Sexy and Not Italian
It was probably 50 or so years ago when I first saw a Marcos. It was a 1/43rd scale model, and I thought it was beautiful, so I bought it for my burgeoning model collection. I’ve seen a few Marcos 1800s in person, but I hadn’t gotten close to one until I moved to Tennessee. That’s where I met Paul Batovsky, who has a small, interesting collection of cars, including a 1970 Marcos. Being able to get up close to the car and to talk to someone who knows a lot about Marcos company history validated my belief that this is one of the sexiest non-Italian cars ever built.
Marcos
It is impossible to separate the story of Marcos the company from that of its founder, Jeremy George Weston Marsh (aka Jem). While there are many others who had a part in making Marcos cars what they were, it was Jem Marsh who made it happen. He wrote his autobiography, “Making My Marque”, in 2009, and it is an incredible story of focus on his dream. Scattered through his book are a few “School Reports. ”A final one, found on the book’s dust cover, is labeled the “Headmaster’s Final Report. ”It is dated Summer 1946 when Jem was 16 years 3 months old. It reads, “George (Jem) certainly possesses some practical capacity and I believe fair intelligence, but he has not put his back into his work and he may find that the lack of a school certificate will handicap him in the days to come. ”One had to wonder what the headmaster would have thought about what Marsh accomplished in the half century after he left school. He certainly would not have expected Steve Copley to write in the Forward to Marsh’s autobiography that “With men like Colin Chapman and Eric Broadley he played a major role in the post-war revolution that make Britain the world headquarters for sports cars and laid the foundation for a supremacy in racing that still endures. ”Sounds like Marsh had put his back into his work and that the lack of a school certificate proved to be no handicap.
Born in Bristol, England, in 1930, Marsh, son of a haberdasher, spent much of WWII in a boarding school in Wales. He joined the Royal Navy out of school and trained as a Boy Seaman. While serving on the HMS Chivalrous, he became the ship’s photographer, a talent he could use on his own time to make a little extra money – enough to buy a used motorcycle while in Cyprus. Over three years, he earned enough to buy a partly built Austin 7, which he completed with the help of his stepfather, an engineer, while on leave from his ship.
His nickname in the Navy was “Lofty Marsh,” because of his 6’ 4” height, something that would be a consideration when he started building his own cars. Marsh joined the 750 Motor Club in 1954, and the team won their first race. He decided to pursue a career in the automobile industry, so, when he left the Navy, he sold cars while he continued to build Austin 7s in a barn. Some of his automotive exploits were a bit untraditional. He joined with Gerry Scali to in the summer of 1956 to form the European Motor Rodeo. It was essentially a circus act, where Marsh drove an Austin 7 up and over a moving V8 Ford equipped with special ramps.
Marsh had a number of jobs, some of which did not work out well for him. He wasn’t very good at selling farm equipment, so he went to work for Firestone Tyre and Rubber Company, where he was trained as a tire engineer. There was a good result from working for Firestone – he learned a lot about vehicle suspensions and tire wear. He then applied to be the general manager of a company selling Austin 7 parts and was hired. The company was not well funded, so it was not very successful. Tired of working for other people, Marsh decided to open his own Austin 7 business, and in 1957 Speedex Castings and Accessories Ltd. was opened in a converted hat factory.
An important accessory Marsh designed was an independent front suspension for modified Austin 7s. It helped his little startup succeed: “Very little capital was available when I started Speedex but the majority of it was spent on advertisement in the MotorSport with a picture of the independent Front Suspension to attract customers with Austin 7 Specials. ”Through his company, Marsh gave many people the opportunity to build and race their cars on a budget. He and Dan Taylor produced many other speed parts, including a new cylinder head, for Austin 7s.
With Speedex’s success, Marsh decided to build a car for himself, the Speedex 750, with which he won the Goodacre Trophy and the 750 Formula Championship in 1959. Marsh, together with his friend, John Heseltine, and Ernie Moore built a car called EST, for “Eleven Seventy Two,” in the Speedex shop. It was an aluminum bodied car with a Ferrari-like “shark nose” powered by a Ford engine. It used rare Speedex alloy wheels. Heseltine had good success with EST, driving it to and from the races, and competing in eight races and four sprints and hillclimbs. He had one outright win and several class awards. It could be somewhat uncomfortable to drive, though, as Heseltine said: “It was a fun vehicle on the road, although constant rain would produce tidal waves in the cockpit as you accelerated, and water shot up one’s trouser legs!”
