ups.

I don't disagree with the rest of your post though. The Marina was designed to be transport and a means to an end. Stacked high and sold cheaply- it was an enormous success in that regard. It did what was expected of it. BL didn't go to much effort to disguise the fact either. It's not much different to drive than an Escort or a Cortina but Ford made their cars aspirational with their motorsport success and special/luxury editions. Such cars designed as a basic product with input from bean counters are usually hated by motoring journalists etc who are interested in vehicles designed for pleasure e.g. luxury cars, supercars etc. 

At the end of the day all the cars they bought were sold on the open market. 

[ETCHY]

1 hour ago, HMC said:

What was the thing behind the piano and marinas on top gear? I love a bit of destruction as much as the next man. I love it for instance when on the special episodes when their cars get a good going over. But it seems to be pointless?

The thing behind it is they were a trio of wankers with bullying tendencies.

They're the type who bully someone weaker for laughs. In this case the Marina car & Marina club was the weak kid that they could get a laugh out of beating up.

Quite pathetic really.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

1 hour ago, MarinaJosh said:

Sadly, I don't think it ever got finished.

In an ironic twist the person restoring it bought an Ital and chopped the roof off that before realising that Ital roofs are different, so it ended up with another dead car! It's a shame as that black MK3 was very tidy, as was the Harvest Gold 1.8 which was the first one destroyed (set on fire) and the white MK2 Special which was a genuine sub 20k mile car. 

Isn't this the finished car? 

Prior to resto (and the piano incident), it looked to be wearing minilite style alloys for a few years. 

[N Dentressangle]

40 minutes ago, ETCHY said:

The thing behind it is they were a trio of wankers with bullying tendencies.

They're the type who bully someone weaker for laughs. In this case the Marina car & Marina club was the weak kid that they could get a laugh out of beating up.

Quite pathetic really.

Totally

 

[MarinaJosh]

21 minutes ago, Dick Cheeseburger said:

Isn't this the finished car? 

Prior to resto (and the piano incident), it looked to be wearing minilite style alloys for a few years. 

I think that's a before picture. I haven't seen or heard of it for quite a few years now. I think the chap who owned it was battling some health issues but it was a while ago. 

[goosey]

1 hour ago, MarinaJosh said:

Having owned and worked on both, this is simply untrue but gets repeated ad nauseam. They are different set-ups.

I don't disagree with the rest of your post though. The Marina was designed to be transport and a means to an end. Stacked high and sold cheaply- it was an enormous success in that regard. It did what was expected of it. BL didn't go to much effort to disguise the fact either. It's not much different to drive than an Escort or a Cortina but Ford made their cars aspirational with their motorsport success and special/luxury editions. Such cars designed as a basic product with input from bean counters are usually hated by motoring journalists etc who are interested in vehicles designed for pleasure e.g. luxury cars, supercars etc. 

At the end of the day all the cars they bought were sold on the open market. 

A mate of mine inherited a 1.3 Marina 2 door from his grandfather, I remember the frustration he had trying to hang the arse out when he came out with a few of us who had mk1/2 Escorts after it had rained. His Marina would sort of like plough on and just understeer and was quite difficult to get a nice slide out of whereas an escort would slide quite nicely without really trying-this was on that bobbled road surface that when it rains is like driving on ice. I think it’s stuff like this that really sticks with you so you tend to associate an escort as more of a “fun” car and a Marina as meh even though in normal driving conditions the Marina drives just as well and is maybe more comfortable than an Escort

[ETCHY]

The Marina was an ok car. Not a great car but IMO a perfectly acceptable one. I've driven them & thought they were fine.

As with most things BL, they (& the Ital) just hung around well past their use by date & had a disastrous start in life so their reputation was sullied early on.

[lesapandre]

I think the 1964 on Jackie Stewart partnership with Ford really paid dividends for them - also their extensive rallying and racing exploits. It was this driveability that made Escort outstanding. 

I don't know the development costs of Escort Mk1 and 2 - but they were likely far far in excess of whatever BLMC ever spent.

Goes to show what can be achieved when you are part of a multi-national conglomerate. 

BLMC were a minnow in comparison. 

Was Stokes strategy right to go for the centre of the middle-market? Probably yes - it was the rest of the group that sucked away the profits it seems.

I've not driven a Marina but it was probably no worse than an Avenger or Viva which occupied the same space.

But does it matter any more?  Not really. They are all nice in their own way. 

Just an unfunny joke by an elderly TV presenter. Tilting at automotive windmills

[Rustybullethole]

3 hours ago, big_al_granvia said:

marina pick up anyone? bl did a mini pick up, basic cage in cab extended to boot for rigidity, panels from 1mm plate or old road signs to fill holes left by missing back doors, canvas roof over cab.... being an auto it would be perfect for dez just in case he rescued some floodlights that have rare thorn halide lamps

Was just about to say one for the home made pick ups thread. 

