Marcos – a portmanteau created by combining the first three letters of the surnames of the company’s two founders, Jem Marsh and Frank Costin – is one of those British specialist manufacturers that has gone in and out of business many times, in this case since it was founded back in 1959, in North Wales, and the company history is too convoluted to go into in any detail here.
The first car they built, the GT Xylon – with gullwing doors! – was a race car with one of the most ungainly hardtops ever – it wasn’t nicknamed the Ugly Duckling for nothing, but it performed well enough on the track at the hands of the likes of such illustrious drivers such as Jackie Stewart and Jackie Oliver.
From this……
Nevertheless, from this beginning, and particularly following the replacement of Costin with Dennis Adams in 1961, the company’s profile grew considerably, thanks to the dramatic sportscar styling created by Adams and a fair number of famous owners such as Rod Stewart and film director Sam Wanamaker.
The October 1963 Earl’s Court Motor Show saw the introduction of the Marcos GT, one of those cars that looks fast even when stationary. Like its predecessors, the GT famously had a plywood chassis and fibreglass body for a combination of lightness and strength, though the public were harder to convince of this, and indeed the plywood element of the construction was dropped in 1969, to be replaced with tubular steel.
Driven by the same 1800c Volvo engine and gearbox that was used in the P1800 coupé, the GT was indeed quick, with a top speed of 116mph/187kmh. About 100 examples were built before the 1800 engine was replaced with engines from Triumph and Ford, and in 1968 the Ford 3-litre V6 found it’s way into the GT, endowing it with 120mph performance. The following year saw the abandonment of the plywood chassis and in the meantime, the factory had moved out of Wales to Bradford-on-Avon, leaving Gilbern as the sole Welsh-based car manufacturer.
….to this!
Like the Gilbern, the GT was available in either component form to allow home-builders to save tax, or as a complete car. The saving represented about 25% of the fully assembled price, so if you had the ability to build your car, it was certainly worthwhile. It has to be said though that if you bought your Marcos fully assembled, you could have bought an E-Type for pretty much the same money.
It looked great, so what was it like to drive? CAR magazine conducted a joint test of the 3000GT with a car from another since-failed British manufacturer, the TVR Tuscan. The test cars both had Ford V6’s, and both cars could reach top speeds of c.125mph/200kmh. Where the TVR is short and stubby, the GT is long and sleek – almost 20 inches (45cm) longer yet with practically the same wheelbase. They were also both praised – particularly the Marcos – for their ability to stick to the road, as well as their interior appointments but were typical of sports cars of the time in that all this came with a hard ride, limited luggage space and a fair amount of noise – refinement was not a strong suit in either case. No “winner” was declared by the tester, so I guess if you were in the market for such a car, and didn’t fancy a Lotus Elan, your choice would depend on your view of the styling – so for me it would be the Marcos, it’s that bit more exciting to look at.
Tough choice?
In parallel to the GT, Marcos introduced the Mini-based Mini Marcos in 1965, which became their longest-running and best-selling single model, with some 1300 built on-and-off over a number of years and in 1968 launched the Marcos Mantis, a car as ugly as the insect after which it was named – only 32 were built; I’m surprised they sold that many. Hard to believe that it, too, was designed by Dennis Adams.
Ugly…………uglier
By 1971 the company – now located in Westbury – was in severe financial difficulty, not helped by the poor sales of the Mantis and went into liquidation for the first (but not last) time, and while it was relaunched a number of times, it last went into liquidation in 2007, with all existing stock and parts being acquired by Marcos Heritage Spares Ltd, who continue to support the marque.
So to this week’s Prime Find, which is a 3-litre GT from 1971, its fibreglass bodywork finished in Tangerine (though it looks pretty much like red to me) with black upholstery. It’s powered by the less common (in the UK, but standard for US-exports from 1970) 128bhp Volvo 3-litre engine taken from the Swedish company’s 164, and it has a steel chassis.
I’ve always loved the long, low and sleek appearance of the Marcos GT, and with the 3-litre engine – whether it’s from Ford or Volvo – it has genuine performance to almost match it’s looks. To my untrained eye there are strong hints of E-Type (primarily the very long, low bonnet) but it is different enough to still stand out. While the long low bonnet disappears from view on both cars, the tail in particular is quite different, the Marcos having a Kamm-like element to it compared to the Jaguar’s long tapered tail.
This particular Marcos – which is being offered for sale at Historics’ auction on May 15th, taking place again at Ascot racecourse – is claimed to be in good order, though with some minor cracking in the fibreglass (also almost inevitable). It comes with a substantial history file including old MOTs which may help to verify – or not – the low odometer reading of just 34,725 miles. With an estimate rage is £14,000 to £18,000, it is obviously available for a fraction of what any E-Type would fetch, so is it a bargain-basement, yet hand-built, alternative to an E-Type? Possibly – it’s certainly less common – I haven’t been able to establish how many GT’s remain on UK roads, but only 211 Marcos’s (Marcii?) of all types are currently licensed for the road, with another 241 SORN, and most of these I would expect are Mini Marcos’s. And since it’s a lot less money, you won’t be as worried about driving it or damaging it.
I can’t find another 3000GT for sale at the moment, but a restored 1969 1600 and a rebuilt 1967 1500 are currently available for £33,450 and £29,500 respectively, so if this GT is as good as is claimed, it should beat the estimate, in my non-expert view.
As usual, we have borrowed some photographs from the auctioneer’s website, and you can see the full lot entry here. And of course, we advise prior inspection before you buy, if you can arrange it.
With our Saturday instalment of Prime Find of the Week, we’re offering our services to the classic car community, by passing on our favourite classic car for sale from the week that passed. This top-tip might help a first-time-buyer to own his first classic, or it could even be the perfect motivation for a multiple-classic-car-owner to expand his garage with something different. We’ll let us inspire by anything from a cheap project to a stunning concours exotic, and hope that you will do the same. Just remember – Any Classic is Better than No Classic! We obviously invite our readers to help prospective buyers with your views and maybe even experiences of any given model we feature. Further to that, if you stumble across a classic which you feel we ought to feature as Prime Find of the Week, then please send us a link to primefindoftheweek@viaretro.co.uk