Conference terri::cars_uk

    
    Well,
    
    I finally decided to get to the bottom of the problem with the
    passenger door not opening from the inside this weekend (having
    taken the whole mechanism out last weekend!).
    
    Having cleaned the mechanism in petrol and oiled all moving parts
    I put the whole lot back together off the car.  It worked fine,
    so I put it back on the car, and, of course, it didn't work.
    
    Finally I sussed the problem. It was that the mechanism was being
    pushed out of the door when the handle was pushed, because the washer
    holding the catch to the fibreglass door was smaller than the hole
    for the bolt (due to wear over the years).
    
    A marginally larger washer has solved the problem for the time being
    but longer term the door will probably need some repairs down to
    it to completely cure the problem.
    
    This weekend, I also, found a tyre fitters (just around the corner)
    who will take off and refit the tyres on the Marcos wheels, so after
    the CARS_UK meet (providing it isn't raining), I'll put the car
    up on axle stands and take off the front wheels and strip them of
    paint and corrosion and repaint them.
    
    I've also got to arrange the final  details of the re-trimming and
    get hold of a glass rear windscreen from the Marcos Owners club.
    
    It's improving gradually.
    Mark

    Have you considered having the wheels "blasted" to remove the paint and
    corrosion. I have a feeling that bead-blasting would be suitable for this
    and could save hours of work, especially if the wheels have a fancy pattern 
    on them ...

    Mark

	I reckon I saw a yellow Marcos on a car sales forecourt on the
	Wokingham road, winnersh way last week.

	-John

    
    You did. It's in the Bulldog Service Station.
    
    Immaculate. late '60's I think. Didn't pay too much attention to
    it as I was captivated by the Aston next to it........
    
    Did notice it was �15k, which explains much of my lack of interest.
    
    

    
    �15k!!
    
    It might be worth a trip to look at this!
    
    Mark Whose_Marcos_decided_that_a_one_way_trip_to_the_Leather_Bottle_was
    _quite_enough_for_one_night!
     
    

    
    re -1 I take it you got home ok!? Did you try re-starting it when it
    was warm?  If it started first time, and sounded as if the battery was
    fully charged, I'd definitely have a look at the earth! 
    
    (If you want help with the earth wireing Derek is into "earth strap 
    over-engineering", I'll show you the results in the Landy some time!)
    
    Elaine

    
    Yep,
    
    We got home ok.
    
    I have a vague suspicion about the fault, but I'll be checking the
    earth strap out though once I get home tonight.
    
    Mark
    

    
    ARRRGHHHH!
    
    My vague suspicion seemed to check out! I went out to the garage
    last night and checked the passenger window winder button. Sure
    enough it was stuck in the up position!
    
    This happened the first night I owned the car and I usually check
    it ver carefully, but on Tuesday Mandy wound up the window and I
    didn't think to check that when Mark and I returned from our 
    quick spin!
    
    Oh well! I charged the battery up last night and I'll put it back
    in again tonight so I should know if that was the problem by the
    weekend, but all the signs point to a massive drain on the battery
    starting Tuesday evening, and the window motor being constantly
    on fits the description perfectly!
    
    Mark

    
    A while ago someone mentioned that they'd been told that you couldn't
    get a Marcos in Europe.
    
    Recently I've heard of (and seen) cars bound for Holland and other
    places in Europe (Italy, for instance). I was wondering what reason
    the person was given to make them think that cars cannot be sold
    abroad.
    
    Mark

   
    Re .56
    
    I spoke to someone I know who works for a blasting company and I'm
    (hopefully) getting the wheels blasted rather than trying to sand
    then down by hand. The pattern isn't especially intricate, but there
    are some places where it'd be a bit tricky and it should save me
    a lot of time.
    
    Mark

    While restoring the Elan, I had many parts (including the wheels)
    sandblasted by a company that makes tombstones!  They used a fine
    sand, as the granite didn't take much effort.
    
    	-Barry-
    

    
    I hope you didn't consider it a GRAVE mistake ! :^)
    
    Mark

    Mark,
    
    Take a look at next months issue of one of the Classic Car
    magazines(will be March date on the cover I think!), It is going to run
    a road test of a Marcos against an old TVR, or something similar, in
    the next issue. I will try to remember to read the "next issue...."
    page tonight.
    
    Carl.
    

    
    Ahhhhhhhh!!
    
    Heaven! :^)
    
    Mark 
   

With Aluminium, shouldn't it be bead blasting anyway ?

I'd have thought that "Sand" blasting would strip all the aluminium away as well
as the much :-)

    
    The wheels on my Marcos are Magnesium alloy and made to a special
    pattern specifically for Marcos (The company logo is cast into the
    wheel pattern). I'm not sure if they can be SAND blasted, but the
    place I'll have them done at will know what they should use.
    
    Mark

	Re. Marcos not being available in Europe

	I said that Mark !

	The reason I said that was after asking a dealer, can't remember
	the name, somewhere near Lincoln he reckoned it would be very
	difficult for a number of reasons. Firstly he wasn't sure about the
	car being available with left hand drive. Secondly, in his opinion,
	the "type" approval or whatever it's called indicating the car meets
	production safety standards, had not been done. Lastly, he didn't
	think there were any "approved" franchises over here (Holland) that
	would a) sell the car, and b) service the car.

	Now if he was wrong in one or all his facts great ! 

	Were the cars you saw left hand drive ? From my point of view, not
	being mechinically minded, the servicing would have been the biggest
	problem. Presumably Marcos give a guarantee on their cars, to meet
	this guarantee I would have thought an "approved" garage would have
	to do this for the guarantee to remain valid. 

	Gordon

    The forthcoming Magazine article is in "Popular Classics", next month,
    testing entitled:"Three litre Bottles",  A 1970's TVR3000, vs a Volvo
    Engined Marcos.
    
    Carl.
    

    
    Re .74
    
    Oh well a truck engined Marcos is better than none at all! Thanks,
    Carl.
    
    Re .73
    
    I thought it was you Gordon, but I couldn't find the original note.
    
    Who was the dealer you spoke to a dealer for? I didn't know Marcos
    had any dealers! LHD Marcii are common (as Derek says over 100 
    went to the States in the early 70s - There are at least 2 owned
    there by DEC employees) and there is a thriving Swiss Marcos Owners
    Club.
    
    As I said I have seen cars destined for Holland (The red convertible
    seen in the press recently with no light covers for one!) and, yes,
    they are left hand drive. A look through the Marcos parts list shows
    all the LHD parts and the dashboard is flat so there wouldn't be
    any problem converting from RHD to LHD and/or back. In fact we had
    an Italian come to the Wembley Classic Car show who wanted to convert
    a couple of Marcii from RHD to LHD.
    
    Servicing MAY be a problem. Only a call to Marcos would clear this
    one up, but a Marcos engine/gearbox could be serviced by any Rover/
    Land Rover dealer and there is nothing else frightening about the
    mechanicals (with only a few parts being Marcos specific). Any parts
    that did need to be obtained from the factory can be shipped pretty
    quickly (The Swiss owners club buy most parts from the factory due
    to the efficient shipping - Not what I found, though!).

    Mark

	Re. Marcos Dealers.

	No, it wasn't a Marcos dealer, it was garage selling all sorts of
	sports cars. I stopped there just for look, the selection on the
	forecourt was that inviting ! I was browsing around when the salesman
	came over and we started talking about Marcos's in general and buying
	one to run over here in particular.

