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| rdfs:comment | - The Ital was first launched on 1 July 1980. It took its name from Giorgetto Giugiaro's ItalDesign studio, who had been employed by BL to manage the re-engineering of Morris Marina, a car which had been produced by the company since 1971. Although the redesigned car was named Ital after the design studio, it was actually Harris Mann who was responsible for the car's new look. BL's advertising, however, emphasised the car's connection with the Italian styling house Italdesign, who had in fact merely produced the design. It was originally planned to brand the car as the Morris Marina Ital, but the Marina name was dropped on the orders of Michael Edwardes and only the Ital name was used.
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| abstract | - The Ital was first launched on 1 July 1980. It took its name from Giorgetto Giugiaro's ItalDesign studio, who had been employed by BL to manage the re-engineering of Morris Marina, a car which had been produced by the company since 1971. Although the redesigned car was named Ital after the design studio, it was actually Harris Mann who was responsible for the car's new look. BL's advertising, however, emphasised the car's connection with the Italian styling house Italdesign, who had in fact merely produced the design. It was originally planned to brand the car as the Morris Marina Ital, but the Marina name was dropped on the orders of Michael Edwardes and only the Ital name was used. The Ital had revised exterior styling, but retained the Marina's 1.3- and 1.7-litre petrol engines and rear wheel drive chassis. The dashboard and interior of the Marina were also carried over largely unaltered. The Marina's coupé variant was not produced in Ital form, but the four-door saloon, five-door estate and pick-up and van versions were carried over from the Marina range. From October 1980 an automatic version of the Ital was available with the 2.0-litre O-Series power unit, as the range-topping 2.0HLS. Only about 1000 2.0HLS models were sold so due to this and their short production run, the 2.0HLS is now the rarest Ital model. In November 1981 all HL and HLS models were fitted with upgraded interior trim and in September 1982 the final revised Ital range was introduced, the L and 2.0 litre models were dropped and the HL and HLS were replaced by the SL and SLX models. Front suspension was changed to telescopic front dampers across the range and parabolic rear springs were also fitted, together with additional soundproofing and improved trim. The range now consisted of the 1.3 SL and SLX saloon 1.3 SL estate 1.7 SLX saloon 1.7 SL and SL estate. These final models ran until the end of Morris production in 1984.
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