Originally Posted by Grockle
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some more fuel for the fire
there where 3 P76 wagons built in australia 1 was thrown into a wall for ADR purposes and the other 2 survived and are under restoration somewfere in sydney!
there was a dealer in northern NSW that did a proper dealer check before sale on the P76 and he only had 1 return. due to the huge demand leyland bashed em out as quick as they could and this led to "quality control" problems
the australian MORRIS marina actually had the austin maxi engines modified and installed (east/west to north/south) with a triumph spitfire gearbox behind it and a distant relation to the escort diff in the rear also standard disc front brakes. at NO time did they appear in australia with telescopic shocks!!!! or sway bars
leyland had worked on a 3.3 litre all alloy V6 which was cut-down from a 4.4 V8, worked very well
the australian operation was on its way to making a profit but the english side was going down the gurgler and BL sent a manager out here to strip and sell assets in 1975
special tuning in england made 2 V8 rally marina's one of which was in the world cup rally with the P76 and hung around third place until the diff (the only component from outside the factory) failed for the 3rd time and the P76 won the targa florio stage hence the model!
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