	Gordon

    
    Ah well! The trouble with something as unusual as a Marcos is that
    even fairly knowledgeable people have never heard of them!
    
    Not knowing that the car was made in LHD was a real pointer to this
    chaps lack of knowledge. If you (or anyone else since you got your
    200SX instead I guess) are interested in the facts the number of
    Marcos is 0373 864097.
    
    Best to ask for Jem Marsh, but Chris Marsh would do just as well.
    
    Mark

    re.74
    
    Was that a bored out PRV V6 or the old 180bhp Volvo 3.0 Litre straight
    six ?
    
    Grant

    
    The old 3.0 litre straight six, but the power was more like 130
    bhp!
    
    Mark

It's amazing what a phone call to the DVLC can achieve isn't it? After waiting
for over two months for details of the Marcos' previous owners, one day after
calling the DVLC for progress the details arrive! Obviously they were just 
about to send them back anyway! :^)

The details are a real goldmine and well worth getting for any car I would
have thought. The car was originally registered to someone who lived in 
Stanmore and the car was then beige! He kept the car for a couple of years
and then sold it. It seems that many people are attracted by the Marcos' look
, but few can cope with its temprement (or more likely, harsh ride) as it has
had a lot of short term (6-9 month) owners including 3 in Devon and someone
in Aldershot. The car also spent a long time in Green and White (hence the 
green paint behind the door trims!) before eventually turning its current colour
in the early eighties.

Finally the car found its way back to Jem Marsh (in late 1982) and was finally
registered to Jem Marsh Performance Cars in October 1986 (confirming the story
I'd heard). The history after that doesn't quite tally with what Andrew Bodding-
ton (the previous owner) was told as there are two owners between the factory
and him and he (and I) were told that the dealer he bought it from had bought
it from the factory.

So I now know a great deal about the car's history (does anyone know if you
can get copies of old MOT certificates? That would help me estimate the
mileage).

I have had the front wheels blasted and hopefully will be able to respray them
this weekend (house hunting permitting) as I've promised a friend in Bournemouth
that I'd take the car down to the National rally held near there on the 27th and
that could be difficult with only wheels on the back!

Mark

    
    Mark,
    
    When I bought my Beetle from the original "little old lady", she gave
    all the receipts, old MOT certificates, etc since she had it in 1977,
    It was about 3/4 of and inch thick!
    and a copy of the previous ownership certificate.
    This confirms that the car spent its first 5 years of its life in Hong
    Kong, luckily they drive on the left like us!!
    The receipts showed every oilchange, plugchange, new bulb, etc etc. It
    appears she just about managed to fill up the windscreen washer bottle
    herself!.
    Also there is a receipt for an engine rebuild in 1984, since which the
    car had only done 6000 miles!
    I agree it is not only interesting, but also adds value to the car, and
    a certain amount of confidence in you, when you sell the car.
    
    Carl.
    

	Re .80
     > ...the car was then beige!
     > ...had a lot of short term owners including ... someone in Aldershot.

       Just for interest, could you check if one of the previous owners
       was a Mr. G. Robinson? 

       Thanks, Ian.

    
    Yep, I will, but I've not got the details here so I can't tell you
    until tomorrow.
    
    Mark

        
    Re .83
    
    No, that name doesn't match any on my registration documents.
    
    Did you know someone with a Marcos then?
    
    I went to the Aldershot dry slope yesterday and heard a rather sporty
    sounding exhaust note part way through the run, but from where I was I
    couldn't see the car park. 
    
    As we left I heard the note again, and somehow it seemed familiar so
    I rushed over to the car park and sure enough there was a Marcos. I
    had a word with the driver (who lives in Basingstoke apparently) who
    told me that his was a 3-litre (like mine) from 1987 (apparently you 
    can still order non-Mantula Marcos coupes from the factory).
    
    Mark

>    No, that name doesn't match any on my registration documents.
>    Did you know someone with a Marcos then?
    
       Yes I did. I was thinking about it last night and trying to work
       out the date. I reckon it was around 1976/77. The brother of a
       friend of mine had one, and he gave me a ride in it a couple of
       times. He was very proud of it. 

       It's a shame it's not the same one (nostalgia is a thing of the
       past!) - but now I think about it, I seem to remember he had a
       nasty accident in his, so perhaps it's just as well!

       Ian.

       > It's a shame it's not the same one (nostalgia is a thing of the
       > past!) - but now I think about it, I seem to remember he had a
       > nasty accident in his, so perhaps it's just as well!

    
    	I Wouldn't argue with that! :^)
    
    	Mark

Mark,
	I presume that you've seen the latest Kit Car Magazine - it has a 
write up of a Marcos (nice, old, restored model) and a brief run down of the 
history of Marcos.  If you can't be bothered to buy the magazine (it is going
rapidly down hill - I think I'll stick to Kit Cars International), then you 
can have my copy.

Dave

    
    I don't think I have! I'll have a look in Smith's today.
    
    If you really don't want your copy, I'd gratefully receive it, but
    I'll buy it if it has anything about Marcos in it!
    
    Mark

(couldn't find the right note in CARBUFFS so maybe any interested USA
folk will see it here)


In the current issue of the (Mass. area) Want Advertiser there is listed
the following:

1971 Marcos. Fiberglass body, 2 seats, adjustable pedals. Power windows,
Power Steering, sunroof, 3 liter V-6 engine, steel tube frame, 34" ground
clearance (obviously he meant overall height), low center of gravity.
250 units made for world wide distribution. Own a piece of sports car
history. Some restoration needed. $5000  508-586-9546.

The magazine is on my desk at work, you're welcome to have it.  I'm in 
DEC Park 1 G/9H.

Dave

    
    Re .91
    
    Dave, 
    
    you couldn't stick it in the internal mail could you? I'm at the
    Crescent in Basingstoke (@ UCG).
    
    Mark

	Marcos : 1968 coupe, RHD, makes great vintage racer, powered by
	1 1/2 liter Ford Cortina engine, fiberglass body, interior like
	new, $6,500    Dallas, TX  PH 214-242-1957

Mark,
	it's in the mail...
Dave

    
    Thanks!
    
    Mark

    Seen siting in the laybye at the Hatchwarren roundabout, all last
    night and again this morning a bright red marcos. Looks like it
    may have broken down. But it still looks gorgeous....
    
    
    Bruce

    
    MARCII DON'T BREAK DOWN!
    
    It must be ill... :^)
    
    Mark

    
    it had a hard night ?

Or as Harry Secombe's chauffeur stated when asked why the Rolls had broken down
(it was due to water in the petrol FWIW), he said simply that
"Rolls Royces do not _break down_, it simply failed to proceed"

    
    Over a 100 notes on Marcos! 
    
    I took yesterday afternoon off (yes, a contractor!) to finish
    repainting the 2 wheels which I'd taken off and had sandblasted.
    
    All in all they looked pretty good once they were finished and 
    I had the local tyre fitter put the tyres back on and fit new tubes
    (and they only charged me for the tubes as well!) and put the wheels
    back on the car.
    
    It then took me all the way out of the garage, turned around and
    went back in again! It's now sitting with it's tail in the air and
    the back wheels are at the tyre fitters having the tyres taken off
    prior to sandblasting and repainting.
    
