History

Marcos - a brief history

Much has been written about the history of Marcos, so only a brief background will be given here.

• 1959  Jem Marsh and Frank Costin designed and built the first racing Marcos. The Marcos name comprises the first three letters of Marsh and Costin.

• 1963  The Dennis Adams designed GT is unveiled at the London Earls Court Motor Show.  The same basic design was to be used for the next 40 years.  The car, unusually, perhaps uniquely, employed a marine ply chassis.

• 1966  A Mini Marcos was the only British car to finish the Le Mans 24 Hours race.

• 1969  The wooden chassis is replaced by tubular steel and the Volvo engined 3 litre introduced.

• 1970  Triumph engined 4-seater Mantis is introduced.

• 1971  The company goes out of business (for the first, but not last, time!)

• 1981  Marcos V6 launched, in component form.

• 1984  Rover engined V8 Mantula introduced.

• 1986  Mantula Spyder launched.

• 1991  Mini Marcos (Mk V) relaunched.

• 1992  Marcos re-enters the market as a full-scale manufacturer (as opposed to component) with the Mantara, again powered by the Rover V8.

• 1993  The Le Mans (LM) GT is unveiled with plans to race in the British GT series.

• 1994  The LM500 races in the BRDC GT series, taking a number of class and outright wins.

• 1995  The LM600 wins the 1995 BRDC GT Championship and 2 factory backed cars race in the Le Mans 24 Hours, with one car completing the race.

• 1996  Continued racing success.  The Ford Mustang 4.6 litre engined Mantis is launched at the Motor Show.

• 2000  Marcos LM600s win the British and Spanish GT Championships.  The British Championship is won by Calum Lockie in a car run by Cor Euser; in recognition of this achievement Calum and Cor are elected to Honorary Memberships of the Club.  The racing side of the business is sold to Eurotech, a Dutch engineering company and long time racing sponsor of Marcos.

• 2001  The UK road car business is liquidated, but some of the assets taken over by Rory McMath, in the form of Marcos Heritage Spares, with the aim of providing continuity of service and spares for all cars from 1959 to date.

• 2002  Jem Marsh is back at the helm of 'Marcos Engineering Ltd' and the Ford V6 engined Marcasite TS250 is launched at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

• 2003  The V8 powered TS500 is launched, and the TS250's price is reduced.  The basic design of the original Adams' designed GT is still distinguishable in the TS500, some 40 years since its launch in 1963.

• 2004  Production is moved to new premises at Kenilworth in Warwickshire and in a departure from the Adams design the TSO is unveiled.  It is designed by Damian McTaggart and is powered by a Chevrolet 5.7 litre V8 (the same engine as powered the LM600).

• 2005  The Marcos TSO GT makes its debut in front of an estimated 250,000 race fans at the Clipsal 500 Adalaide motor race in South Australia.

• 2006  Over 100 revisions to the Marcos TSO GT sees the announcement of two new versions of the TSO, the TSO GTC and TSO R/T. The GTC is a two-seater coupe whilst the R/T has dual removable roof panels. Both models are powered by a 420bhp aluminium V8. A 462bhp 'Performance Pack' is also available.

• 2007  9th October, Marcos Engineering Ltd announces it has entered Administration with the intention of winding up its existing ongoing business activities.