Think of a successful British rally car and the name "Morris" certainly doesn't come to mind, unless you include the Morris Cooper "S". BMC were one of the leading European Rally Teams in the 1960's, taking their Minis to victory after victory in both British and world-wide events. But in 1971 something went dreadfully wrong with their Rally Programme. It was called the Morris Marina.

When BL decided to go rallying with the Marina, Special Tuning had the unenviable task of making the car at least reasonably competitive. Additional strengthening was carried out on the bodyshell, extra shock absorbers and oil/gas inserts (in addition to the standard ones) at the front, rear shock absorber turrets were added and the rear suspension modified further.

The car was fitted with the 1800 "B" Series engine and taken out for destruction testing. Legend has it that BL never intended to campaign the car with the 1800 engine, the extra weight of the engine was reckoned to show up the car's weak spots in testing. However, in all fairness to British Leyland, the Marina was finally turned into an acceptable rally car that handled far better than the standard "off the showroom floor" car.

But it was never an outright winning car in the same vein as the Escort or any of its competitors. It was more a class-winning car. In its first major outing it finished in 18th position giving some hope that the car might actually be fairly reasonable.

However, the Marina, despised as it was, must have struck some sort of chord with the rally world because the hallowed journal of English motor sport, 'Cars & Car Conversions', decided to undertake a project build programme to turn a standard Marina coupe into a club-level Rally Car. Triple C covered the conversion in several issues during 1974, detailing the modifications they made to make it into an Escort-beater, but by then British Leyland had lost interest in developing the Marina further so there was no point in anyone else trying to make an orange out of a grapefruit.

You'd be hard pressed to find a good, roadworthy Morris Marina in Australia today, although no doubt there are a few left in the U.K. Even if you could find one in reasonable condition, there'd be few people who would want to go rallying in one; yet back in the early Seventies BL thought they might be on to a winner. How wrong they were. Had they put more time, more effort and more thought into what they were doing, the Marina may well have carved some sort of reputation for itself as a club rally car. Instead it became something of a standing joke despite the best efforts of its drivers.