 

[captain_70s]

6 minutes ago, goosey said:

A mate of mine inherited a 1.3 Marina 2 door from his grandfather, I remember the frustration he had trying to hang the arse out when he came out with a few of us who had mk1/2 Escorts after it had rained. His Marina would sort of like plough on and just understeer and was quite difficult to get a nice slide out of whereas an escort would slide quite nicely without really trying-this was on that bobbled road surface that when it rains is like driving on ice. I think it’s stuff like this that really sticks with you so you tend to associate an escort as more of a “fun” car and a Marina as meh even though in normal driving conditions the Marina drives just as well and is maybe more comfortable than an Escort

Of course under modern car design understeer is preferable as it is generally easier to control than oversteer in the hands of Joe Public.

Having driven a Marina I found it distinctly average, not as chuckable in the corners as the Doloshite but I never encountered the infamous understeer in normal driving - The 1.8 is probably worse with the extra nose weight. It crashed over bumps a bit but had a blown front damper, and leaf springs are never going to be amazing. The gearing was the same as the Dolomite (infuriatingly low by modern standards) but the 1275 felt more grunty than Triumph's 1296.

In terms of being inspiring it was little different to a low/mid spec Escort, Sunny or Avenger. Vinyl, cheap plastics and painted metal abound.

I don't think BL went out of their way to make the car dull, but they certainly stuck to proven tech and never really marketed a sporty version. The likes of Ford, Vauxhall and Rootes used their basic saloons as a basis for more upmarket models while BL focused that onto the Specialist Car division, in Triumph and Jag, which helped cement it's image as a boring car.

[sierraman]

What happened to the Marina 3 door hatch that was knocking around until a few years ago? 

[Billy - Medhurst]

2 hours ago, sierraman said:

What happened to the Marina 3 door hatch that was knocking around until a few years ago? 

This one

[Billy - Medhurst]

2 hours ago, sierraman said:

What happened to the Marina 3 door hatch that was knocking around until a few years ago? 

Last I heard of it was a year or so ago - I was sent these pic's

[Dick Cheeseburger]

Wasn't this one known of on here, too? 

[Datsuncog]

8 hours ago, Dobloseven said:

What a feature for a classic car mag. The car Jeremy Clarkson couldn't kill! Perhaps a photo shoot outside his farm shop.

 

6 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

nobody's going to spend thousands of quid and hundreds of hours rebuilding a Marina.

I'd *love* to, just to stick the metaphorical middle finger up at Clarkson though.

Surely the obvious solution here is to simply purchase the remains, rent a mobile crane, and then drop it from a great height right through the roof of the lanky twat's farm shop.

Revenge of the Marina - the Final Chapter.

Who's laughing now?

[sierraman]

6 hours ago, Billy - Medhurst said:

Last I heard of it was a year or so ago - I was sent these pic's

Yeah that’s not coming back is it… 😩

[MarinaJosh]

That hatchback was in a truly horrific state even when it was on the road. How it had an MOT on it I'll never know.

The 1800s without anti-roll bars definitely benefit from telescopic front shock absorbers as the B series is a heavy old lump.

[camryv6]

17 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

 

Surely the obvious solution here is to simply purchase the remains, rent a mobile crane, and then drop it from a great height right through the roof of the lanky twat's farm shop.

Revenge of the Marina - the Final Chapter.

Who's laughing now?

Or drop it on a piano maybe ?

[Billy - Medhurst]

12 hours ago, sierraman said:

Yeah that’s not coming back is it… 😩

He did say the engine bay area was worse.

[lesapandre]

1979...

1.2 million owners and...'the hills are alive with the sound of YDK354L'  😂

[lesapandre]

Looks like it was Von Scrapped  -1984. 

[outlaw118]

Two brief Marina based anecdotes; Fatha_Outlaw, who in his day, liked a bit of a "play" had a 1300 Marina as a loan car after an unfortunate incident with a Routemaster and his Renault 12 (TVW278N - aka Bertha), it was brand new, and given to him by London Transport's insurers, would have been 1975/6. He confessed to me later on, he actually binned it going through the back lanes to work @ East Ham Tech (as it was then) and their car mechanics department hastily repaired it. A combination of unfamiliarity, wet road and understeer, although he claimed he wasn't going any quicker than he would have been in the R12, which would have coped with the conditions better.

Secondly, when searching for something for my first car, (around springtime 1987) I seriously considered a beige ITAL 1700HL Estate, which whilst the purchase price was doable, as an impoverished student, the insurance was prohibitive. At the same time I also considered a Mark 2 Escort estate 1300, on a T plate, but was too slow with that, someone else bought it while I was ummimg and aahing.

I ended up with a Renault 4TL JLE627V, bought Thursday pm, stuck it on it's side Sunday morning. My final words to my passengers...."Do you wanna see something REALLY scary?" 

Silly bollocks, me.

[sierraman]

9 hours ago, lesapandre said:

Looks like it was Von Scrapped  -1984. 

Gearbox probably went 15 minutes after that photo was taken. Then his wife went beserk and shouted ‘Why the fuck couldn’t we have booked a Pontinental!’

[SiC]

10 hours ago, lesapandre said:

Looks like it was Von Scrapped  -1984. 

12 years life isn't bad especially from that era car. Longer than many modern Ford 1.0 ecoboosts!

[sierraman]

54 minutes ago, SiC said:

12 years life isn't bad especially from that era car. Longer than many modern Ford 1.0 ecoboosts!

Apart from all the ones that fell to bits at the first MOT…