26 replies to this topic

[Will16]

Youd never get an Allegro that low or cool otherwise, its quirky, ideal for a stance show or similar, plenty of attention and completely different to most things out there

[xrocketengineer]

Here is another interesting local case where the ends have been swapped.

https://daytona.crai...6268759945.html

 

And speaking of of mangled VW's, how about this?

https://lakeland.cra...6281291411.html

[mpialan]

Why would you? Because you can. I didn't say you should.

 

It's a bit like Frankensteins Monster, ugly but you cant help feeling sorry for it.

 

Perhaps the creator had an Allegro stuck on the driveway and a VW Beetle in the garage and too much beer down at his local.

 

It's a shame the square steering wheel wasn't retained.

 

What would other Forum members prefer, a VW/Austin Allegro Hybrid or a Toyota Petrol/Electric Hybrid, I know which I would prefer.

[Cooperman]

For the life of me I can't begin to imagine why anyone would want to put all that effort into that project.

The Allegro was a heap of junk when new and the VW Beetle was a fine car. 

I can understand putting a dune-buggy body on a Beetle chassis, or putting a Porsche 4-cyl engine into one (that's a super mod to do), but an Allegro  .

It was a pity the Allegro was so bad. It was competing directly with the Escort and the Viva, both excellent small cars. Then they did the Allegro Vanden-Plas to compete (oh, yeah) with the Escort 1.6 Ghia. Yet the fore-runner to the Allegro, the ADO16 range, was a great car, especially in the 1300GT versions.

How did BL get it so wrong - well they did get a lot wrong in fact!

[r3k1355]

How did BL get it so wrong - well they did get a lot wrong in fact!

 

I think the list of reasons there can run into many pages, safe to say "Mistakes were made"

[Cooperman]

As is said these days "Lessons have been learned". But, unfortunately, the lessons weren't learned and things just went from bad to completely awful.

[Orange-Phantom]

At least it wasn't a Morris Marina!

[1984mini25]

At least it wasn't a Morris Marina!

 

Now there's and idea, a Morris Marina on a Beetle chassis, with a piano on it's roof.

Edited by 1984mini25, 05 September 2017 - 10:04 PM.

[Cooperman]

It's had to say which was worse; the Allegro or the Marina.

 

When the Marin was first launched I was invited to the Morris dealer's in Stevenage to drive one. I was taken out in and drove the 1.8 Marina. When we got back to the launch party the salesman asked me if I would like to order one. I said that first he needed to drive my car, an 18-month old Cortina 1600E. He did so and when we got back in that I asked him if he seriously thought i would want a 1.8 Marina. He said that he realised he had no chance of selling me one. I ended up with a new Cortina 2000GT Mk3 a bit later on. Now that was a serious long distance car for work & pleasure. I fitted adjustable dampers and up-rated suspension bushes. 

Edited by Cooperman, 05 September 2017 - 10:17 PM.

[Orange-Phantom]

Dad had a Sunflower Yellow Morris Marina Estate at one point with the O'Series Engine (which was the best bit about the car).

 

I flippin hated it!  This was after dad having his tuned Mini clubman estate which was just sooo much better in everyway!  I know we had no money but how can you go from fun and cool to a bleedin Morris Marina!

 

When it finally died I smiled.  A lot!

 

It made me properly laugh when Top Gear dropped the piano and destroyed a fair few of them!

 

Thankfully it was just a blip in dad's car owning history I'm glad to say!

[mab01uk]

The Morris Marina came about because Lord Stokes wanted BL to have a conventional rear wheel drive to compete for the company car market dominated by Ford. Unfortunately BL only had the money to invest in a re-body of the outdated Morris Minor as the new Marina.....later the Ital.

Edited by mab01uk, 06 September 2017 - 11:37 AM.

[r3k1355]

Thats a similar story for many of BL's cars to be honest.

 

Didn't have any money so we cobbled together some total turd anyway in a desperate hope people would buy it.

Half the reason the Mini stayed in production so long was because they couldn't produce anything better.

Edited by r3k1355, 06 September 2017 - 04:12 PM.