MEET THE OWNER – PETER ROBERTS AND HIS 1974 MORRIS MARINA SUPER DELUXE

Peter Roberts wasn’t swayed by the endless kicking the Marina receives from the press – or the inevitable corrective apologism that results in its defence.

An arch British car enthusiast, he wasn’t necessarily looking for BL’s Cortina, but one happened to fit the bill in June 2021. ‘I didn’t set out to buy a Marina – I was out to buy an old car,’ he recalled.

A 1974 Super Deluxe appeared on eBay, he put in a low bid and, to his surprise, he won.

Perhaps it was inevitable after a Herald and Austin-Healey Sprite, a VdP 1500, Jaguar XJ40, two Rover P6s (2000 and 3500) and a Rover 45 diesel. With a Mini in the garage, he’s owned almost all the everyman British classic you could hope to cram into a driving career.

‘There’s something about British cars that keeps dragging me back in,’ he said. While there have always been more modern second cars in the background, running to three Mercedes (W124 300D, S124 280 and an R170 SLK Kompressor), a Mitsubishi Colt, a Ford Fiesta Mk3, a Honda Jazz and VW Golf Mk4, none of these cars have stuck around.

Peter added: ‘Most of [the foreign cars] were awful, so I got rid. The Jazz was dull, but good. The [Mitsubishi] Colt was fine, but you’d forget about owning it while you were in it, and the Golf was garbage, the most efficient way to turn fuel into heat and sound, and nothing else, with soft-touch plastic coverings seeping out of the dash like sap from a tree. I loved the Mercedes but all of them kicked me hard in the wallet with problems.

Against my will, I have to admit, I’m a British car enthusiast. If you put me in a room with all the world’s supercars, and also a Morris Minor haemorrhaging oil on to the ground, and said “you can take one of these home for free”, you know I’d be coming home with the Morris.’

The Marina however, is still here, courtesy of period rust protection. ‘The car was Ziebarted from new, that’s the reason it’s still with us,’ Peter said. ‘The Ziebarted areas are all in excellent condition, but the wings have rusted above the headlight, and one of the rear wheel arches will need doing fairly soon.’

Dazzling by sheer dint of its mid-tier specification (and 1.8-litre, single-carburettor B Series), the Super Deluxe added better seat trim, a rev counter, Fablon wood dashboard inlays and chrome wheel arch trims to the roster of standard equipment in 1974; Peter has since replaced the carpet and stopped water getting into the cabin.

‘It has been an incredibly easy car to own,’ he said, having covered more than 6,000 miles since purchase. ‘It’s not left me stranded ever, the work it’s needed has just been maintenance, the worst it’s done is rust, the same as any car of that age. It lives outside and has taken me to work and all over the country.’

The worst thing the Marina did was snap an (aged) leaf spring, but a lucky visit to a leaf-spring specialist in Ellesmere Port had it back on the road the same day. ‘I found some [three-leaf] Estate springs locally, but they needed longer U-bolts to fit,’ Peter said. ‘The specialist said they could make me some on special order, but they checked in the back and had some the right size from a cancelled order.’

A new-old-stock starter motor also went on recently as the incumbent item was getting weak; contrary to pub-bore opinion, it’s not the same as an MGB’s, but the same unit used in front-wheel drive B-Series cars (Landcrab, ‘Wedge’ Princess, et al).
Peter’s not under any illusions as to how well the Marina drives, either: ‘It's no Mini in the way it handles. I think the claims of it being a lethal steer are wildly exaggerated; it’s a perfectly adequate car.’

A new-old stock 8-track has been installed on the passengers’ side, too – it was an ornament for several months, but ‘an incredibly long morning’ tweaking the electronics, in Peter’s words, got the unit working, complete with speakers stuffed into the central grille aperture.

Is it likely to stay, then? ‘I’m not getting rid for the foreseeable,’ Peter said. ‘I didn’t think I’d own it for this long, it’s just been a faithful servant.

I love the reactions it gets from people on the street. It’s so far below the jealousy threshold, no-one hates that car. It makes them feel better about themselves. They can say, “hey, it could be worse.”

And it always makes me smile in a car park full of modern stuff.’