Morris Marina - Development

Development

The Marina was developed under the ADO 28 codename. In the early 1970s, BL decided to release conservative, traditionally engineered cars under the Morris name, and sell more adventurous cars as Austins, or even as new marques—such as the Austin Allegro and Leyland Princess. Specifically this meant that Austins use the groundbreaking transverse-engine front-wheel-drive layout developed by Alec Issigonis. Morris cars such as the Marina used a conventional rear-wheel drive, live rear axle drivetrain as used on popular mass-market cars such as the Ford Escort and Vauxhall Viva. This strategy was also intended to improve sales in BL's export markets. Commonwealth markets such as South Africa, Australia and New Zealand were large buyers of BL products, but the innovative Austin cars were considered too fragile and complex for use in such countries, as well as being fitted exclusively with small, low-powered engines. As a result, the Marina was unadventurous but simple by making use of tried and trusted BMC components derived from the Morris Minor and MGB, and using mainly Triumph Dolomite transmission and running gear. Intended as a stop-gap design until new products were ready later in the 1970s, it was designed by Roy Haynes, the same man who designed the Ford Cortina Mark II, with which it shares some stylistic similarities.

Roy Haynes attempted to put forward a system that many manufacturers now use, a common floor pan shared between models. The Marina was the first car design that this idea. It was looked on as too radical by the management of British Leyland and after a short while Triumph designer Harry Webster was drafted in to push the project forward. Roy Haynes soon left the company. This protracted development period and the numerous changes made to the design by the various people working on it had a major effect on the Marina. It meant that the Marina (a car intended to be basic and conventional) cost more to develop than the Austin Allegro, its technically and aesthetically advanced stablemate. This is often held up as a prime example of British Leyland's poor project and cost management.

The Board decided to build the Marina at the Cowley plant, little developed by Lord Nuffield since the 1920s. Furthermore, the plant had insufficient capacity (British manufacturers had trouble just meeting demand in the postwar years). This increased design and production costs significantly, since Leyland had to rebuild the plant from the ground up.

The Marina was originally designed to use the E-series OHC BMC engines. These engines had a number of design problems. A modular series, the E series had standard bores, with capacity increased using more cylinders or larger strokes. However, small capacity sixes fell out of favour as postwar Britain became increasingly affluent.

To increase capacity, BL preferred increasing stroke, which added little to the cost of production. This resulted in a tall engine. It was not possible to slant the engine, because of the location of the fuel pump. Furthermore, the engine had to be "siamesed"—that is, the water jacket was shared between pairs of cylinders. These factors contributed to overheating and oil burning in the Austin Maxi, so the board decided to adopt the more reliable A- and B- series engine for indigenous production. (Australia and South Africa continued with the E series.) However, the body had already been designed, so the Marina was forever cursed with "full nappy" rear end styling (needed to even the lines between the necessarily bloated front and the rear).

The cost was further exacerbated by the fact that Leyland had to build an overpass for the engine assembly line, which was bifurcated by a municipal road. (The Birmingham council agreed to sell the road to Leyland after the overpass had been completed.) This increased the cost even further.

Development costs increased again when Leyland decided to design the saloon and coupe versions separately. Normal industry practise was to use one style as the basis for the other. Later, advertising for the car held this up as one of the coupé's selling points, but the policy added expense to the ADO28 project. Numerous redesigns also meant that the final design of the Marina was rushed as the project's final deadline grew near. The car went from design stage to production in just 18 months. As a result, the board decided to "cut costs" and abandon Macpherson struts in favour of an old design for the Morris Minor. They also abandoned a project to design a new 4-speed BMC gearbox.

The indigenous engines were the venerable A-Series and B-Series units in 1.3- and 1.8-litre capacities, respectively, which drove rear wheels through a live axle. It featured torsion bar suspension at the front, leaf-spring suspension at the rear—and five body styles: saloon, estate, coupé, pickup, and van. The estate (station wagon) came in 1972, almost a year and a half years later than the other models. for extra performance, TC versions were equipped with a twin carburettor engine similar to that in the MG MGB for extra performance. These could be fitted with a body kit from BL Special Tuning that added front and rear spoilers, alloy wheels, extra lighting and other details. A 1.5-litre diesel version, using an engine developed from the B-Series, was offered in a few European countries where the tax rates favoured diesels. With no more than 37 or 40 hp on offer (depending on your source), performance must have been lethargic. 3,870 diesels were built between 1977 and 1980.

