A HANDLE ON THINGS
It seems strange that the Morris Marina, of all things, introduced something that the rest of the industry would be borrowing for years to come. It was explicitly intended to not break any new ground and to be a reassuringly conventional machine. It wouldn’t even have that much new stuff in it – power came from A and B-Series engines, the front suspension was closely derived from the Morris Minor, the transmission and rear axle came from the Triumph Toledo. But British Leyland’s plan was to take all these existing, well-known and perfectly adequate parts and bolt them into a brand new, modern bodyshell to quickly and cheaply both replace the antiquated range of rear-wheel-drive saloons inherited from BMC and provide a belated rival to the Ford Cortina. So most of the Marina’s budget went on the body, and it was here that designers Roy Haynes and Harris Mann had the chance to introduce new features.
The general mode for the Marina was ‘trans-Atlantic’, as was then the trend for British saloon cars – American styling cues at a European scale. The Marina therefore followed its rivals like the Mk3 Ford Cortina, Vauxhall HC Viva and Hillman Hunter in picking elements from numerous American sources.
