RE: New British sports car: exclusive
Discussion
The Marlin 5exi was, I believe, based on the Strathcarron moulds, however it uses a spaceframe chassis rather than the Strathcarron's, and now Javan's monocoque. Davi's comments on the driveshafts is interesting as when the 5exi was released, there were some photos showing it's driveshafts at quite an extreme angle.
mtv dave said:
Keep thinking It's just a BRG Marlin 5exi myself, but I was never exposed to the Strathcarron.
www.pistonheads.com/doc.asp?c=47&i=2923
the Strathcarron went down because they didnt have the money to redevelop the pitiful botch of a rear suspension / subframe that reynard special vehicles came up with. Among other probs was that the rear beam axle fouled the diff casing on full bump, the engine and transmission were mounted too high (as a consequence of the fouling?) hence the driveshaft angle issue, particularly of the N/S driveshaft which is the short one. the shock top mounts were also prone to bending as the geometry was a bit squiff, necessitating rose jointed shock top mounts, as I recall. The money ran out, the development was frozen, and the subsequent track test by EVO against the elise showed the problems up. as a suposed driver's car it was always going to struggle with that start, and the company would have had to charge 30K to make any money out of the car anyway....
then came the emissions prob with the modded triumph motor just to add to the woe.
I understand the original MD bought the remains of the company and has redeveloped the rear end and installed a Roush tweaked supercharged Puma engine, which has sorted the car. however it seems as though he is content to keep it as his own toy rather than marketing it himself (unless he has teamed up with Javan, does anyone know?). I am sure he is less than happy that Marlin appear to have copied the shape though, but unless you have deep pockets for lawyers this sort of thing is difficult to stop I guess....
cheers all
schmo
then came the emissions prob with the modded triumph motor just to add to the woe.
I understand the original MD bought the remains of the company and has redeveloped the rear end and installed a Roush tweaked supercharged Puma engine, which has sorted the car. however it seems as though he is content to keep it as his own toy rather than marketing it himself (unless he has teamed up with Javan, does anyone know?). I am sure he is less than happy that Marlin appear to have copied the shape though, but unless you have deep pockets for lawyers this sort of thing is difficult to stop I guess....
cheers all
schmo
Can’t make my mind up on this one.. Like you say 30k is a lot of money for an unknown make.
It looks like the MG, TRV and a bit of the rear end of the Porsche GT and the Zonda have fallen into a mixing bowl and this is the result... but it does look well. The epoxy-bonded thing sounds expensive if you have a bump "sorry sir you cant buy the front wing you have to buy the complete shell".
Paul Holroyd
Porsche Motorsport Artist
www.porschesport.com
It looks like the MG, TRV and a bit of the rear end of the Porsche GT and the Zonda have fallen into a mixing bowl and this is the result... but it does look well. The epoxy-bonded thing sounds expensive if you have a bump "sorry sir you cant buy the front wing you have to buy the complete shell".
Paul Holroyd
Porsche Motorsport Artist
www.porschesport.com
LexSport said:
The Marlin 5exi was, I believe, based on the Strathcarron moulds, however it uses a spaceframe chassis rather than the Strathcarron's, and now Javan's monocoque. Davi's comments on the driveshafts is interesting as when the 5exi was released, there were some photos showing it's driveshafts at quite an extreme angle.
If it has an aluminium tub, as claimed, then it's a new chassis design, but since both companies (Marlin and Javan) are based in Cornwall, I'd guess they are closely related. Still, why worry? The chances of them actually selling more than a handful, as SniffPetrol has deduced, are pretty slim.
Sam_68 said:
LexSport said:
The Marlin 5exi was, I believe, based on the Strathcarron moulds, however it uses a spaceframe chassis rather than the Strathcarron's, and now Javan's monocoque. Davi's comments on the driveshafts is interesting as when the 5exi was released, there were some photos showing it's driveshafts at quite an extreme angle.
If it has an aluminium tub, as claimed, then it's a new chassis design, but since both companies (Marlin and Javan) are based in Cornwall, I'd guess they are closely related.Yep brotther and sister as well as husband and wife !
30k sounds pretty reasonable to me for a sub 4 second 0-60 and a standing quarter close to murcielago territory.
i never get the 'you'd be better spending that money on an elise and then getting it supercharged' argument. Yesh, and you could buy an MR2 and get it faster than a 911 if you felt that way inclined but that's hardly the point is it?
Ther seems a healthy market for trackdays-stylee cars with road going credibiity - such as Atom, radicals etc... so this seems a fair plan. I'm very seriously considering the new Caparo but could get a genuine F1 car for less than half the price....
i never get the 'you'd be better spending that money on an elise and then getting it supercharged' argument. Yesh, and you could buy an MR2 and get it faster than a 911 if you felt that way inclined but that's hardly the point is it?
Ther seems a healthy market for trackdays-stylee cars with road going credibiity - such as Atom, radicals etc... so this seems a fair plan. I'm very seriously considering the new Caparo but could get a genuine F1 car for less than half the price....
I drove a Strathcarron a few years ago and I have to say it was a lot of fun! The back end would step out at every opportunity on roundabouts with the slightest of provocation, and that was on dry roads, but it was very easy to control. It had the Triumph bike engine which sounded good, but lacked the power of the Honda lump. The worst thing about it was the gearbox... awful!
I ended up buying an Elise 111S (Mk1) shortly afterwards...
I ended up buying an Elise 111S (Mk1) shortly afterwards...
Sam_68 said:
It seems to be a re-branding/redevelopment of the Marlin 5EXI kit car, which as others have pointed out, was based on the moulds for the Strathcarron, bought at the bancruptcy sale.
I actually put this question to the Marlin MD at the NEC motorshow last year. I expected her to say yes and that it had saved development costs or something but no....
She bluntly denied any connection with Strathcarron.
She then went on to accuse me of spying for another kit car maker and attempting to "steal their ideas" which she "knew happened". Someone may wish to copy her ideas and possibly someone has done so. Not me though. I wonder which idea she was thinking of? Fibreglass bodywork? A spaceframe chassis? A transverse engine? The over complex and not very light wishbones?
I also heard (on PH? can't recall!) that the real Strathcarron project including the Reynard chassis had been sold to someone in Cornwall. Perhaps this is it.
Gassing Station | General Gassing [Archive] | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff