In August 1969 there was a minor facelift of the whole model range and a delivery version became available, essentially a 55 estate without a rear seat.

The 55 Marathon featured wider steel wheels, exterior striping and a brake booster was added for safety and comfort.

In 1971 the coupe received normal doors with pillars, since the earlier pillarless design proved to be leaky and noisy at speed.

A 55 won the 1968 Alpine Rally, and in late 1968 Rob Slotemaker finished 17th out of 100 contestants in the grueling 16500 km London-Sydney Marathon.

Jan de Rooy, of Paris Dakar fame, built his own 4-wheel drive version, with a mid mounted Ford BDA engine coupled to a special Variomatic and campaigned it with great success on the international rallycross theatre throughout the early 1970s.