Bill:
I spent my sordid teenagehood plowing around town in various
Marinas' My dad decided that they were cheap transportation. I decided
they were the closest thing I could get to a sports car. I did a lot of
driving in the Colorado rockies both on and off road. My interests in
European rallying meant that my 2 dr 74 Marina GT saw a lot of use on
T.S.D. road rallies. Since I got lost a lot we ended up spending many
fun hours of "making up time". Beating the heck out of my daily
(pretty) ride started to cause problems, so I transferred assorted "go
fast" bits to one of my dad's 4 door parts cars. Twin carbs, front and
rear Adco sway bars, Koni front shocks and stripping all the sound
deadening and interior made a young man's dream of a pro rally car. A
brace of driving lights and I was ready for the T.S.D. circuit. After a
year of terrorizing smaller "real" sports cars I was approached by a
friend who was organizing a real "Pro Rally". I offered to help and was
rebuffed. He wanted me to add a roll bar and be one of the competitors.
So college homework got set aside and my room mate and I prepped the car
for real racing. Roll bar, seatbelts, helmets and we were ready. That
poor Marina, nicknamed "The Maroon Saloon" finished the four regional
events run in Colorado. Unbelievably I received contingency money from
British Leyland and from SEV Marchal. The car met it's demise on the
first Colorado national rally, where a tire deflated in mid air. Upon
landing the car swerved into a soft berm which bent the left front
suspension. I was able to drive the car off the mountain, albeit with
wheels pointing in very different directions. The good news for the
evening was that I had made it further than John Buffum, ex British
Leyland star, whose Audi had broken down 1/2 mile before my crash.
The shell of the car was starting to fail, and I had plans to
build up an MGB GT so the car was scrapped. Unfortunately I was made
unemployed and plans to build another car had to be put aside. The
Marina got one last jaunt as I cut the roof off and drove it around a
bit with the roll cage holding it together. It did make an interesting
open car.
The engine continued a number of years of service in my MGB
until the Isky cam went flat and the crank got chewed up. The pretty 2
dr GT was later totaled by a girl friend. Spoilt by the joys of MGB
ownership the car was not replaced. My family continued to run Marinas'
until last year when my sister in law totaled her 3rd. I made a
whirlwind trip to the homestead in Colorado to go through the tons of
spare parts that they had accumulated. I wince when I think of the
parts that were scrapped. I salvaged as much MG stuff as I could and
shipped the valuable Marina parts to Skip Harris in Arkansas. He
specializes in Marina stuff and is a very nice guy. To give you an idea
of how deep we were into the cars, the shipment included 6 N.O.S.
exhaust systems.
Yes the Marinas' had flaws, no I would not own another. But
god's I have some wonderful memories of time spent in them. I now have
a collection of MGs' that hearken back the kid with the glass pack
equipped Marina.
Kelvin.
58 Magnette
2 x 58 MGA
65 MGB Sebring works replica
66 3.8S
68 MGB GT V6
73 MGB GT
79 MGB V8 in process
-----Original Message-----
From: H4aardvrk@aol.com [mailto:H4aardvrk@aol.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 18, 1998 10:19 PM
To: WSpohn4@aol.com; mgs@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: (no subject)
Bill,
LOL...I can relat to your calling all MG's made after 19741/2 as
being
Marinas'..But I can not agree with you.
I bought a new Marina TC in England in 1971..It had some sort of
a1800cctwin SU carbed engine.The damn thing ran to 6000rpm in a heart
beat(13in wheels with tractor gearing?).It also topped out at a scary
116
mph.That was at 6300rpm.
My particular TC had a bad habit of sheding axles in tight,power on
turns. The rear axle on the loaded side would just ease out of the rear
end
assy and leave me with a track of about 80 in!This happened several
times
before I decided to sell the monster.My MG's have never done anything
foolish
like that.
Also,my MG's have a slightly better suspension than the Morris
Minor
units fitted to the Marinas. Agreed ,the later MG-B has a slightly
elevated
stance,but they still do a fair job of navaiating the twisties. The
Marina TC
was simply a plow at any reasonable cornering speed.I ripped a set of
Dunlops
off of mine in less that 10,000 miles.Each corner was an invatation for
disaster.I eventually settled into a setup routine which amounted to
setting
the brakes,downshifting, pouring All of the power to the engine and then
turning the wheel as far as it would go to "plow "the corner into
submission.It was like a carnival ride only there was an element of
sheer
terror involved as well.
I was never so glad to get rid of a car in my life..I feel much
more
comfortable with my 4 MG-B's than I ever did with my Marina. But I will
always wonder where that funny 1800 got all of its' power from.
Yours, H4(Howard)
1974MG-Bgt
1974MG-B roadster
1976MG-B roadster
1977 MG-B roadster
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