Wednesday 23rd March 2005

Marcos TSO-GT

Pics and vids from down under

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Launch videos: MP4, Quicktime (large), Quicktime (medium)

The new Marcos TSO-GT was launched last weekend at a race meeting in Australia.

Whilst the marque has traditionally caterered to a British market, owner Tony Stelliga is keen to make Marcos a global brand. With the Australian's love of V8s, going down under with the coupe makes a lot of sense.

As well as launching the car there, the facilities in Australia make it a useful destination as far as testing is concerned. The hot climate and access to fast roads allow the engineers to push the car hard in extreme conditions.

Launching a hard top and opening up the market in Australia will also allow Marcos to benefit from a less seasonal sales pattern. In recent years the Marcos has sold drop-tops in the UK -- a tough market and prone to poor summers hitting sales.

TSO-GT

Stelliga wants to expand beyond Australia and into the Asian markets too so we're sure to see a significant expansion of the brand in the years to come.

Marcos took the opporunity to launch the TSO-GT in front of a significant audience. The Clipsal 500 race in Adelaide was attended by an incredible 240,000 people -- more than attend the Grand Prix in the UK.

Australians are far more at home with V8-powered cars than the domestic UK market making it a potentially very lucrative outlet for Marcos. The 400bhp, 5.7 litre V8 is used in Holdens and will be very familiar to many.

The 1,100Kg car is being built to comply with Australian regulations initially with a UK launch pencilled in for later in the year.

Link: www.marcos-eng.com

[sublimatica]

That sounds utterly
Love it. Well done Marcos. Pity we didn't see it doing a fast lap though.

Surprised something so ...err... naughty can get past the Australian legislators these days though. Thought they were clamping down on cars like this, judging by some of the comments on these boards these days.

[Stin Hambo]

I'd love to know what those regulations are!

Most of the cars here are Holden/Ford 4 door V8s, Japanese sports cars or just crap.

We need some real cars like Marcos, Noble and TVR to shake things up a bit!

There are plenty of well off people who love cars who would happily buy a real mans car.

[kevinday]

Can't see the video, click on the link and the plyer opens a window and I get the message 'connecting' but it never connects.

[boosted ls1]

They're going racing, it's obvious. Probably even planning an owners championship like tvr had some years ago. Why else would they pick the new chevy and then link in with Pro-Drive for a chassis package. You wouldn't usually go to those lengths for an ordinary road/sports car.

I had another close look at the pics of the rear of the car last night. I'm sure there are 4 diffusers underneath and look how low the rear side skirt/apron is. It's air management of sorts, maybe even with wind tunnel development. I don't think they've released a close up of the rear or anything of the underside. There could be a floor tray underneath. I still think they've held something back from the rear of the car. They wouldn't ducktail a spoiler on there (maybe they would) but I wouldn't be surprised if I saw a GT wing or something to compliment the rear.

How does the hatch open? I couldn't see any joins or is it just the glass panel that lifts up?

Boosted.

[grahambell]

boosted ls1 said:

I don't think they've released a close up of the rear or anything of the underside. There could be a floor tray underneath. How does the hatch open? I couldn't see any joins or is it just the glass panel that lifts up? Boosted.

There's no floor tray underneath, although of course that could be a plan for the future.

Rear hatch has a GRP frame with two alloy hinges at the top, though they were still working on it when I saw the car.

[dinkel]

The TSO GT has a V8 over the 6 inline of TVR. Both do well with 400 horsies. Apart from looks: why would I buy the Marcos?

www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=105132

Says:

"The design of the new two-seater TSO GT takes up the tradition and reflects Marcos' efforts to create a "distinctly British" sports car with classic lines."

Dunno, it's a Marcos allright but distinctive ?

"The TSO GT is powered by an aluminum-alloy 5.7-liter V8 engine derived from the GM LS power plant series; it has a maximum output of 400 horsepower. This works for the lightweight sports car, which tips the scales at less than 2,420 pounds to accelerate from zero to 60 mph in just over 4 seconds; its top speed is 185 mph."

Nice, very nice. Bet it'll have a soundtrack to match. Easy to pep too that V8

"The chassis was developed in cooperation with Prodrive, famous for its rally activities. The GT's chassis is based on the space frame used in the TSO model but also features a full roll cage and modified exhaust system."

I guess it'll drive very well. But the proportions doesn't look right to me . . .

"Just in case the name Marcos doesn't grab you, the looks of this little dandy will. Fans of British racing machinery aptly point out Marcos' current designer formerly worked at TVR, and it shows."

Rrrrrrr, their designs look better, sorry.

Still a nice piece of machinery. Marcos better drop a decent pic of this car and all will be good . . . Gun metal blue or twotoned: light green with some beige . . .

[boosted ls1]

grahambell said:

boosted ls1 said: There could be a floor tray underneath. Boosted. There's no floor tray underneath, although of course that could be a plan for the future.

So, do you know if those are diffusers I can see under the back of the car? Somethings happening there but the pics aren't clear enough.

I did a flat floor on a tr8 and it made a noticeable difference. I vented the air above the rear bumper.

Boosted.

[PetrolTed]

kevinday said:

Can't see the video, click on the link and the plyer opens a window and I get the message 'connecting' but it never connects.

Try it now. I've linked direct rather than via a popup window.

[grahambell]

boosted ls1 said:

So, do you know if those are diffusers I can see under the back of the car? Somethings happening there but the pics aren't clear enough. I did a flat floor on a tr8 and it made a noticeable difference. I vented the air above the rear bumper. Boosted.

Hi Boosted,

Yes they are diffusers, though I think they're more for styling than aerodynamics, but Marcos might have plans for the latter during the car's test and development programme.

Either way, does look bloody impressive when you see it in the flesh.