May 2005 - Jan-Ivars Monster Marina!

 

"Looking cool in the car is my 13 year old son"

 
Jan-Ivar Sørensen sent in these pictures of his latest Marina - a van - just!

I asked Jan-Ivar to describe what it's like to drive, what's under the body and about about Marinas in Norway generally.  So here is the Monster Marina story in Jan-Ivars own words.

"It’s a bit of a job to drive it.  The tyres being diagonal tread doesn’t help much either.  You have to watch the road ahead for uneven surfaces, on smooth road it goes very well however.  Cruising along at 50- 60 mph is less stressful.  The V6 is very powerful, but the gearbox and axle ratios means that I guess an approx 80 mph will be the top speed.  For fuel economy I haven’t bothered measuring the MPG.  When I get concerned about the fuel economy I just drive my wife’s Rover 416.  An average of the two cars combined isn’t so bad.

The car has a Toyota 4WD system, so I guess it would do quite ok in rough terrain, but I have no plans to test that as it is in very good condition and very clean underneath.  I don’t bother with all that washing cars afterwards.  I’m thinking of adding some graphics to the exterior, and an upgrade of the sound system would be nice, but it all comes down to the thickness of the wallet doesn’t it".

 

The running gear, "Toyota axles with new 5:7 to 1 diff's, Toyota 5 speed gearbox, Ford Essex V6 3100cc engine rebuilt 20k miles ago, new Wweber carb, K&N filter, Lumenition sportsman ignition, Magnecore leads, 3 core radiator, 16" electric fan.

Black glass in rear doors,r Recaro seats, fully carpeted inside including the back floor sides and roof.  Sony 4 speaker cassette radio, CB radio, 180db train horns, Knight Rider lights, Rancho 4" lifted springs (modified) procomp shocks, twin steering shocks, power assisted steering.  Twin 2" exhausts with cherry bombs (sounds awesome at 3000 rpm) 44x18.5x16.5 Ground Hawg tyres on 14x16.5 steel rims.

All work have been done by the previous owner Michael Page, and to a very high standard. Not much for me to do other than a few minor paint touch-ups and adding some personal touches…..

The car is pictures besides a Suntor (breaking for spares) so you’ll get a impression of the height".  

 

This slightly blurry picture is the same car in an earlier life.  I'm not sure if the cars holding the van up are Montegos or something else.

 

 

"Currently all my funds are going into the restoration of a non Morris Marina car, and a Mumford which I’m doing at the same time.  I have no previous experience with monster-trucks but this being a Marina Van I decided that it would fit in nicely with my other fleet of this undervalued understeering lovely British automobile history.  For some reason the van and pick-up were never official imported to Norway during the 70/80s.  So apart from my own two Suntors, this is to my knowledge the only Marina van in Norway .

I will try to attend a couple of classic shows in Norway with it this year, but being a two seater it isn’t the most family–friendly car.  From the beginning of May the classic car shows are just starting, all classics are stored in garages/barns etc. in the harsh winter-months.  I whish I could have included some pics of the engine, but my step-ladder wasn’t high enough to get good pictures".

 
Jan-Ivar Sørensen