North Bay British Car Club
INTRODUCTION
- Marcos
In 1959 Jem Marsh and the late Frank Costin founded Marcos Cars, taking the
first three letters of their surnames a distinctive company name was born. Frank
Costin applied the skills gained in the field of aviation to create a lightweight
wood laminate monocoque body and chassis unit. It was this remarkable chassis
combined with excellent streamlining that delivered such incredible performance
in its day.
The Marcos marque secured its credibility in the racing world when driven to
victory by renowned drivers such as Jackie Stewart, Derek Bell, Jackie Oliver,
Jonathon Palmer and, of course, Jem Marsh.
In 1961 the Adams brothers, Dennis and Peter, undertook the task of furthering
the brilliant design of Costin. In order to simplify the building processes
the brothers designed, purely as a temporary solution, the Marcos 1800. This
elegant wooden chassis car was wonderfully received at the Motor show in 1961
and remains to this day the inspiration for the modern Marcos. Following this
piece of inspired engineering by the Adams’ the tremendously successful
fibre glass bodied Mini Marcos was unveiled in 1966, being the only British
car to complete the Le Mans 24-hour race in the same year. The track success
of Marcos was confirmed.
With all the build of all models relying on the time intensive wooden chassis,
in 1969 the Adams brothers were commissioned to design a steel alternative.
Their design was essentially a square section tubular space frame that cut 15
hours from the manufacturing times of all the cars. Both the Ford and Volvo
powered Marcos’ were resounding successes with the press. More recently
a transition was made to the classic Rover V8 engine, which was utilised by
the Mantula Spyder in 1986.
The Marcos Mantara, which was launched in 1993, fuelled further growth in the
steadily expanding Marcos company. The Mantara, whilst retaining some of the
traditional lines of the earlier Marcos cars, was designed to take advantage
of the changes in UK type approval legislation, which permitted low volume production
and sales through selected dealers.
The race going Marcos’ prowess was echoed in the LM version of the Mantara
that was unveiled in 1993. Marcos returned to the racing circuit at the top,
both initially with the LM500 and the following year with the LM600. Powered
by a 6-litre Chevy small block V8 the latter of these was triumphant in the
British GT series in 1995. It was this success that proved the incentive for
Marcos to return to Le Mans after a break of over 30 years. The LM600 is today
at the forefront of Worldwide premier GT racing.
The Mantis, incorporating a new Quad-cam V8 engine, was first shown at the 1996
International Motorshow. The staggeringly quick car was immediately seen to
be an excellent ‘One Make’ Series racer and in 1998 the first ever
Marcos mono-marque challenge was born. The unbounded success of this event in
the UK has meant that we are now assessing other countries to host a similar
Marcos challenge.
Marcos’ latest innovation the Mantaray, has been widely heralded as the
most beautiful car ever produced by Marcos. It offers the rare combination of
performance, reliability and refinement, a car truly borne from this heritage.
For 40 years Marcos cars have been built around the principals of excellence
and exclusivity. These individual hand built cars are designed and manufactured
to the highest standards and with the utmost care to ensure unrivalled quality
and reliability.
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