    I've still got to paint and refit the wheel centres for all 4 wheels,
    but hopefully the car should be back on the road before too long
    (the brake pads need looking at too as the car now pulls right under
    hard braking).
    
    Mark 

    Could be a sticking piston causing the car to pull to the right.
    Probably more likely than the pads ...

    Mark

    
    Re .103
    
    Mark.
    
    What's the diagnosis and cure for a sticking piston?
    
    Mark

    I saw that Marcos (I think it was the same one) yesterday, parked in a
    sort of lay-by near the new Sainsburys part of town(on the housing
    estate as I trying to find my way round some trees!) Looks really nice
    though, Ferrarri red, with large5 spoke flat alloys(like flat ferrarri
    ones).
    
    Try taking the pads out of the calipers, and working the pistons
    back/forward with a flat screwdriver or similar lever, be carefull not
    to scratch them. If they won't move, then loosen the bleed nipple to
    release pressure.
    If you do this, and it still pulls to the right, then there may be a
    blockage in the flexible brake pipe. I once went as far as buying new
    calipers, when one side locked on/pulled to the left... The new ones
    did it aswell, untill I changed the brake pipe. The old one needed
    inexess of 60 psi to get a dribble out of it!
    
    Carl_not_really_mark!
    

    An easy test is to jack up the car, get someone to hold the brake
    pedal down and then release it. If the wheel still revolves easily,
    the piston is not sticking. A good check is to compare both sides.
    If one is sticking it will be obvious ...

    The only way a car is likely to pull to one side due to worn pads
    is if there is no pad left on one side. 

    Just a thought, does this occur all the time, or only after a while.
    Different pad thicknesses could cause a problem when the brakes get
    hot ... one would get hotter than the other and you'd get brake fade
    on that side. If it pulls all the time, then I would suspect a sticking
    piston, or as in -.1 a blocked brake line on one side. The test above
    will not allow you to differentiate which of these it is though ...    

   Mark

    AN EASY TEST for the brake line, is to pump air through it with a foot
    pump, a "beach-ball" adapter works best- there should be NO resistance.
    Carl.

	Pulling to one side is IMO 95% due to sticking pistons.	

	Uneven pad wear is a symptom of sticking pistons. The
	side that's not worn is sticking.

	Driving with sticking pistons can ruin your disks and bearings.

	Pistons are more prone to sticking in cars that aren't in
	constant use.

	Removing stuck pistons is not easy.

	You can get stainless pistons in many sizes.

	-John

    
    
    I reckon I must have had a sticking piston as it seemed fine again
    this weekend when I put the wheels back on.
    
    The wheels have come up really well (trouble is they put the rest
    of the car to shame now!), but I haven't refitted the wheel centres
    to the front wheels (as I expected to have to take the wheels off
    to fix the pull) yet and I'm still waiting for the wheel centre
    badges to finish them off properly.
    
    I also got the Smiths clock back last week. Mandy's bosses' father-in-
    law is a retired jeweller/watchmaker and had recently fixed the
    clock in Mandy's bosses' 1954 Bentley (who says Opticians don't
    make money?). So he had a go at mine and (touch wood) it is running
    and keeping perfect time. It needed a new part, but �7.50 seemed
    a small amount to spend to get the only non-functioning instrument
    working. It's an odd size (being slightly bigger than a 52mm dial)
    and I had only found positive earth ones at auto-jumbles (anyone
    want a positive earth Smith's clock with a grey face?).
    
    The car's retrim is due soon and after that I'll have to start worrying
    about the MOT (although everything seems ok at the moment.).
    
    Still, it'll soon be time to drive the car on a regular basis again
    as the nights draw out.
    
    Mark
    
    PS Does anyone know of someone who'd remove and refit the front
    and rear screens on the car for a nominal fee? They've got to be
    taken out for the fitting of the new rooflining.
    
    

Try Barker Brothers for the screens - he had to remove my windows to spray the
car and he's got the tools.

+ve earth smiths clock?  How much do you want for it?  (I don't care which type
of earth it is - the dash is wooden)

Dave

    
    Re .The clock.
    
    A couple of quid? I paid 2 for it and it's yours for the same amount.
    
    Mark
    
    PS I'm not sure it works, but if it doesn't I'll give you your money
    back! Now, come on ladies, I can't say fairer than that can I! (Oh
    no my market trader alter-ego is taking over!).
    
    

    I suggest you look at the information on VTX relating to Digital
    authorised repairers for the situation regarding Barker Brothers,
    before you do business with them.
    
    Steve

    
    Oh! Still being in Reading they weren't the ideal solution anyway!
    
    Mark

What 113 was refering to is that Barker Brothers are no longer the prefered
repairers of DEC vehicles.  It is the lease departments policy not to direct
too much business to any one company - in theory it makes these companies
lax and dependant on DEC.  So, Barker Brothers have lost most of their DEC 
lease work.

Be that as it may, and knowing Henry Barker reasonably well, Barker Bros are
a good place to take your private car.  He's always willing to chat about what
work needs doing, how long etc.

Dave

    
    VTX says they've ceased trading!
    
    Mark

Ahhh, oh, dear....Well, then, my last note probably explains why...

I have a glazing tool, if you wish to borrow it, it allows you to replace the
little rubber locking channel in window surround rubbers.

Dave

	You don't really need any tools to replace the older style ie.
	non-bonded windscreens. Just pull out the insert strip and the
	tension in the rubber is released, then lift out screen.

	Putting them back is the reverse. Use some sealant around the
	edges, put the screen in and insert the strip. Pushing the strip
	back in can be hard, and there is a tool that's supposed to make
	it easy but lubricating with washing up liquid normally does the
	trick.

	But be warned, the insert strips often go very brittle and lose 
	their shine. Get some new (it comes by the yard) is the best 
	policy.

	-John

    
    Maybe I'll have a go at taking them out myself then. Would my 
    insurance cover be likely to cover a windscreen broken while removing
    or fitting? What exactly is the insert strip? My front windscreen
    doesn't seem to have anything as neat as one all-the-way-round rubber.
    Would this be a problem?
    
    Mark
    

	Sometimes the insert strip, which is usually a silver plastic
	material, is hidden behind some form of decorative trim. This
	makes it trickier but the principle is the same. You just might 
	have some more complex arrangement though.

	-John

    
    Thanks John,
    
    I'll have a look tonight.
    
    Mark  

    Mark,
    I Have bought some of the brush on paint, ordered from my local
    auto-store, in the original colour of my car(1970 Beetle
    VWpastel-white).
    I also bought a 2" Hamiltons brush, and some thinners. The brush is
    supposed to be V.good, should be for �7.49 each!
    At the moment I plan to prep, and paint the front wings,& valance
    completely, and I will try to cut-in the other patch's, as they are all
    at the edge of panels, or trim!
    
    I will keep you posted on the results!
                              
    Carl. 

    
    Anyone got any idea how much those temporary windscreen things are?
    
    Mark

    
    Right, I got the rear screen out really easily (being perspex meant
    it was light and that I wasn't worried about breaking it) and the
    trim stuff came out of the front windscreen with no problems as
    well. I'll probably try and take the front windscreen out at the
    weekend (when I'll have someone to help me) and then take the car
    over to the trimmers without the screens in (I'll put a temporary
    one on if it's wet and/or cold).
    
    Mrk

    A trick to get the windshield gaskets in-
    
    use a piece of strong but fine string - like high test fishing line -
    then you can pull it around to get the gasket thru, BUT be careful it
    does not cut into the rubber.
    
