<<Have YOU ever driven one? The power to weight ratio equals an MGB and
depending on what kind of driving you do you might even find it handles
quite well.
Fred Pixley>>
Well, Fred, you are right and wrong, both. The Power to weight ratio of the
Marina TC _is_ almost as good as a real MGB, and better than the rubber lipped
North American cripples, (though in England, the rubber lips kept their
horsepower intact).
So in a straight line, I can see there not being much difference between them.
Handling is really a different issue, though. I agree that the Marina is not
as bad as the other chap indicated, and have even driven one in a slalom to
test that. A friend hill climbed one many years ago with modest success. But
an early B is a better handling car in any combination of conditions that I
can think of. As far as the later jacked up rubber lipped cars and handling, I
suppose you might give them a run, given their much poorer suspension set up.
but think that it would be damning the Marina with very faint praise to have
to resort to claiming it could best the handling-impaired models that the last
MGBs represent.
The things that I don't like about the Marina are mostly the weak rear end and
transmission. But then I had the same problem with another very similar model,
the Riley 1.5. Stick a B engine in one of those, and you again have close to
MGB power/weight, but you also have an A series diff, with axles like celery
sticks if you drive hard. Other than that a different and interesting sort of
beast.
Unfortunately, the only B series rear end wide enough to fit is the MG Maggot,
and they are even harder to find these days than Rileys.
Bill
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