After the EST, Marsh decided to build the Speedex Scirocco GT. It was a fiberglass coupé based on a Ford 100E designed by Peter Hammond. Ten bodies were built in the former hat factory, but interest in specials was on the wane. Marsh had to look for other ways to increase sales. A meeting with Frank Costin at a 750 Club meeting at a pub in early 1959 changed his thoughts about auto production. The outcome of that meeting would be Marcos Cars, Ltd, a name suggested by Costin’s father-in-law – the conjoining of their two last names, MARsh and COStin.
Marsh related his meeting with Costin in his autobiography: “After lengthy discussions well into the night with Frank, it became obvious that the way to go was to build a wooden monocoque body and chassis unit to accept the mechanical parts which I already had available in my garage. The advantages were that the wood was far lighter than steel and lighter than conventional glass fibre. I was keen to build the wooden body/chassis units as I loved working with wood – however, I did have to learn the new technique of staples and glue. It was far easier to build a wooden construction in this manner than dovetails and mortice and tenons!”Costin had come from working at De Havilland, which had produced the wooden and very successful WWII Mosquito fighter bomber. He was well versed in the use of wood for airplanes and believed in its use for automobiles.
Marsh would prepare the mechanical parts, in including the 1172 cc engine, gearbox, Triumph Herald front suspension, and live axle, while Costin would build the coupe body/chassis in a stable at the Golden Lion Hotel in North Wales. Costin hired Dennis Adams and his brother, Peter, a qualified woodworker, to join him in building the monocoque. Marsh’s reaction to the car was interesting: “My first reaction was that the car was not exactly the most beautiful shape due to the fact that it has to be tailored to take my 6’4” frame. ”It earned its nicknames – Ugly Duckling and Wooden Wonder. Even though it might not have been a beauty, the first car built was bought by Bill Moss. Moss was quite successful racing the Marcos. He set five lap records and won ten races in a row. His success was noticed, and orders started to come in for examples of the car, including from Jackie Oliver and Barney Filer, who bought one for a young Scot named Jackie Stewart to campaign.
Costin was losing interest in the Marcos cars and moved on to other challenges, especially as the design of the cars was to use fiberglass for the bodies. The Adams brothers designed and created the fiberglass body for the Luton Gullwing, so named because it was built in the factory in Luton. They had the prototype ready for the 1961 Racing Car Show, although the paint was still wet when the car went on display. It received a lot of good press and many orders were received. Marcos, though, was short on funds, so Marsh had to find a paying job to finance his company. He went to work for LMB Components as their general manager with the express task of sorting out their car. While he worked at LMB Components, Marsh’s salary helped keep the workforce at Marcos busy. Then Marsh found and investor in 1962. Grevelle Cavendish saw and was impressed by a prototype Marcos XP, and he became an investor in the company. The XP prototype was unusual for 1962. It was a mid-engined, three-seater with the drive sitting in the middle between the two passengers. It was powered by a Corvair engine. It was quite radical, probably too radical for 1962.
While work continued slowly on the XP, the Adams brothers designed what was supposed to be a stopgap that turned into the future for Marcos. Marsh related that “it was decided we should have an interim design which Dennis drew on the back of an envelope. ”Thanks to Cavendish, there were funds to produce a prototype. It was the first open Marcos, and the Spyder was stunning. It was shown at the 1963 Racing Car Show, and it proved to be very popular with show goers. Back at the workshop, the newly designed convertible had to be turned into a closed car in order to satisfy the racers who wanted a GT class car. What Dennis Adams created was called The Breadvan, and it forecast how future Marcos would look. It was also did quite well in competition. Marsh raced one that belonged to Vogue photographer James Mortimer with good success. Derek Bell also raced one.