    There may have been something about the technique in the Elan shop
    manual.
    
    	-Barry-
    

    more details - I just read my reply and it may be confusing...
    
    lay the string in the channel (outer channel where it seals to the
    body) of the gasket.  pulling it out will lift the lip of the gasket
    over the edge of the body or the glass.
    
    	-Barry-
    

    
    Well, I got the front windscreen out in one piece yesterday with
    a bit of help (thanks Dad!). With two of us working at it, it came
    out very easily (just as you described John). So I've saved myself
    �90 even if I pay someone to put the front windscreen back in.
    
    There are a couple of people on my estate who are windscreen fitters
    , so I thought I might approach one of them about a bit of
    extra-circular activity :^).
    
    Oh well, I'm off on holiday on Saturday and won't  be coming back
    afterwards, so goodbye all and if I ever do come back to work at
    DEC I'll let you know how the Marcos is going.
    
    Mark
    

	So far so good, but sometime you'll be putting them back, so
	here's how to do it.



	Replacement is the reverse of the removal procedure.



	Well this is what the service manuals always say isn't it!.

	More usefully though try this. You'll need :-

	* Mastic
	* Something to clean away stray mastic (white spirit).
	* A length of cord, about 15ft long.
	* A tyre lever or some other non sharp instrument (Kitchen Spatula,
	Giant Spoon?).
	* New insert strip if old is badly hardened.
	* Washing up liquid.

	0. Print a copy of this note for when you need it.
	1. Remove all old hardened mastic.
	2. Wrap the cord around the outer slot of the rubber with the two
	ends in the centre bottom.
	3. Apply mastic where seemingly necessary on the exterior of the
	window frame.
	4. Place the windscreen/rubber assembly into place locating the
	bottom edge correctly in place and  with the cord on the inside.
	5. Press broadly into position. If there are two people available
	leave one outside to help press the thing down.
	6. Inside pull carefully on the cord ends. This will pull the innner
	lip of the rubber over the aperture. 
	7. If 6 worked perfectly you wont need the lever, but recalcitrant
	sections can be persuaded into place with this.
	8. Clean off the mastic that's oozed out.
	9. Lubricate the insert/channel with washing up liquid and press
	into position. The join is usually at the centre bottom.
	10. Clean up.

	It should take no more than 20 mins to do.

	-John

	PS. I think it's best to use a fairly broad cord to avoid damage to
	the rubber. Slimline washing line is about right.

	PPS. Don't they have workshop manuals for Marcoses?.

	PPPS. I've done them just as easily without the cord, but that's
	the 'official' technique.

    
    Thanks John,
    
    it's amazing what you learn by taking cars apart! :^)
    
    What do you mean by 'the outer slot of the rubber'? Do you mean
    the one which fits over the windscreen opening in the body?
    
    Mark (Mr Windscreen fitter!)
    

    
    Heh! Get this.
    
    The Marcos' windscreen rubber is actually 4 bits GLUED together!!!!
    
    The insert is also four bits (but there's no connection!).
    
    Re .129
    
    I think Barry's note answered mine about the outer slot.
    
    Mark

    
    A final note on 'The Beast'.
    
    At the moment it sits patiently with its front and rear windscreens
    removed and waiting for the retrim that will take place in the week
    17/3 - 24/3.
    
    Finally I decided to have the following done :-
    
    Retrim the seats in draylon (as original).
    Have a new headlining and sunroof interior fitted (current rooflining
    is badly torn and painted brown! and the sunroof lining discoloured).
    Retrim the door trim panels in draylon (not original, but I thought     
    it would look nice).
    
    The respray will have to be delayed indefinitely now, but maybe it'll
    get done next year. At least the lifiting paint won't lead to rusting! :^)
    
    Well, that's it. Don't forget if you see a metallic red Marcos it's
    probably me, so give a wave or flash your lights!
    
    Mark

    
    Well I'm disappointed in you all. I go away for 4 months and you let my
    note get all cobwebby through lack of use! :^)
    
    The Beast is alive and well and tucked under it's new dustcover (a
    birthday pressie from Mrs-Saxby-to-be) in my garage (I'll bring it in
    to DEC Park one day, I can't understand all the fuss about DP's speed 
    bumps, the Crescent's looked like mountains by comparison!).
    
    All has not (unsuprisingly) been smooth since Februaury though.
    The retrim went well, but I think the trimmers managed to gouge through
    one of the countless layers of paint on the bonnet while it was done.
    Although the retrim isn't perfect, it is a vast improvement on the old
    interior and was very reasonable (the only real problem is that the 
    suroof wouldn't come out without drilling out the screws - and possibly
    not being able to get it back in - and so the lining overlaps the rear
    fitting rather than going under it).
    
    The car seemed fine until I tried to get it MOTed in May. It failed
    with a worn upper balljoint on one side and 'excess play in the 
    wheelbearings' on the other. The first problem wsa easily fixed, but 
    the second proved to be badly diagnosed and entailed a new steering
    rack! Now fitting a rack shouldn't be too difficult, but as the Marcos
    isn't built the same as a Herald there are 1 inch spacers in the rack
    which restrict the look and prevent the wheels rubbing on the chassis.
    So I had to take apart the old rack to get the spacers out and then
    disasemble the new one to fit them in, before reassembling it and
    fitting it to the car. Well that was eventually done and the car was
    returned to the MOT test centre (this some weeks after the initial
    test).
    
    The old problems were successfully cured, but the steering column
    (which is actually lots of rods held together by UJs) was fouling the 
    chassis, and the horn wasn't working. So, after spending the rest of
    that day at a wedding, the next morning I took the steering linkage
    apart and cleaned up the connections on the horn. SUCCESS! The car
    passed.
    
    The afternoon saw the Marcos take its first off road excursion in
    my ownership. We decided to go to a hillclimb near Alton, and the 
    car park was about � mile up a dirt track, only negotiable by putting
    the wheels on the high bits either side of the ruts!
    
    On the way home we were doing a steady speed (modesty prevents me 
    saying what!), when water started spraying over the passenger side of
    the windscreen! Obviously we hastily stopped and opened the bonnet.
    Everything was covered in water, but there was no sign of a hose 
    coming adrift or the radiator having burst.
    
    Revving the engine soon identified the culprit as a small split in the
    top of the radiator (where the filler joins the body) which has always
    been there, but obviously had suddenly worsened. I drove home fairly
    cautiously and the car never showed any sign of overheating. Some 
    Plastic Padding Fix-leak (or something like that) seems to have
    effected a suitable repair and the car was fine on a longish run last
    weekend.
    
    Meanwhile I have also addressed the problem of the bonnet hinges.
    Basically the hinges consist of two metal tubes passing through two
    pieces of plywood, and after 20 years the plywood has ovaled out quite
    badly, so I cut out a larger whole in the wood and made up two spacers
    from softwood with an outer diameter to fit the new hole and an inner
    one to fit the tube. It works really well as the bonnet doesn't float
    around at speed and there is much less of a banging and crashing on 
    bumpy roads, which a fellow Marcos owner had said was probably due to
    this problem.
    
    The next duty which the Beast has to perform is to be our getaway car
    at our wedding (next weekend) and then it'll be taken to Sandown to 
    sit with the others (I'll be looking to buy some cheap carpet this year
    too!) and maybe up to Donnington for the Group C race. After that I
    intend to start stripping the paint off, but whether that'll happen 
    will probably depend on how our house sales/purchase is going.
    
