Just like the handle - Marina Coupe

[MarinaCoupe]

Hi

I used to be on the old forum, but only just got round to registering here. Here's couple of pics of my Marina in all her glory. If you went to the NEC last November, she was on the Morris Marina Owners Club stand in all her Harvest Gold glory.

[sierra3dr]

A real beaut,love the Coupe shell

[MarinaCoupe]

Bought another last August, a bit different from the Coupe.



I have set up it's own website www.italpickup.co.uk

Not changing my handle though.

[TerryG]

Well it still has 2 doors..........

[DaveB]

I had a blue Marina Coupe as a company car back in the seventies. It was a choice between that or a 1.6 Cortina Mark3. I chose the Marina, which had a 1.8 engine, on the basis that it would be faster in a straight line.

Had loads of fun driving the car all over the UK, the driving position suited me better than the Cortina. It also (rather miraculously it seems) was more reliable than the Cortinas in the car fleet, but I gather that this was the exception rather than the rule!

I discovered to my surprise that if I forgot to switch off the rear screen demister when I parked the car it remained on & drained current from the battery even with the key removed and the car locked! Got home Friday night and had a flat battery by Monday morning!

After about 25,000 miles it started the usual blue oily smoke from the exhaust, an issue that seemed to plague BL cars. Just as it was becoming a useful smoke screen if I wanted to indulge in a disappearing act, I was promoted and given a Ford Granada. I handed the Marina over to another staff member and watched him drive off down the road for about 100 yards before it started emitting smoke like a destroyer laying a smoke screen for a battleship! Apparently the engine started making knocking noises a few weeks later and was returned to the supplying dealer.

Great memories of an average car. Good old BL re-labelled it the 'Ital' a while later, but changing the name didn't change the nature!

Best wishes,

DaveB

[mach1rob]

I had a 1.7 HL, and it wasn't a bad car. It may not have been dynamically great, but it did what it said on the tin, and as much as BL tin is mocked, the sales figures back in the day prove they weren't the disaster they're portrayed to be these days.