Friday 16th October 2009

Pic Of The Week: Marcos Mantis XP

With autumnal temperatures setting in, POTW looks back to a rare Mantis in the summer at Prescott

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In the late 60's a small company from Wiltshire decided to set out on a challenge for Le Mans and armed with very good contacts built the Marcos Mantis XP. Purchasing an F1 Brabham-Repco 740 V8 from Jack Brabham, coupling it to Mike Hewland’s DG300 transaxle and persuading John Cooper to provide the previous years suspension from his F1 car, they had a winning formula.

Unfortunately due to French civil unrest the car made only one competitive outing at a very wet 1000km of Spa-Francochamps and never made it to the Le Mans race. Shortly after its only race the car was due to be registered for road use, but the UK taxes in place forced the car to be shipped to the US to save the project. It toured the US motor shows before being snapped up by it's current owners in 1970 who used it on the roads around LA ever since.

In 2004 the road runs started to take their toll on the car and restoration started gradually, but on hearing that Prescott was set to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of Marcos the restoration sped up so the car could return back to the UK.

Enjoy!

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Credit and more info: Classic & Sports Car - Nov 2009

[gary71]

Cool picture of a great car by the best snapper in the business

[sprinter1050]

^ Damn right.

That car parked outside yer local hostelry with everything open as in the photo would turn more heads than Cheryl Cole bending over a Ferrari California.

Ace looking car-forgotten in the mists of history.

[gary71]

gary71 said:

Cool picture of a great car by the best snapper in the business

...that being Mr Lipman of course

[marcosal]

When it was at the 50th anniversary at Prescott

Also on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bZZrL9eV4Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lls1LT2wYs

Way ahead of its time

Edited by marcosal on Friday 16th October 15:29

[GTRene]

wow great picture (openings post) really nice car...never know about it...and those butterfly doors en roof type excelent.

Edited by GTRene on Friday 16th October 15:37

[marcosgt]

Couldn't resist 'desktopping' that image - I drove it once!

M.

[Gizmo!]

How have I never heard of this before? It's brilliant!

[JamesM]

Im sure it's a great car and everything and no offence to anyone here but the thing looks fking horrific.

[Garlick]

JamesM said:

Im sure it's a great car and everything and no offence to anyone here but the thing looks fking horrific.

Should have gone to specsavers

[JamesM]

Perhaps. It was like it was designed using only a ruler though.

[marcosgt]

You have an odd shaped ruler...

(OK it is a LITTLE angular, but so are the F40 and the Gallardo...)

M.

Edited by marcosgt on Friday 16th October 15:59

[mat205125]

Looks amazing, but a lack of ventilation would make it a really tough place to be when it's baking hot and you're wearing a race suit and lid.

[RacingPete]

mat205125 said:

Looks amazing, but a lack of ventilation would make it a really tough place to be when it's baking hot and you're wearing a race suit and lid.

Though in its only race at Spa it was absolutely teaming down with rain and they didn't have any holes for the water to escape so it filled up with water, thus the driver was water cooled

[slarnge]

It opens up like a Koenigsegg! 'Lovely car.

[RacingPete]

JamesM said:

Perhaps. It was like it was designed using only a ruler though.

It was based on the F1 cars of the era (thus sharing the components from them), except being a road racer had a different design body. Let me demonstrate with the use of a picture

[Garlick]

....it's only taken him 45 mins to photoshop that

[Glosphil]

Judging from the driver's comment to the marshal in the first video the car no longer has the original engine?

[Oddball RS]

Doesn't sound like a Repco Brabham V8

[marcosgt]

No - it was fitted with a Buick V8 when the factory sold it - A bit more tractable in LA traffic...

More at http://www.marcoscars.net

M.

Edited by marcosgt on Friday 16th October 17:13

[ukaskew]

Gorgeous, as a Westbury lad the various Marcos' were a familiar sight on local roads when I was young. Still love the cars for that very reason.