    More to follow !
    
    Mark  

Is the Probe 2001 the same as the Dennis-Adams-designed Probe 15?

This is a turquoise car, VERY low (32", I think).  It claims to have been the
world's lowest car at the time of its production (1968).  It also has the weird
steering wheel as described in the Probe 2001 note.

It tends to sit around at kit car shows not doing much...

Scott

    
    The Probe 2001 and the Probe 15 are both SIMILAR, but with some
    variations (not sure exactly what, maybe the MOC magazine will cast 
    some light).
    
    The Probes were both (actually there are 3 I think) designed and built
    by Dennis and his brother (whose name I can't remember) with support
    from Jem Marsh at the Marcos factory.
    
    The idea was to produce them en-mass, but god knows who would have 
    bought them!
    
    Mark

    
    Ok, for anyone looking for a REAL sportscar on the lease scheme (or
    out of their own pocket), what about Marcos Spyder for about �17k?
    
    The 2 litre DOHC version will be officially launched at the NEC 
    Motorshow. With a top speed around 120 mph and a 0-60 time of 'less
    than 7 seconds' it's serious enough to see off most of the hot-hatches
    and coupes for about the same money. The handling will be a lot more
    serious than those compromise machines, but the newly developed Sierra
    based IRS should ensure a more comfortable ride than those of you
    who've experienced my car will have had.
    
    The only thing stopping me from ordering one of these head-turning,
    tax-busting beasts as my next company car is my wife's insistance that
    one 2-seater car in the family is enough and that the current 3 litre
    will have to go if I'm to get a new Spyder. Aren't women unreasonable?
    
    Still, I almost swayed here by mentioning that we could both drive one
    if I bought a new one! :^)
    
    Mark
    

    
    Judging from the performance figures, sounds like the gearing is odd.
    
    Bill.

    
    I think the real problem is the aerodynamics. The V8 car will do 0-60
    in 5.n seconds, but can 'only' reach 135 mph.
    
    The performance doesn't sound odd to me (about 120 and 7 seconds is the
    Renault 5 GTT's performance too!), it just means it isn't geared for
    autobahn cruising.
    
    Mark

    
    It sounded like a car with low gearing to get a good sprint time,
    but lacking the power for a high top speed.
    
    Bill.

    
    Re.135
    
    It seems that Mark seriously reads the serious Motoring Press about all
    the serious performance cars seriously on serious offer at the moment.
    
    I seriously think that serious is seriously overworked, but what do I
    care?

    
    I only said serious TWICE! :^)
    
    Actually (that's a bad one too!) my current use of the word serious
    comes from spending a week in a minibus with someone who was seriously
    into using the word serious as an adjective (correct my grammar if it's
    something else!). It was a seriously good holiday though and we saw
    some serious animals!
    
    Mark :^)
    
    PS Bill, perhaps you've just got used to cars with LONG gearing
    designed to give misleadingly high top speeds and MPG figures?
    

    
    Yes, everyone knows you only use fifth on Glencoe (serious speed ;-) )
                    
    Bill.

    
    � Yes, everyone knows you only use fifth on Glencoe (serious speed ;-) )
    
    Going up or down? 
    
    Seriously! :^)
    
    Mark
    

Does this car use the standard Sierra 2.0 DOHC engine / 5-sp box ?
You mention rear suspension is Sierra; what's at the front ?

Scott

    
    Yep standard Ford engine/box.
    
    Front suspension is our old friend the Herald set up as used on Lotus
    7s, Elans, Marcii, Spitfires, etc, etc, etc.
    
    Mark

    
    I took the Marcos to a rolling road (see note 7) on Saturday to sort
    out the very high fuel consumption which has occured since I fitted
    the Pipercross airfilter. The bloke who did the work commented that he
    thought that the engine probably has a fast road cam as it produced 
    power right up to 6k, whereas the standard engine only has power up to
    about 5k. He also commented that engine seemed to be about 10 bhp up
    on most 3 litre V6s (Fords anyway, I suspect the Alfa is a VERY
    different matter, not to mention the Ferrari!) giving about 110 bhp at 
    the wheels once he'd sorted out the carburettor.
    
    The day, as seems usual with the Beast, was not all good though. On the
    way to Cheriton I was travelling along the A31 when there was a loud
    clunk from the rear of the car and a scraping noise (like an exhaust
    scraping on the road). I stopped to check it out but found nothing
    out the ordinary as far as the exhausts were concerned, although one
    wheel did seem further out of the body than I'd remembered. Anyway,
    I carried on, but the noise continued. I began to suspect a bush had
    failed in the rear suspension (the MOT had highlighted them as cracked
    and worn), so I had the car tuned, but on the road test I braked from
    about 70 mph and found the car weaving all over the road (not nice!).
    
    I drove the car home carefully and jacked it up and took off one of the
    rear wheels (by now one was about 3 inches outside the bodywork and
    the other 3 inside). I thought perhaps the bar which is bolted to the
    axle at one end and the chassis at the other (going across the car -
    what's it called?) might have pulled out of it's bush, but the truth
    was much worse.
    
    The bar had indeed come adrift, but the reason it had done so was
    because the plate which it was attatched to on the chassis had been 
    completely shattered. I suspect it was partly corroded through rust
    and that the force applied to the remaining healthy metal was just
    too much!.
    
    Someone is coming to look at the damage tonight to tell me if welding
    a new plate on is pratical. Failing that I'm probably looking at a 
    new chassis for about �1200.
    
    Mark
    

    
    Re The Panhard rod fixing.
    
    Got a quote for �50 to fix a new plate to the chassis.
    
    The welder is coming over on Thursday morning and the car should
    be back on the road for the weekend (all things being equal) which
    will give me a chance to try out the retuned engine properly! :^)
    
    Mark

    
    The car is fixed and back on the road again.
    
    I'd recommend anyone with a car which isn't running quite right to
    visit a rolling road. The V6 in the Beast has never run so smoothly or
    been so responsive. It even sounds 100% better! :^)
    
    Mark

    
    The rear suspension is fixed, engine is tuned and now I've had the radiator
    reconditioned and am about to purchase a fan blade to fit the auxillary
    cooling fan fitted in front of the radiator (to help cooling in
    traffic). Thanks for Kenlowe's number, Dick. 
    
    Both windscreen wipers now wipe (the passenger one used to just flop 
    aimlessly onto the wing after one wipe) after a visit to the Grand
    London Autojumble (only the name was grand in truth!). Chrome wiper
    arms are getting difficult to find and the teeth inside the arm had
    stripped off the old one. I've hunted around autojumbles at various
    shows but this was the first time I've seen suitable arms and at a 
    �1 each I couldn't go wrong (typical black arm prices in Les Smith
    are �6-�8). One thing to watch is the price of things at Autojumbles.
    Second-hand wiper arms of the same type as I managed to purchase still
    in their packaging were selling for as much as �4.99 on another stall
    at the same autojumble!
    
    The only problem is the car isn't taxed! Still, the house should be sold 
    (touch wood!!!!) in the next couple of weeks and then I can afford the 
    �100 to put it back on the road, and it has given me the chance to do 
    these little jobs that I really should have done months ago!
    