The new car was launched on the domestic market on 27 April 1971, with a night shift added at the Cowley plant in May 1971. At that time the manufacturers reported they were producing 2,000 cars per week, projecting, as things turned out, optimistically, to increase this to 5,000 cars per week by the end of 1971. Nevertheless, eleven months after launch, on 29 March 1972, the 100,000th Marina, a 1.8TC version, emerged from the Cowley plant and by February 1973 the company was able to announce that 250,000 Marinas had already been built in less than two years. The Marina continued in production from 1971 to 1980, when it was replaced by the Morris Ital (a reworking of the Marina) that continued in production until 1984, when the Morris marque was axed and the Austin badge featured on the Montego that replaced it. In Australia and in South Africa, it was known as the Leyland Marina, in New Zealand as the Morris 1.7 (for 1979–81, in face-lifted O-Series form), and North America as the Austin Marina.

With the discontinuation of the Morris 18-22 - also sold as an Austin and Wolseley - the Marina car was the only non commercial vehicle sold with the Morris badge after 1975.

The car was popular with families and undemanding car buyers, and was available in the typical BL colours of the day – Russet Brown, Harvest Gold, Limeflower Green, Midnight Blue, Teal Blue, Blaze Orange, Damask Red and a characteristically 1970s purple called Black Tulip. It was intended to compete with the generally similar Ford Cortina (and to some extent the smaller Escort); the Vauxhall Viva and later Vauxhall Cavalier; and the Hillman Avenger and Hunter. It shared its basic styling with all these cars, adopting a "transatlantic" look that took elements of car styling from contemporary American cars (especially the front-end treatment in the Marina's case) and offered them at a scale acceptable to the European market. As with its mechanics, the Marina was not intended to be visually innovative or particularly interesting – its Austin Allegro stablemate was the entry in that area of the market. A point of criticism with the Marina was that the windscreen wiper setup was "opposite" to the driver. This was decided pre-production after drivers of the prototypes reported that airflow at certain speeds made the wiper closest to the A-post lift off the windscreen, potentially disrupting the driver's line of sight. The problem was judged sufficiently serious that the car went on sale with a wiper position as if for driving on the other side of the road, though subsequent road testers questioned the effectiveness of this decision and the basis for it.

BL was beset with problems including industrial action throughout the period, and the Marina was one of a number of models that suffered. While the BL workers gradually eroded their own employment, manufacturers in Europe and Japan introduced innovative designs (such as the VW Golf) that the Marina and its like were never likely to compete with. Problems were compounded as the cars to replace the Marina and BL's other mid-size offerings were repeatedly delayed (eventually appearing as the Austin Maestro and Austin Montego in 1983/4). By this point, Layland had abandoned the idea of separate Austin and Morris ranges. There was not enough money to develop a full range of rear-wheel-drive Morris cars and an equivalent front-wheel-drive (FWD) Austin range, and FWD was increasingly accepted across the market.

There were changes however, albeit small ones. A facelift in 1975 gave the Marina new radiator grilles, dashboard, seats, suspension modifications and increased soundproofing. In May 1977 Marinas started to appear at dealers equipped with Allegro style seats: apart from rationalising the procuring and production processes, this was said to give the Marinas more comfortable and supportive seating. The overhead camshaft O-Series engine (that also was also used for Leyland Princess) appeared in 1.7-litre form in 1978 to replace the larger B-Series 1.8 models. A changed grille, including driving lights, a front spoiler and redesigned bumpers and rear lights were added to all models.

Under severe financial strain, BL was bailed out by the government under the Ryder Report of 1975, and Sir Michael Edwardes was brought in to oversee the company. Under his leadership, BL made an attempt to update the Marina, by enlisting the help of Giorgetto Giugiaro's ItalDesign. ItalDesign, however, did not design the car, which was an in-house product — it merely productionised it. The result of this exercise, the 1980 Morris Ital features large rear lamp clusters and a new front end, but the 1971 vintage of the design was obvious. The Ital lasted four years and was replaced by the Austin Montego in early 1984, thus bringing to an end use of the Morris name on passenger cars.