“Gran Turismo” - The Morris Marina GT

“It was the first car I remember my Dad having. It sounded like a proper sports car and had go-faster stripes. I spent years looking for one as they're so rarely available”. Mike Craig already owned a Rover P6 2200TC, a Reliant Scimitar, an Austin 1100, and a Ford Cortina Mk. V, a Saab 99, a Jaguar XK8, a Jaguar XJ8, and a 1989 Mini 30. But what his fleet lacked was a Morris Marina GT – now one of the rarest of the line-up.

As any seasoned Marina enthusiast will tell you, British Leyland introduced the GT in 1975, as part of the Series 2 facelift. There were new seats and a dashboard, enhanced soundproofing, anti-roll bars, a modified grille, and a new model hierarchy. Replacing the TC as the flagship model were the four-door HL and the two-door GT.

We have already featured Rick Burmingham’s metallic green HL, while GTs such as Mike’s seemed to inspire the brochure copywriter to new heights of hyperbole. “Get behind the wheel of this exciting new Marina two-door GT, and you’ll find motoring has become fun again!”. The exterior styling “echoes the car’s rallying pedigree”, while “you can relax in the very highest standards of luxury”. 

The reality was a two-door Marina powered by the 1.8-litre B-series engine in twin-carburettor guise, with lashings of matt-black exterior trim and a vinyl roof. The result was rather appealing, and neither was BL’s claim of “Gran Turismo” equipment entirely misplaced. The GT had auxiliary lamps, front head restraints, reclining front seats, full instrumentation, tinted glass, a cigarette lighter and nylon upholstery as standard. If that did not impress your fellow Little Chef diners, then the fascia clad in the finest plastic ‘timber’ available to humanity surely would.

At £2,147, the Marina GT was also quite a bargain, as well as costing £70 less than the HL. BL probably hoped it would appeal to MGB GT owners (priced at £2,659 by the end of 1975) who now had a growing family. It would probably be too much of a challenge for a Morris dealer to offer the Marina GT as an alternative to the £2,082 Ford Capri 1.6GL. However, it was only slightly more expensive than the Cortina 1.6XL two-door at £2,015, while the Vauxhall Magnum 1800 Coupe cost £2,126.

BL made the GT for only three years until they introduced the third-generation Marina in 1978. This GT is now one of the most unusual surviving models, and Mike’s current restoration challenges included:

Some of the GT parts seem to have disappeared over time, including the vinyl roof, the stripes, and the badges. The interior is quite rough as the seats have been worn through, and the paintwork is awful. Someone prior to me resprayed it badly, and rather than replace the vinyl roof, they painted it brown.

But no Morris Marina owner fears a challenge, and the Craig GT is a fascinating vehicle. It is the sort of car that reminded potential buyers that in the midst of BL’s highly-publicised issues (watch The Quality Connection Leyland training film), the Marina GT was a well-appointed and very affordable coupe.

Plus, who could resist those “GT stripes”?

With thanks to Mike Craig for his time

With thanks to Mike Craig for the permission to use the images in this blog.