    Mark

    
    Splashed out the 100 notes (or should I say little gold coloured coins)
    on the Beast's road fund licence and took it out for a spin last night
    to meet Goran Mitevski (he of the Mini Marcos, Lotus Europa and TVR
    Taimar).
    
    Everything went well (the radiator never got remotely warm so we
    froze!) except that on the way to the Leather Bottle it ran extremely
    rough. I guess it was damp electrics, because it ran fine on the way
    home.
    
    If you see me around hoot and wave and I'll probably give you a wave
    (although I can't make any guarantees on how many fingers will be
    involved. That will depend on the Beast's current temperament!).
    
    Mark

    
    Don't believe anti-Marcos propoganda by the Elan fraternity (well John
    actually!). :^)
    
    No Marcos produced after 1963 (when the Adams designed GT was
    introduced) has used leaf springs or lever shock absorbers!
    
    Mark (I wouldn't like anyone to labour under a misapprehension about
    my favourite sportscar - well favourite one in my garage! :^) )
    

    
    Well, it's been a long time since I gave you an update on the Beast.
    
    The main reason for that being that it's hardly been out of the garage
    since before Christmas. We used it to go to a pre-Xmas meal in
    Bournemouth about 2 weeks before Christmas (the weekend it rained and
    snowed!) and, aside from the fact that the wipers couldn't cope with
    the severe rain on the Friday night, all went well.
    
    However, when I got the car out a week or so after New Year to give it 
    another run there was a grinding noise (seemingly from the rear). So
    far, my brief investigations haven't shown any obvious problem, but I
    suspect that one of the brakes at the rear is rubbing. One drum does
    seem to get much hotter than the other and the noise is very
    reminiscent of the sound that I get when the brakes on the Renault are
    rusty (after leaving it for a week or so).
    
    The car has moved from my garage to my wife's in the last couple of
    weeks as we finally sold my house and, as we also have an offer for
    Mandy's house now, it seems likely that it will be moving again in the
    not too distant future. What with house hunting and holidays I don't 
    know when I'll get around to sorting out what the problem is. There's
    no light or power in my current garage so working in the evenings is a
    non-starter too, but that will change once we move.
    
    I'd toyed with the idea of taking the Beast to Le Mans this year, but
    at the moment it doesn't look very likely. Still, as my father is
    taking his car this year, it might be possible yet, since we'll have a 
    tool (and wine) carrying backup vehicle.
    
    Mark

    
    There's a 1 page article in Kit Car magazine this month about the new
    Marcos XP2 race car.
    
    This is essential a heavily modified Mantula with a V8 Rover engine
    capable of pushing the car along at 170+ mph and getting to 60 mph
    in under 5 seconds (no doubt the 60-100 mph figures are even more
    impressive). The bodywork has flared arches at the front and rear (the
    rear arches being molded into a new rear end altogether) and is made
    from Kevlar rather than the usual GRP to reduce weight (a Marcos bonnet
    is not a light item, I can vouch!). The suspension is all adjustable 
    (presumably based upon the recently announced Ford based IRS system)
    and there is also a LSD in the rear axle.
    
    This car is at present a 1 off built for a Japanese customer (one
    of the overseas markets where Marcos cars sell very well). Hopefully,
    he is serious about racing it as the car doesn't have much in the way
    of creature comforts (even by Marcos standards!) being equipped with an
    alloy dash in place of the normal walnut one and not having Conolly
    seats or Wilton carpet. 
    
    After all the taxes are applied the car is reported to have cost the 
    owner 40,000 pounds although replicas are expected to be available for
    around 35,000. A lot of money. Maybe Jem sees this as Marcos' F40?
    
    The XP2 name comes from the last purpose built race Marcos. The XP
    project was a mid-engined sportscar built to compete at Le Mans  and
    equipped with a Brabham Repco V8 engine. The car was dissapointing at
    Le Mans and is now the possesion of an American family, despite them
    receiving handsome offers for it from Jem Marsh.
    
    Mark

    
    The strange grinding noise eminating from the rear of the Beast turned
    out to be a failed axle bearing (apparently this is fairly common on 
    Marcii) and due to the design of the axle I had to take the car to a
    garage to get it fixed.
    
    Still, having done that the car is back to normal (noisy, bumpy, heavy
    steering, etc, etc) and I'm using it on occasions to come to work
    (taking the theory that using a car is better than leaving it idle to
    heart) as well as taking it out on the rare weekend when the sunshines 
    (of course I was away at Easter and the Beast was in the garage!).
    
    A house move is looking more likely now than ever before, but I'll
    still believe it when I see it, but no doubt the car won't get worked
    on much in the first few months of new home ownership.
    
    Anyway, one annoying thing is that the garage who fixed the axle sent
    the car back with oily fingerprints all over the wheels (no real
    problem) and a rounded wheel nut (a REAL problem!). Hopefully, they'll
    fix that at the weekend (yeah, yeah), and then I'll be into the annual
    battle against the MOT! Does anyone know when the emission test is/was
    introduced?
    
    Mark

VCan't remember but I did enter the date in one of the MOT points topic.

Simon

    
    November 1991 according to a note in 721. So I won't have to worry
    about it until next year!
    
    Mark

    
    Right,
    
    Time to wake this note up again! :^)
    
    Classic cars magazine has a 5 way glassfibre sportscar test in the July
    edition. The cars are a Lotus Europa (Only Renault powered I think), 
    Gilbern Genie (Ford V6 engined), Reliant Scimitar coupe (Ford V6 2.5
    engined), TVR Tuscan (4.7 litre V8 American engine) and (you guessed)
    a Marcos GT (3.0 litre Volvo powered).
    
    I haven't read the article in detail yet (I've got to do some work!),
    but at the end they asked the owners of these cars which one they'd 
    like to take home (other than their own) and the winner was ...
    
    The Marcos! YEAAAAAAAHHHHHH! :^)
    
    I wonder if it'd be a different result if the Europa was a Twin Cam?
    Maybe, but maybe the V6 Ford Marcos would have been a better choice
    too, since the Volvo's are a bit prone to being nose heavy?
    
    Interesting, though, that amongst such competition the Marcos was the 
    winner (Doesn't suprise me one bit, though! :^)), but on page 17 it 
    definitely looks the best car!
    
    END_OF_PLUG.
    
    Mark

There's no way the Europa would win if the other owners were over 5'10" tall -
even then its a squeeze!

    
    Umm, well being around that height, it would be a tough decision for
    me, although I don't reckon the Renault engine in the Europa could
    quite replace the V6 Ford in my Marcos. :^) When I was a young lad,
    a neighbour of my Aunt had a red Europa, which (other than neighbour
    of our's E-Type) was the only exotic car I got to see on a regular
    basis. It obviously left a lasting impression on me (unlike, funnily
    enough, the E-Type. Apparently I had a number of rides in it as a child
    , sort of 5-8, and  I can't remember it at all!).
    
    Anyway, having finally moved house (18 months after starting to try and
    sell our 2!) and got the house into a reasonable state of affairs, my 
    father and I tidied up the garage and I managed to get to do some work
    on the Marcos. The old rubber brake hoses came off and the Aeroquip
    ones were fitted in their place, after a bit of a struggle. I gave up
    before I got around to bleeding the brakes, so I and my trust Easibleed
    kit will have to tackle that on Thursday (unless, like every other
    evening this week, that becomes booked!). 
    
    I just hope the whole system holds pressure now I've had it apart!
    
