My father used to drive this van for BT along with the Maestro and before that a Viva. He always maintained that this Marina/Ital was the quickest of the 80’s BT vans. 👌
When I have to explain what vans were like when I was a lad, when younger members of staff at work complain when the new Transit custom the job gives them doesn't come with parking sensors!
That’s a great looking van, I’m 44 and I remember the ITAL vans in our area in North Wales, the Royal Mail used Marina and Ital vans, seeing that van takes me back to when I noticed them when I was around 8 yrs old in the 80’s. They did rot but I thought the A series 1300 was a good motor, pretty simple, easy to work on, I ran an Austin and a Wolseley 1300 in thr 2000’s as daily drivers, the engines were fine, it’s just the rot that killed them. Thanks for the vid mate.
It suprises me it's very, very quiet from behind the wheel while driving it for a Van actually... On the main land a part from the also in Colonge in Germany build Ford Escort (Van's), Fiesta, Taunus and Granada in particular english cars and as a part of them Morris- or Austin Marina's were always extremely rare and especialy the later Ital cars although their 3 facelifts were even more rare. But I really like them though. As a Talbot car enthousiast I especially do like rare and forgotten cars from the 70's and 80's. Maybe costummers on the main land didn't quite trust english manufactered cars really. I don't know what it is though sadly enough... Maybe it's the back in those day's over here often heard and said poor factory quality or the poor British-Leyland management in relation to the lack of modern car design people considered those day's, but still in G.B. these Morris or Austin Marina and Ital cars were quite common so they had to have some proven reliability really. Luckely on the internet one can see also the Marina and Ital cars do have gathered quite a lot of enthousiasts amoung them in G.B. these days. The back of the Van looks like a Escort Van really. I wonder if panel parts can be swapped over from one car to another? Nevertheless in the end very, very nice to see this very nice particular Morris Ital 440 Van surviving car which earns being preserved👍.
Interesting video. A shame about the sound, it sounded better than a Rolls-Royce inside the car !! Couldn't hear the engine / gearbox / diff at all unfortunately.
@@AndrewHardyClassics 😂 Hope you can do another video with phones cleared out of the back with sound please when you have the time. Love those Marina sounds !
