Thread: Range Rover Rapport

marina 6 was a 2.6 litre not 2.2 as this engine was in a
kimberly/tasman. yes i am demented i like marina's
then again i like rangies and discos

a good word about the P76........its 4.4 all alloy v8!!!!!!

Easy to knock the P76 which itself was not a bad car. In many ways it was far superior to the local competition at the time. Justs its bad luck to be produced at a time when Leyland had reduced quality control to if you could push it off the production line it was fit for the buying public.

My father did well out of the P76 after production had ended. Would travel from Brisbane up to Townsville and down to Coffs buying any that were in car yards. Could take them for next to nothing as the dealers were not interested. Had to be a v8 though. So long as was not stupidly high mileage was not a problem. Would phone back to colour, trim level and any extras and send a transporter to do a pick up run once had a full load. All were sold from the basic description before they arrived back in Brisbane as people who needed a tow car were well aware of it capability and what a bargain it was. Funny that there was a waiting list of sorts after production ended.

QUALITY CONTROL! QUALITY CONTROL! they were 2 words that were not applicable to Leyland (Aust) their moto was "cheap is good", lowest wages, lowest quality ingredients in production, lowest quality steel that could be used, "You Pay Peanuts, You get Monkeys"


The P76 was a product of the era, UK quickly going bankrupt,cut costs everywhere, but it's design was too advanced, it's build quality poor, and it suffered from industrial espionage,rumors,whispers,from the other 3 big manufacturers,one of which wasn't doing too well themselves. interesting to note that 10+years the Volvo sedan had the same wedge type shape as the P76 did.

The odd thing about both the P76 and the Kimberly/Tasman was if you took body/trim apart and then reassembled it correctly, you had a very nice comfortable and drivable car.

cheers

My parents bought a brand new P76 Executive V8, which for the younger ones the Executive was the top of the range, like a Fairmont Ghia.

I do not have enough time to list all its faults but here are a couple.

Back in 1967/68 Ford tried putting a Borge Warner auto behind a V8. They soon found out it was not strong enough and discontinued its use.

Fast forward five years the P76 did the same and sure enough at a fairly low milage, (can't remember how many, something like 60,000 miles) the auto died. It could not handle the V8 power. Now this is not a quality control issue as they don't make the autos. It was a bad choice that they should have known from Ford's experience.

Another problem was, and luckily this was still in warranty it broke the drive plate. It broke another four before they found the cause.
The rear face of the block was not machined parallel to the crankshaft rear flange which the drive plate was bolted to, so the auto was bolted to the engine on an angle.

This was two of many problems, and me being a mechanic I was quite happy when dad wrote it off with no one being hurt.

So if anyone tries to tell me they weren't a bad car I just laugh at them.

When these cars were common they were, and still are amongst my circle of friends, known as the P38 as they are only half a car.

Can you imagine my shock and horror when the new Range Rover was named a P38

Dave.

Originally Posted by bigcarle

marina 6 was a 2.6 litre not 2.2 as this engine was in a
kimberly/tasman. yes i am demented i like marina's
then again i like rangies and discos

a good word about the P76........its 4.4 all alloy v8!!!!!!

Leyland marina? is that the same as the Morris marina, later Ital) (sorry POME origins) My memories are strangley enough primarily that they only ever had one tail light working due to a perpetual earthing problem! had a work mate who had one with the noisest gearbox on the planet! Thems were the days, Mk3 Cortinas were superceded by unloveable Mk 4s & 5s rangies were but a dream away! I got snowed in at the tin mine in Cornwall, Land rover got me home. Thanks for the memory revival.

This is the best 4X4 forum X far!

Originally Posted by snowbound

Leyland marina? is that the same as the Morris marina, later Ital) (sorry POME origins) My memories are strangley enough primarily that they only ever had one tail light working due to a perpetual earthing problem! had a work mate who had one with the noisest gearbox on the planet! Thems were the days, Mk3 Cortinas were superceded by unloveable Mk 4s & 5s rangies were but a dream away! I got snowed in at the tin mine in Cornwall, Land rover got me home. Thanks for the memory revival.

This is the best 4X4 forum X far!

yes Leyland Marina was the same as the Morris badged ones,but the 6 cyl was in Aus/Sth Africa model only,regarding the Ford Cortina there wasn't officially a MK5 but a Mk4 facelift as Ford called it.

The problem with Leyland at the time was that it was government owned. It was not long after the time of Harold Wilson and socialism was rampant among the Poms. Quality control was abysmal, probably mainly because you can't sack anyone who works for the government - or you couldn't then. The dead hand of bureaucracy was everywhere - they even called the Jaguar plant 'Large Vehicle Assembly Plant Number Three'.

I owned several P76s, including one Targa Floria. All the comments previously about quality control are true ... and yet they were nice cars. Compared to the equivalent HQ Holden, they were very nice cars to drive!

Typical of Pommy cars at the time - great design let down by lousy quality.

Willem

Didn't take much to beat a HQ holden.

Dave.