    Mark

I read the article the other night and was a little confused as to how they
'picked' the Marcos as the overall winner (not that it doesn't derserve it).

All but one driver raved about the performance of the TVR. The lone desenter
gave it very low marks on just about everything.

The whole process seems very subjective. More so when the cars weren't all
up to snuff and the versions tested weren't always the 'best' that could
be had at the time they were new.

The magazine, and others, do this type of historic comparison all the time.
It's interesting to read but not at all scientific.

	No these things aren't scientific; but highly personal (see debate
	about mid-engined cars current raging elsewhere in this notes file).
	However, I enjoy a *good* review of an interesting car.  Plus it's
	nice to read about your own car, eh Mark?  I guess that with any
	car of character, there's much to love and a little to hate.  However,
	most owners forgive faults that other's might not.  Eg "My R5 eats
	clutch cables and oil, the doors are made out of baked bean tins and
	it rattles, but I love it...".

	Dave

    
    Too true Dave.
    
    The question put to the testers in the article was 'Which car, other
    than your own, would you like to take home?'. Apparently the Marcos was
    picked by more than any other (obviously not scientific, but so
    what!?!?).
    
    I found it interesting that, at least, one tester commented on the very
    heavy steering when turning sharply. Mine does this (although normally
    only tiny amounts of steering input are required), but I was never
    really sure (despite a new rack and linkage!) that it was quite right.
    Nice to know that it's a quirk of the model rather than a specific
    fault on my model.
    
    Mark

    
    A real slew of Marcos articles at the moment, with one of the classic
    car heavyweights having an article about current sportscars with
    'classic' counterparts.
    
    The selection includes a Marcos Mantula Spyder (If only...), an Evante
    (Original Elan inspired), a TVR, Alfa Spyder, a Morgan and a Caterham. 
    To be honest it isn't a very good article (IMO), as it claims to determine
    which is best in practical terms for day to day use, but picks a number
    of cars which are widely different (No way could a Caterham be
    considered practical) and only really says that they like the TVR best,
    but not really why and how the others compare to each other. Still it
    is another article for my scrapbook. If anyone has any old articles on
    Marcii which they'd let me have copies of I'd be very grateful.
    
    On the subject of the real thing, I took the car along for an MOT (last
    one expired in June, but I hadn't had the time to sort it out with the
    house move et al). As the car had lain idle for well over a month and 
    had cost a couple of hundred pounds to put right for the last 2 MOTs, 
    I didn't check the car over, expecting an arm-length list of things to
    fix. Imagine my suprise (and slight annoyance at myself) when it only
    failed because of a dodgy scotchlock connector on the O/S main beam.
    A small investment in a crimping tool and some connectors, plus a 7.75
    retest fee, saw the car MOTed and raring to go in the unlikely event of 
    some dry weather!
    
    Mark

�    failed because of a dodgy scotchlock connector on the O/S main beam.

    Re .165
    
    Sure enough. There's still one in there, but I couldn't get a suitable
    replacement at short notice (it's a wire joining another wire part way
    along). However all the connections I could replace I did! 
    
    Mark
    
    PS John, what's the EX-Integrale owner bit about?

    Although I dislike Scotchlok connectors, what would be a 'suitable
    replacement' ?  All I can think of would be a four-way connector
    using only three of the four.  Is there a 'proper' solution.
    
�    PS John, what's the EX-Integrale owner bit about?
    
    It's now sold.  Pity to see it go really, but I have other uses
    for my dosh...  I'm left with a Manta and a [broken] Jeep for now.
    
    J.R. (me: in Brussels, my luggage: in Frankfurt !  Thanks, B.A.)

    
    Well you can get bullet connectors which sort of go like this...
    
    ----[ >      ]        } Where this is all one bit and the > <s  are the
    ----[ >    < ]------  } bullets. Which I suppose is a 4 way only using
    			    3.
    
    Which I reckon would be the best solution for the joining half way
    problem. The Scotchlock which caused the fault was just joining two 
    ends of a broken wire together, so a normal bullet connector did the
    trick.
    
    Mark

    You can also get spade connectors that have an extra bit of metal
    folded back at the end, which enable you to connect another connector
    to it in a pigy-back kind of arrangement.
    
    Neil 

    Mark - that's what I had expected as the solution.
    
    Neil - Yeah, piggy-back 'spade' connectors are very useful,
    	   where two wires go to/from a common point, but not
    	   much good for 'splicing in' one wire to a length of
    	   an existing wire.
    
    Now, who's going to manufacture a reliable, easy-to-use, cheap
    connector to replace Scotchlok's ?
    
    J.R.

    
    And yet ANOTHER Marcos article (two in fact, one on the Mantula and
    one on the company and its possible future) in August's Performance
    Car.
    
    This article is good. As an owner, I could almost feel myself behind
    the wheel of the Mantula. The writer was obviously enthusiastic about 
    the car and it shows, but it isn't blind adoration (unlike most of my 
    rantings on the subject! :^)).
    
    Mark (Who had his on the road yesterday and still has that warm glow...
    caused by the useless ventilation mainly!).

    
    OH NO!!!!!
    
    I've been caught up in the dreaded concourse spiral!!!!!!!
    
    Let me explain... Yesterday was the Club Marcos International 1991
    rally and we trundled along to see some nice Marcii and chat to some
    owners. The weather was a bit iffy, but the drive down was fast and,
    except for a slight overheating problem, uneventful.
    
    So we looked at the other cars and chatted with the other owners and
    spent an hour, and a pound, getting lost in "the World's largest hedge
    maze". We had our lunch and a few more cars turned up. Everyone was 
    busy polishing their rocker covers and suspension parts. Well, everyone
    except us, who'd figured it'd just be a nice day out, but the rest
    seemed to be taking winning a trophy very seriously. We hunted in vain
    for a 'tatiest car at show' trophy and so resigned ourselves to
    clapping along.
    
    
    
    However, come 4.30 and the prize-giving, what was the first
    registration read out? Yep, CLE 100H (Here that's my car!!!), Mark
    Saxby, 5th in the Pre 1972 Class...
    
    Well I gratefully accepted my trophy and figured there must have only
    been 5 cars in the class, despite the appearance of a Mantis and two
    3-litre Volvo engined cars to swell the figure to 8 (out of about 22
    cars present, about � the number which turned out last year,
    apparently).
    
    All the way home Mandy teased me about coming last, but what the hell,
    we got a trophy (which we certainly hadn't expected) and she had
    decided that we really ought to get the peeling paintwork resprayed and 
    try  for 4th in class next year! :^)
    
    Mark

    Mark,
    
    Let me be the first to congratulate/commiserate with you...
    
    Laurie. JDC_wooden_spoon_holder_with_3.4_MKII,_XRP_75

Mark,
	that's more than I've ever managed!  At the owner's club do they
just hand out marking sheets and people wander round and grade the
cars.  I've never won anything; mind you I've never asked what my score
was either... now where's the sump polish?

Dave

    
    I don't know exactly how the cars are judged, I never saw anyone
    looking at our car, it must have been while we were in the maze!
    
    I assume the cars were checked though, as there was an originality
    award which my car came pretty close to winning, although we were 
    narrowly beaten by a very original 1970 V6.
    
    Two members of the CMI committee were the judges. It wasn't a case of 
    everyone in the club getting to pick their favourites. 
    