Wooden Chassis Marcos GT
While competition successes boosted sales of the Spyder and Breadvan for a while, three was a slump in orders in 1963. A new Marcos was already in design at the time, and, about that design, Marsh said, “thus began probably the most important phase of putting Marcos into the history books. ”That car was the Marcos 1800. Dennis Adams design was beautiful. In a 1966, Car &Driver did a review of the Marcos and titled it “Mothers Hide Your Daughters. ”It looked as though it must have been designed in Italy by one of the Carrozzeria, but it was pure British, although some of its parts weren’t. Marsh insisted that the car be comfortable to drive by nearly everyone, saying, “Dennis used my body frame dimensions to determine the roofline of the ar in relation to the floor pan and we all knew that if we did this the majority of people could drive the car. Whereas in the case of our competition the whole driving experience was far too cramped. This, of course, was a great sales aid. ”The door, unlike that of the Breadvan, was of decent size, so entry and exit could be accomplished with only a reasonable amount of bending of the torso and legs. Like the later Lotus Europa, it had fixed seats but adjustable pedals. Unlike the Lotus, the Marcos pedals did not require wrenches to adjust them. There was a knob on the dash that controlled a worm gear. Turning the knob moved the clutch and brake pedals toward or away from the driver, making it possible for drivers of various statures to comfortably drive the car. It was in many ways a more sophisticated car than its predecessors; it had glass side windows, a heater, and heated windshield.
Two cars were taken to the 1964 Racing Car Show. One was a running car, and the other was “looking pretty. ”Neither had windshield wipers since there wasn’t enough time to engineer the system. The car received a lot of positive press, including a review of the car for the BBC by Sterling Moss. Testing of the prototype revealed issues with the heat treating of the rear axles, so they were changed to Triumph 2000 parts. There was also a change to a Ford live axle, but that was for cost savings. The chassis was a traditional Marcos wood chassis, the body was fiberglass, and the engine was a Volvo B18 inline four-cylinder. For competition, the engine was bored to two liters and equipped with Mahle pistons, Iskenderian cams, and 45DCOE Weber carburetors, all of which improved the power of the engine.
From its introduction until 1969, the car was mostly unchanged except for the engine. The wood chassis and fiberglass body remained little unchanged, but the car was fitted with a variety of engines with the model name changing to represent the engine size as follows:
- 1800 GT – about 100 cars built from 1964-1966 with the Volvo B18 engine.
- 1500 GT – fewer than 100 cars built in 1966-1967 using a Ford 1500 cc pre-crossflow engine.
- 1650 GT – about 30 cars were built in 1967 using a Chris Laurence 1650 cc engine.
- 1600 GT – nearly 200 cars were built between 1967-1969 with a Ford 1600 cc engine with a crossflow head.
- V6 GT – 119 cars were built using a Ford three-liter V6 engine mounted in the wooden chassis.
The decision to use a Ford V6 engine came after an attempt to qualify a GT with the upgraded two-liter Volvo engine was unsuccessful. The Volvo engine, even with the modifications just did not produce enough power, so Marsh ordered the Ford V6. Graham Coombes, who ran the woodshop, modified the frame to take the V6. The car was debuted at the 1969 Racing Car Show, and, again, the reviews were excellent. With its low weight and increased power, it was very competitive with the Jaguar E-Type. The car also got electric windows, adding to its popularity among celebrities, including Rod Stewart. A YouTube video of the V6 can be seen here: (34) 1971 Marcos GT – Jay Leno’s Garage – YouTube
Steel Chassis Marcos GT and Paul Batovsky’s GT
There was another major change in 1969, as significant as the change from a wooden monocoque body to one of fiberglass. Marsh decided to change from a wood chassis to a steel chassis: “This was only because of cost and the reluctance of the public to now accept a wooden chassis car although, of course, it had been proven in the De Haviland Mosquitoes during the war and was still being used in gliders and light aircraft. ”
The Adams brothers were tasked with designing the steel chassis, which they made quite light by using square-section steel tubing. Using steel save considerable production time, but Marsh still preferred the wooden chassis: “The wooden chassis cars were still outperforming the metal ones and to this day do not suffer from corrosion like the metal versions. ”
Batovsky said he first saw a Marcos about twenty years ago, and searched for five years before he found this rare left-hand-drive car. He said, “I had been looking for one. I looked at two other ones, before I found this. ”It was a special one. It had been originally bought in 1969 by Semon (Bunkie) Knudsen, who was the president of Ford Motor Company. Marsh took good care of Knudsen. He had the car shipped by air from England to Detroit, and Knudson was also given discount of 12. 5% on the car and accessories. The list price was £1790 pounds, so he paid £1740 pounds and 7s. The extras that were included were a set of Marcos alloy wheels, a radio, a pair seat belts, a set reversing lights, special paintwork and trim, and a laminated windscreen. Batovsky believes that Knudsen had a number of Marcos GTs shipped to the US, but the cars could not pass the emissions requirements. He said he understood that some of them were sold in Canada but that quite a few had to be destroyed. There is no information on how his car avoided the fate the others shared, but, thankfully, it survived.
