Marcos Wanabee

[i82q]

Just thought I would say hello and begin picking your brains. I currently have a TVR Chim but will be aiming to change for a Marcos early next year. Being me I like to spend a fair time investigating before spending my cash so this is where you lot can help.

My Chim is great, it's my everyday drive (20k /year) so what would be a good replacement Marocs? I love the look of the Mantis and LM500 so any info on these would be great...

And where do I buy one from? are there any garages near Basingstoke?

Thanks in advance to you all. I will be lurking here for the next few months picking up any snippets you can impart.

Richard

[PetrolTed]

The best successor to a Chimaera with a Marcos badge will be the new TSO (www.marcos-eng.com )

I'm sure others will be able to recommend where to source the older models from though, which will of course be cheaper.

There are a couple for sale in the classifieds if I remember correctly:

www.pistonheads.com/sales/

[dr ivel]

There is a Mantis up for sale in Scotland currently up on E-bay -

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4509255392&indexURL=0&photoDisplayType=2#ebayphotohosting

Or try this link for one currently on sale in Swizerland - (at probably twice the price of the one on ebay)

www.classicdriver.com/uk/

The best place to find Marcos cars for sale is on the forum here

http://p206.ezboard.com/fmarcossportscarenthusiastsfrm9

[dr ivel]

If you've got the money you'd best to go for a TSO

[Boosted LS1]

dr ivel said:

If you've got the money you'd best to go for a TSO

The entry level car is still a 5.7 LSX and it has the Prodrive chassis package. It could be upgraded later as finds permit.

Boosted.

[dr ivel]

You should also check Ronnie Cowan here

www.ronniecowan.co.uk/

Redline here

www.redlinesportscars.com/

and Paul Stephens here

www.paul-stephens.com/stock.asp

[chrisj]

Redline Sportscars will be nearest to Basingstoke.
WIth Marcos being Wiltshire based (or it least it used to be) there are a lot of them in the South West.

Unless you can do as the others say and go for a TSO, how about something like a Mantara or Mantaray?
They're probably the closest Marcos equivalent to the Chim (excluding the TSO) and there's usually a good choice available.

Obviously any car should be well checked, but the top three things to check are the chassis, the chassis and the chassis.
Any steel chassis car is likely to rust at some point, but you need to check the two rails that run down each sill, particularly the top one.
On some of the older cars they have a habit of quietly disappearing!
But everything else is pretty straight forward, RV8's, Ford based steering and braking etc.

The best advice is to go and look at a few cars just to become a little more familiar with them.
The interior is quite a bit different to a TVR!

Good luck and keep us posted on progress.

[dr ivel]

Only problem with the Mantaray is there are only 20 isch of them and they don't often come up for sale - I'm not aware of any available at the moment apart from the unregistered one that Redline are advertising

[Jack LM]

A good place to look is Redline Sports in Wiltshire, Jeremy used to work for Marcos and knows most of the cars / owners by name. He has a couple of Mantis and an LM500 for sale at the moment, plus a very nice LM500 Racer one of 2 original factory ones.

Of the later cars there were the following made....

11 Mantaray 3.9L
7 Mantaray 4.6L
2 Mantaray 2L Turbo

34 Mantis 4.6
10 Mantis 4.6 Supercharged
8 Mantis GT 4.6 Supercharged
(The Mantis has the Ford Cobra Engine, supercharged is 500 BHP+)

1 LM200 2L turbo - in Greece
14 LM400's 3.9L
4 LM500 4.6L
11 LM500 5.0L
1 LM600 5.7 Chevy.

Plus a few LM and Mantis Race Cars that have been converted for the Road.

Also there is the Mantara and Mantara GTS which I don't have the details to hand.

There are a whole bunch of owners in and around Basingstoke and Reading with an example of just about every model.

Drop into the forum http://b36.ezboard.com/bmarcossportscarenthusiasts
and take a look at the events section. There is an active group in the Thames Valley that meets near Hook each month. During the winter months most cars are tucked up for the winter but everyone is ALWAYS happy to talk technical!

There is also this site for useful info:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mark.saxby/marcos/

I have the Red LM400 seen around Basingstoke.

[socram]

Jack - any idea how Mantara's were made?

[Jack LM]

The number and type of Marcos cars built is not an exact science and even the gurus disagree, also some cars have been altered from the original build - sometimes a lot - but the info suggests that for Mantaras there were:

2 Mantara 2L turbo
105 Mantara 3.9L
8 Mantara 5L

plus

19 Mantara GTS 2L turbo

Lots of the 3.9 have the Sports Pack with engine mods to 240bhp - identified by black Marcos Rocker covers.

The 2L turbo is DHOC 240bhp, some may have been built without the turbo.

There is a good summary of the specifications and performance of the different models on the Technical page here: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mark.saxby/marcos/

Basically, if you are really interested then don't take my word for it give Redline or MHS or Paul Stephens a call.

[socram]

Cheers, mine's a 4.5 by the way, just to throw a spanner in the works.

[Jack LM]

Ha Ha Ha, I did say it was not an exact science! The list of Chassis numbers just identified Mantara 400 and Mantara 500, engine choice varied.

Congratulations on having a great car.