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Project Marina, New Year First Drive

Well, that’s another year done. Happy New Year and welcome to 2025. May everyone’s year be excellent and filled with car stuff.

To celebrate the New Year, and the weather not being the usual NZ “Summer” trash of wind and rain, I took the Marina out for a quick spin, the first of the year.

The main goal here was to do some testing. I hadn’t really driven the Marina since freshening the carb up, and upgrading the ignition system, and wanted to see that the issues I was having were resolved.

The biggest test was that I wanted to try heading up some hills and see how the engine responded. I’ve not been up any hills yet, so haven’t really had a chance to put the engine under sustained load, and see how it likes it. Before redoing the ignition, I suspect it would’ve just cut out and not made it.

I planned a route, a 22km round trip. Enough time to get the engine warmed up before I hit the hill, and a wide enough road that if I have to bail, I can pull over and do a U-Turn.

My wife and I jumped in the Marina, and after a quick tweak of the idle (too low) and unsticking the choke jet again, we were off.

After a quick drive, we get to the bottom of the hill. Now, by normal standards, it’s not that steep, but for a 52 year old car that’s not seen a hill in at least 15+ odd years, it’s Mt Everest.

Much to my surprise, the Marina just cruised up it with no fuss. My concern was for nothing. Being twisty, most of it was done in second gear, but third was also given a work out too. The engine pulled great, and the temps were stable the whole time.

The suspension was struggling a bit, the front really needs the telescopic conversion to control it, and the rear should get the new shocks fitted soon. Corners are best taken slowly.

I had my wife checking my speed against the indicated speed on GPS, and it seems my Speedo is reading about 10% low, so I’ve been speeding everywhere, oops!

Being out on the back roads gave me a chance, for the first time, to open it up a bit and see what the car was like at higher speeds.

The pancake filter really unleashes the carb intake sounds.

At 80kph, the car feels perfectly stable and cruises really well. At 100kph, It’s not so good, everything starts to get a bit floaty, a “feature” I suspect is related to the front suspension being too soft. Basically, it’s an old car, drive it slowly (at least until I sort the front suspension).

We pulled over for a quick check and to grab some photos. Everything was happy, no leaks, temps were good and the fan was working well to keep it under control.

It’s a cool looking car, even in its current “ratrod” look.

I quite enjoy the reactions of people as I drive by. It seems yesterday the cyclists got the biggest kick out of seeing the Marina out and about, many stares, lots of smiles and one audible “Marina?!”.

Over all, a very successful drive. We’re getting closer to being brave enough to drive the car the 60km round trip to work…

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