Batovsky bought it from an attorney in Florida who bought it from Wire Wheel Sportscars in Florida. There is no information about how the car got from Detroit to Florida. Originally blue, a previous owner painted it red and did a frame-off restoration. Although it was supposedly a full restoration, Batovsky put another $5000 into the car fixing the remaining issues. That included replacing the differential assembly. Parts were not available to repair it, so Batovsky had to have a limited slip replacement built. An engineer, Batovsky told the shop how to build the assembly. When done it was a bit bigger than the stock unit, so there was a lot of effort and some pain getting in in place. He also installed disc brakes and an aluminum radiator that he designed. He also needed a parking brake and found a kit with little in the way of instructions, so he had to engineer a way to install it. Some help came from Marcos Heritage, a source of parts and from the assembly instructions for the Marcos GT kit, but he spent a lot of time and effort just figuring out how to make improvements.
How Does It Drive?
I wish I could tell you from experience, but, with my old arthritic body, I can’t even think of getting in and out of the Marcos. A good assumption is that it handles very well. The engine is behind the front axle, so it is a front-mid-engine car. The V6 produces good power. The steel Marcos chassis is quite stiff, although not as stiff as the wooden chassis. Still, as a coupé, it is stiffer than nearly all open cars. Considerable thought was put into the cars suspension. And Marcos GTs were successfully raced. So, it is likely to be a great handling car.
Batovsky agrees – it handles very well. He said, “It’s hard to get in and out of, but it’s very comfortable once you get in. ”He likes the recumbent driving position with the seatback laid back. It’s like driving an open wheel race car. He also likes the rack and pinion steering – “it makes the steering very light. ”The Marcos is a lot of fun to drive. He adds that “rear vision isn’t great,” and that “the only issue is that the shifter is off a commercial vehicle, so it is not very comfortable to shift, especially in reverse. ”Overall, it’s one of his favorite cars to drive.
The Rest of the Marcos Story
There were several Marcos both before and after the GT. The most successful was the Mini Marcos. Marsh saw a fiberglass-bodied Mini at the 1963 Racing Car Show and was convinced he could build a better one. It appeared in 1965 and was the only Marcos not designed by the Adams brothers since the original Xylon. It was not an attractive car; in fact, it was sometimes called the “ugliest car in the world. ”Based on unmodified Mini components, it was intended by its designer, Malcolm Newell, to be an inexpensive GT car. At a cost of £199 for the windshield and body, it certainly could be made into an inexpensive GT. It was also a very competitive and successful GT car. Before its first race at Castle Combe, Marsh is quoted as saying, “Don’t expect too much of it – it was only completed at midnight last night and isn’t at all sorted. ”After seven practice laps, Geoff Mabbs put it on the pole for the 1600 cc GT race. Even though it only had a 1293 cc Mini Cooper S engine, Mabbs won the race by 81. 8 seconds from second place. It was the only British car to finish at Le Mans in 1966. It was raced at Le Mans in 1967 by a French team, with help from Marsh. It was a factory entry in 1968 in the French classic, but its transfer gears failed. The Le Mans car took a seventh place at Mugello, taking home some welcome prize money. A second Le Mans spec car was built for F. L. I. R. T. , or the First Ladies International Racing Team. The French would not allow women to race at Le Mans in 1967, so they took the car to the Nürburgring 1000 KM race, where it broke a connecting rod bolt. Another, raced by Michael Gaston and Paddy McNally won the 2-Liter Prototype class. [Author’s note: I was at that race, a newly arrived US Army Second Lieutenant, but I can’t say that I remember the car. ]F. L. I. R. T. raced their car and finished fifth in the 2-Liter Prototype class.
