V8 Marina cont'd.

[MarinaCoupe]

I have set up a new string, to avoid highjacking the Dream Marina string.

In 'A boot full of right arms', there's quite a bit on the V8 Marina as it was a Leyland car alongside the P76 that the writer was driving.

The book, written by someone who spoke to the V8 Marina driver (a Major Helmsley) at the time of the rally, says that 'they yumped a sand dune at over 100 mph and cracked the back axle on one side'. They made it to the next rally stop and lost a lot of time having it welded up. Then a little further along the rally they broke the other side.

To add to this story, last year (2009) I took a call out of the blue from a now rather ancient Major Helmsley (call me John), who had read my V8 article on my own website. He said that the back axle was a Salisbury axle from an Aston Martin DB6! Well that's possible as Salisbury supplied axles and diffs to all sorts of people, with various ratios and LSDs. John confirmed that the casing cracked on both sides and that is what retired them.

Interestingly, he also said that the car had a 6 speed gearbox, which was a 4 speed MGB V8 with overdrive on 3rd and 4th. He then burbled on about all sorts of things. He did send me this though, the Marina on one of the early UK stages. I had never seen a colour pic of the car before and yes the bonnet was a matt blue, I asked to be sure! John Helmsley retains copywrite to this photo, so please use accordingly and credit John.

[cdk343v]

MGC gearbox with overdrive, and a 3.01-to-1 Salisbury Powr-Lok limited slip differential.

And after the axle casing broke for a second time, the half shaft was found to have broken into three after crossing the Nigerian border.

From Transport Source Books Ltd - TSB021 "Morrs Marina"; article on page 58 titled "Two trans-Sahara rally cars" ((Autocar, 2nd November 1974).


I'm sure it said something else in Bill Price's BMC Competitions Department, but I can't lay my greasy little mitts on it at the moment .

[Number 63]

So was this a completely private entry? What were the homologation rules used that allowed the use of a non standard engine etc?

Bloody good story though. Would love to get out on some sort of event just for the craic.

[cdk343v]

'Twas May 1974's UDT World Cup Rally - London-Sahara-Munich - and, of interest to us, Foden asked BL Special Tuning to build a 3.5-litre V8-engined Marina for an Army team of Majors John Hemsley (it says) and John Skinner. After 4 stages in Spain, it was running in third position - two seconds ahead was Andrew Cowan in an Escort and the leader was Sobieslaw Zasada in a Porsche. The Marina had sixteen punctures in the Sahara, and the rear axle actually broke on both sides at different times (twice on one side; the repair didn't hold); the only component that failed was the only major one not built by BL.

I wouldn't know about homologation etc, it's not mentioned. The Marina must have been "legal" for this event though.

(There was also a privately-entered 4.4-litre V8-engined P76 on this event, with Australians Evan Green and John Bryson on board. This finished but the article doesn't say what position.)

[bigcarle]

i have the book "boot full of right arms" by evan green here
the P76 finished 13th it was largely a privet entry with LOTS of factory help and built in 10 weeks! :shock: :shock:
andrew cowan came 15th
it would have been good if the marina had finished

[cdk343v]

The article in TSB021 (above) says that Evan Green didn't purchase his P76 until 1st March - 8 weeks before the event. He rang John Bryson that evening and asked John Bryson if he'd like to do the rally. By the following Monday the car was stripped out with the help of two other people. BL heard of the car, and a number of design and experimental men visited after hours.

At In Salah, after the first two stages, they were running first on the road with a lead of 2 1/2 hours. Then it all went a bit pear-shaped with front suspension problems due to hitting ruts and gullies .

Hella provided the lighting, VDO the instruments, Armstrong some stiffer front struts. There was an ex-Cessna electric compass, powered from a 110v inverter, and there were lots of other mods too. Borg Warner provided the gearbox and rear axle - when asked if they could make them last, they replied haughtily "we already do make it to last" .

[locost_bryan]

Borg Warner provided the gearbox and rear axle - when asked if they could make them last, they replied haughtily "we already do make it to last" .

P76 used the same Borg Warner axle and gearbox as Ford's Falcon (including the 240bhp 302 V8) and Chrysler's E49 Charger (with a 302bhp Hemi 6 on triple webers 8) ).

[bigcarle]

At In Salah, after the first two stages, they were running first on the road with a lead of 2 1/2 hours. Then it all went a bit pear-shaped with front suspension problems due to hitting ruts and gullies .

the front strut broke and pierced the spring tower and then jammed against the exhaust manifold which was fixed at the next service. a lot of cars came to grief in the sahara run, that section was later
deemed a non event :?

[Joe]

Found a good well of info here : http://cjw-consulting.co.uk/v8_route/v8_route.htm

Interesting stuff..

[MarinaCoupe]

Joe,

That's me mate.

[Joe]

No problem, I just stumbled across it whilst googling.
Not sure if its much help but I, at least, found it an interesting read.

I can't help thinking what it'd be like to drive a Marina, with a v8... :shock:

[bigcarle]

i'm waiting for notthatmarinaman to finish his project V8 :twisted:

[The General]

I was given a document today from a mechanic in one of my garages who worked in a dealer and it reads like this :-

The Marina was fitted with a 3.5 litre v8 which was tuned by the addition of a soild lifter camshaft, standard compression ratio, a single 48mm sidedraught weber onto a modified manifold connected to a mgb4 speed close ratio gearbox which should produce in the region of 185bhp.

The car will use heavy duty components, twin shocks each side, special ratio steering rack and 10'' ventilated discs with 4 piston calipers. On the rear there was an Alfa Romeo rear axle using a zf limited slip diff with uprated leaf springs, twin gas shocks each side and 9'' solid discs. The car sat on 6 x 13 minilites.

The car was driven in the 1975 total international rally by Simo Lampinen but failed to finish

[impallegromarinaman]

i am would like to fit a v8 to my marina but i couldn't afford fuel love to leave hot hatches standing at the lights with a small V8 badge on the back of the marina it would a really kick in the pants to the hot hatch group

[MGBV8]

i am would like to fit a v8 to my marina but i couldn't afford fuel love to leave hot hatches standing at the lights with a small V8 badge on the back of the marina it would a really kick in the pants to the hot hatch group

I've had 6 MGB GT's over the years. 3 V8's and 3 1800 B series. The good news is the rover V8 in 3.5 carb form is actually more economical than the 1800 around town and on a run. OK, the fuel consumption will dip below 20 if you boot it, but if you're only going to run round as quickly as you would before the conversion, it won't make a difference.