Marcos announces new road and track car projects

First new models for 20 years are already at the prototype stage

So the great British sports car might not be dead after all. There’s been nothing from Marcos since the demise of Marcos Engineering Limited (and the TSO GT) back in 2007. Now though, Marcos Motor Company Ltd is in business, with three projects in the works to resurrect the brand. Its new plans encompass continuation models, road and track cars, promising ‘to honour the brand ethos of light weight, simplicity and seat-of-the-pants handling.’

Some background, first off. The parent company of Marcos Motor Company is Automotive Vision; the chairman of that company is Howard Nash. He bought Marcos in 2022, which at that point was Marcos Engineering Limited, Marcos Sales Limited and Marcos Heritage Spares Limited, having been a director since the year before. Nothing is said to be changing about those businesses with the incorporation of Marcos Motor Company, which will be good news to those who’ve bought from the Heritage Spares division for the past quarter of a century. Indeed it’s suggested that the parts offering could extend with a ‘a long-established engine restoration and tuning business’ also under the Automotive Vision umbrella. Good news for those wishing to spice up a Rover-engined Marcos perhaps.

The promised cars coming from the reborn Marcos sound great, as these things often do. (You’ll have to excuse some wariness given the recent TVR fiasco, and all the other back-from-the-dead announcements that never amount to anything.) There are three projects in the works, with physical prototypes apparently in development and rolling chassis already homologated and crash-tested. They feel like reasonably significant milestones. The first new Marcos Project is said to be a ‘much-loved Marcos model with a recognisable silhouette’, updated with new running gear and architecture. Which could be anything, of course, given the decades of Marcos sports cars; we’d assume something V8-engined, like the later Mantis, Mantara and Mantaray, because they really do look like nothing else. And it’s got to be much easier to make money off something like that than reimagining a four-cylinder coupe from 50 years ago, though the teaser image does look like a pretty dinky two-door...

Project #2 is said to be something all-new, that could suit road or track driving, with no real link to the past beyond being light, quick and fun. That car already has its chassis engineered, tested and homologated, with further evaluation underway. It sounds like the one we’ll see first. Project #3 is a more general undertaking, a catch-all term for the continuation cars that are coming. A lot of the moulds, tools and jigs for the classics are said to remain in existence (and, crucially, in the ownership of Marcos Motor Company) so the old cars could be brought back as officially licensed continuations. This feels like it could be an easy win, though the Marcoses of the '60s are less well-known than those Jaguars and Aston Martins that have also been subjected to continuation builds.

“Marcos is a much-loved British sports car brand,” said Nash. “It has a wonderful history but also an ethos of simplicity for raw, driver-focused handling. It’s an analogue experience you can’t get from large car manufacturers and supercar brands, and one which I think enthusiasts hanker after today.

“We want to honour that original ethos while being forward-looking too, giving Marcos a new, younger audience, as well as bringing the brand back for those who grew up with it.” A laudable ambition, for sure, and probably good timing given the state of the sports car market: there’s no F-Type any more, no V8 Morgans, the petrol-powered Porsche 718s are almost done, and a V6 Emira is £100,000. We’ve heard nothing of the Noble M500 for years. If the newly rejuvenated Marcos can deliver what the TVR always looked like it might, with V8 thrills and cool design at a vaguely attainable price, then they might be on to something. But we’ll not get too carried away just yet. Maybe once we’ve seen a real car. Safe to say it’ll be a story worth keeping tabs on!

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damonbill

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