The Adams brothers were tasked with creating a new pure racing Marcos in 1970. It would be raced in Group 6 (3-liter GT class), including at Le Mans. It was classic Marcos, with a wooden chassis and fiberglass body, but it was powered by a Repco-Brabham 3-liter F1 engine. It was raced at Spa-Francorchamps by Marsh and Eddie Nelson in May 1968. Conditions were horrendous, and water flooded the cockpit and eventually caused the car’s retirement because of water in the electrical system. With Le Mans postponed until September, the car was returned to England, where the Brabham engine was replaced by a Buick V8 and used, by Marsh, as a road car. Eventually, the car was sold as a road car and brought to the US.
A specific road going Marcos was also created in 1970 and called the Mantis 2+2 with space for the whole family, as long is it was not more than two adults and two children. It was powered by a Triumph TR6 engine. Sadly, production was ended by the company’s growing financial problems caused by the construction of a new factory and a slump in sales. The few Mantis 2+2 that were built were all sold, so the car seemingly had potential if not for the financial issues.
In 1972, Rob Walker took over production of the Mini Marcos and selling spares for the other Marcos models. His shop also did some Marcos restorations. Marsh operated a garage and a dealership after Marcos was sold. But Walker closed down his operation in 1976, and Marsh re-acquired the rights to the company. Initially, Marsh and Rory MacMath ran a spares and restoration operation, but production resumed in 1981 using the 1800 design with Ford 1. 3 and 3-liter engines. Under the direction of Jem Marsh, and his son, Chris, a number of new cars were introduced. With supplies of the Rover 3. 5-liter V8 provided, the Mantula was produced as both a coupé and spyder. The 1990 recession caused a decision to build a less expensive car, and the Cortina-based Martina was introduced as both a finished car and as a kit. The Mantara was introduced in 1994 initially using a Rover 3. 9-liter engine and, eventually, the 4. 7-liter Quad Cam engine from the Mustang. There were also race cars. The LM 500 led to the development of a new road car, the Mantis, using the Ford 4. 7-liter engine. A LM 600 followed using a 6-liter Chevrolet engine. Two were built for Le Mans in 1995 and had a new body that increased downforce by 300% and reduced drag by 10%. The cars qualified on the rows 22 and 23 of the grid, but one car was out after 20 hours with a U-joint failure. The other, with Chris Marsh as one of the drivers, finished 22nd, but did not complete enough laps to be formally classified.
The company struggled until receivers were appointed in 2001, and it was taken over by Tony Stellinga, a Canadian. Production finally ceased in 2008. Jem Marsh passed away in March 2015. He accomplished a lot for someone “without a school certificate. ”
Specifications
- Chassis: Square steel tubing
- Body: Fiberglass fastback coupé
- Drag Coefficient: 0. 45
- Engine: Ford British Essex V6
- Displacement: 2994 cc/182. 9 cubic inches
- Bore: 93. 67 mm/3. 69 inches
- Stroke: 72. 47 mm/2. 85 inches
- Horsepower: 107. 5 kW/144 hp at 4750 rpm
- Torque: 265 Nm/195. 5 ft-lbs at 3000 rpm
- Compression Ratio: 8. 9:1
- Induction: Weber 40 DIFI Twin Choke Carburetor
- Transmission: 4-Speed manual with overdrive
- Length: 4273 mm/168. 25 inches
- Width: 1589 mm/62. 5 inches
- Height: 1098 mm/43. 25 inches
- Wheelbase: 2262 mm/89 inches
- Front Track: 1283 mm/50. 5 inches
- Rear Track: 1295 mm/51 inches
- Curb Weight: 884 kg/1949 lbs
Particular thanks to two Marcos-focused sites for allowing me to use photos from their websites: The Unofficial Marcos Homepage (www. marcoscars. net) and The Original Marcos Owners Club (https://marcos-oc. com).
