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Found 3 results

  1. //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/45303-locost-bryans-1972-morris-marina-tc-coupe/?p=1395461
  2. Discussion thread : //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/45304-locost-bryans-1972-morris-marina-tc-coupe/?p=1395483 Back in my "youth", I was an avid reader of UK magazine Cars and Car Conversions. One of their stories was to make a club rally car from the humble Morris Marina Coupe, as an antidote to the ubiquitous Ford Escort. They ran a series of articles documenting the build, using parts British Leyland's Special Tuning outfit had homologated for a class win on the 1971 RAC rally - 8-port Cooper S engine, LSD, turret kit, fibreglass body panels, minilite wheels, etc. I did briefly own a Marina Coupe, a basic Super model, not the sporty TC, which did a few car club outings (Canterbury Car Club 1600-200cc motokhana champ one year), but it never got the minilites wheels or any performance mods. Priorities changed, and it got replaced with a Falcon ute... Anyway, 30 years later and the obligatory "mid-life crisis" had me yearning for my lost youth, and a desire to own something that I lusted after in my younger years. Sadly, a Falcon Coupe or Charger E49 was too expensive for my budget... But a Marina Coupe was in the right price range, if only I could find one... Being a bit unloved, there aren't too many left. A bit of waiting and finally the start aligned... Here begins Ozzy's story... Firstly, why Ozzy? Well, nothing is ever simple when it comes to British Leyland. When the Marina was first conceived in 1968, the newly merged BL needed a Mk2 Cortina contender, and a reskinned and stretched Minor seemed the simple route. Er, not quite. Turns out the tooling was stuffed and spare space at the factory had been "borrowed" for other uses. Management had a sort through the BL parts bin, and found some useful Triumph parts to use - the diff and gearbox from the Herald. Initially choice for engine was the OHC Maxi, but the product planners decided the Maxi was going to use all the production (it never came close), so the venerable 1275 A-series and 1800 B-series got roped in. Ideal for a cheap as chips repmobile. So in 1971 the British public got the Marina, in a huge range of trim and body styles, and bought enough to keep it in the Top 5 sellers for most of the decade. At the same time, Leyland Australia were developing the P76 big saloon, and had the X6 Tasman & Kimberley, and the 1500 & Nomad variants of the Austin 1300. The fwd cars weren't selling well, and had high warranty claims, but a simple rwd car seemed just the ticket to increase market share and profits. But they couldn't just import the Marina from England, due to import tariffs, so they had to fettle it for Australia. First problem was they didn't have the B-series engine, as their tooling had worn out, and they'd geared up for the OHC Maxi E-series engine and it's 6-cylinder cousin. Simple solution, do what the Poms had originally planned, and fit the 1500 and 1750 OHC engines. Job done, and 20-50kg lighter to boot. Interiors got a makeover, with locally made high-back seats and door trims. The rear axle was sourced from Borg Warner, the same Model 68 as fitted to the local Cortina, Escort, Corolla and Datsun 1200. The bonus for customising was that it used the Ford 4&1/2" (108mm)stud pattern, instead of the UK Marina's unusual Triumph 3&3/4" (95mm) PCD. So having shipped a crate of body panels halfway round the world and bolted in a truckload of Australian bits, on to Auckland came Ozzy... When I bought him, a previous owner had had the rust repaired by a panelbeater, and he had been repainted in the original "Bold as Brass" yellow. The interior was still in it's worn state, dirty and water stained. The guy I bought him from had tracked down a number of new or good condition trim items, such as lights and dash. The original twin carb motor had been replaced with a single carb version, but the TC motor came with the car - will get that rebuilt, polish up the carbs and get some new Ramflow filters (the original ones are looking a bit tatty).
  3. Saw this on Trademe. Said it had only done 65000k. Wanted $1500. I emailed an offer of $900. They accepted. Dang..! Drove it home. It came with extras. This... Stripped bits off and engaged tame panel-type Dude. He did skill stuff and it came back good like anything. Its foe Red. She my Baby. Bunged a kewl steering thing on it for 'er. It wuz lookin quite straight really... So I slammed it a bit - and changed suspenders to heavier duty estate units - and fitted sum superlites.. Took it for a thrash - just to see what broke. I found out..! Auto. Dumped entire contents of fluid under car. Won't rust in a hurry. Crap job pullin auto by itself - so dropped the lot. Found it had non-original motor, so that meant all previous bets were off. Bored a spare block and fitted Princess crank and pistons. This takes plot from 1700 to 2000. Used Princess cam becos' its a bit grumpier. That got it much happier, so we took it up the sharp end for a coupla weeks and put 5000k on it. Cost us 1 heater hose. And lotsa bourbon... So there ya go mates. Oh yeah. I got a couple of them... And a few others besides..
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