There will BL to pay

When some time back TV looked at why the British Motor Corporation had failed, it came down heavily on the Morris Marina and Austin Allegro. This made me wonder what I had said about them in Motor Sport when they came to us as new road-test cars.

Of the Marina in 1971, I wrote that I was disappointed with a 1.8 TC coupé, and when the normal coupé version was tried over a reasonably big mileage I thought its design mediocre.

For the 1973 preview of the new ADO67, or Austin Allegro, I accepted that the Allegro 1750SS was an acceptable package, but felt the cornering float, baulky five-speed gearbox, engine noise and body shake were against it.

So I suppose I was just about right…