THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE...

Despite its hasty development and troubled birth, the crucial new Marina went on to be a strong seller for British Leyland. Paul Guinness takes a look at how it all began

The creation of British Leyland in 1968 provided the company’s new management team with a number of immediate problems, not least of which was a disturbing lack of new models in development. There was, of course, the Austin Maxi that was being readied for launch in ’69, as well as the forthcoming long-nose Clubman versions of the evergreen Mini. But that was it.

It got worse too, because it was obvious even before it was launched that the Maxi was never going to be the mass seller that BMC’s engineers had originally envisaged. And when you threw into the equation the fact that the ‘Family Farina’ Cambridge/Oxford line-up was getting on in years, sales of the Morris Minor were dwindling rapidly and the front-drive 1800/2200 ‘Landcrab’ – BMC’s great new hope in the family car market from 1964 – was proving to be a slow seller, things didn’t look too promising.

It’s an irony, of course, that despite the problems faced within the newly formed British Leyland, the mighty corporation was the proud producer of Britain’s best-selling car, in the shape of ADO16 – better known as the 1100/1300 line-up. But as the end of the Sixties neared, it was obvious that a replacement would be needed at some point – and, at that stage, there was no sign of one on any drawing board.

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