    Mark (Must go and buy some polish at lunchtime! :^))

    October's Which Kit? has a Marcos advert inside the cover, which talks
    about the 'Martina' .............. seems to be a Cortina version of the
    Mantula .... comes in Coupe and Spyder variants for 2K plus VAT for a
    kit ........
    
    Expert comment ???  It really looks nice ....
    
    another Mark
    

    
    It IS a Cortina version of the Mantula (same moulds, but the wider 
    Cortina front end neccesitates wider arches courtesy of some pretty
    neat extensions). The car is based on a mark 4 or 5 Cortina, but 
    I can't say whether the 2.3 engine would fit for extra torque.
    
    People I know with early Post-80 coupes with Pintos seem happy with
    the performance and there are plenty of ways of extracting more poke
    from a Ford 2.0 OHC.
    
    Marcos also claim a quick build time (can't remember exactly what)
    and I have a feeling that the body is self-coloured GRP to save
    on respraying it (but posing problems of its own).
    
    If you didn't think you could afford a Marcos, you can now. I've
    not spoken to anyone who's driven one or read any road tests, so
    I can only guess at performace and handling. The ad claims it 
    retains the 'Marcos rear suspension', but if this isn't the IRS
    now used on the Mantula then it isn't really such great shakes,
    although it is a pretty well secured beam axle design.
    
    Mark

    I just spoke with Chris Marsh on the phone and he is sending some
    brochures etc. He confirmed that the car is Cortina based, as you said,
    but that the car will take a V6 (eeee, 'ow about one of those 24 valve
    Cosworth's from that new Granada ...) .... but that most people find
    the 2 litre Pinto just fine.
    
    Chris says that he runs a Martina as his daily driver and offered a
    ride anytime I wanted to visit. I'll do that soon.
    
    Which Kit? also contains a snippet of Jackie Stewart's visit to see Jem
    Marsh and Jackie's Gull wing Marcos of old.
    
    Mark

    
    Sounds like a car with a lot of potential.
    
    Chris has done a fair bit of engineering on the newer cars (including
    the Martina) and is keen to see the range expanded. No doubt this and
    the Mini's revival are greatly due to his ideas. His background
    includes a fairly lengthy spell preparing IMSA cars in the States, so
    he should have a pretty sound idea of what makes a good handling car.
    
    Mark (Going slightly green :^))

    
    The Martina brochure stuff arrived and it looks like good value. The
    colour brochures show the body as per the Mantula, but magazine ads
    show flared wheel arches added, which don't look so elegant to my eye.
    
    Martina comes in four modules:
    All prices plus VAT
    
    Module 1 Coupe
    body chassis, doors, boot lid, bonnet + 27 other items
    �1995
    
    Module 1 Spyder
    as above + the soft top and frame etc.
    �2599
    
    Module 2 Suspension kit
    shocks, springs, axle conversion etc.
    �590
    
    Module 3 Coupe
    heated windscreen, heated rear window, electric windows, all glass,
    fuel tank and sender + 30 other items
    �1292
    
    Module 3 Spyder
    similar to above, but with special side window frames, hood etc.
    �1395
    
    Module 4 Upholstery kit
    seats, panels, dash, console etc.
    �632
    
    Body is optionally available in red, blue, white or green gel-coat for
    �110. Also, powder coated chassis at �120.
    
    Don't know what size wheels and tyres are recommended.
    
    Base Cortina is needed for things like:
    
    Front suspension on subframe
    steering rack
    column, lock
    radiator
    pedals, master cylinder
    heater
    engine and gearbox
    handbrake
    electrical harness
    wheels and tyres (????? yuk)
    etc. etc.
    
    Mark
    

    
    So �4619 (for a coupe) and �5326 (for a Spyder - got to be the car to
    get). To that you've got to add VAT at 17.5%, I presume, which gives
    you �6258 for a Spyder.
    
    Add on a maximum of �500 for a really good Cortina Mk V (probably a lot 
    less given that you don't care how rusty it is, except the subframe and
    front suspension), add another �500 for reconditioning all the parts
    (for one I'd trade the steering rack straight away and probably dump
    the radiator too, unless it was obviously recent).
    
    New wheels and tyres definitely, but Aleycats and some Micheldever rubber
    will keep the price down to around �75 a corner, and I'd stick a steel
    wheel in the boot, so that'll total about �400 with a spare tyre.
    
    So what've you got? About �8k'll get you a Marcos Spyder with a bog
    standard 2000 OHC engine (about 100 BHP max?). A bit of tuning or 
    a V6 (how easy will it fit I wonder) should get you 150 bhp without
    too much trouble, which should be enough to be fun (This is never 
    going to eat Porsches for breakfast, though).
    
    Sounds pretty good. In a way I quite like the front arches. At least
    it distinguishes the model (I expect the non-arched models used in the
    ads are actually Mantulas! Unless they tried fiddling with racks and
    suspension arm lengths.)
    
    Mark
    
    PS Does it say what the rear suspension is? I guess it's live axled.

	I think that your estimates are way too low (like most people who
	haven't built a kit).  The normal way to estimate the cost is to
	double the cost of the kit, this gives a price of around 10k.  The
	Marlin cost me around 5.5K and the kit is 2.5K, so I spent around
	3k on bits and pieces.  The donor only cost me 120 pounds...

	Dave

>>                     -< < �10k for a Spyder! Sounds good. >-
    
    re -1.	as the man said.
    
>>    Add on a maximum of �500 for a really good Cortina Mk V (probably a lot 
    
    Mark,	is there such a thing.

	You owe it to yourself to recondition *all* the bits, you really don't
	want to end up with a sheep in wolf's clothing.

	Dave

    
    Re .184
    
    Based on a Cortina how can you avoid such a thing? :^)
    
    Re. Costing.
    
    I'm probably a bit low, but the Marcos kit is a lot more extensive than
    most other kits (if you buy ALL the stages). I was also assuming that 
    the engine and box were fitted 'as is', obviously that would up
    the price a fair bit.
    
    Like the title said <10k for a Spyder sounds good. I don't doubt that
    you can end up spending a lot more if you really want to...:^)
    
    Mark
    

	ouch!

	Whilst admitting that there are limits to the dynamic properties of
	Cortina suspension bits, no matter where you put them, the Cortina
	can make an excellent base for a car.  Most Cortina based cars 
	manage to endow their humble base with a lot better handling than
	the donor ever had.  Just getting rid of the body weight and throwing
	away the rubber mounted front suspension does a good job.  As you
	point out, the engines can be severely tweaked; although they'll never
	be smooth.

	Over the years, the Marlin has surprised a lot of hot hatches...

	Dave

    
    Only kidding Dave. :^)
    
    Personally I thought the Mk V Cortina was quite a nice car. Pity
    Fraud decided to go the Jelly-mould-with-portholes route! 
    
    Mark (Who would rather like a Martina  Spyder).

    
    Have you seen the Mark V Mini Marcos advertised, yet.
    
    I saw an article on the Mini Marcos in the summer edition of
    Mini World, it gives the full run-down on the history of the car
    and has a interview with Jem Marsh.
    
    I was considering getting a new Mini Marcos, but the overall cost
    would kill me, roughly #1500 for the shell, #1800 for the donor
    car ie. my 1985 'c' reg Mini, + all the extras that would be needed.
    
    Oh well, perhaps Santa will get me one?
    
    Matt. 
    

    	Yes it's being advertised. Saw an ad for the mini and the martina
    in the most recent Which Kit. The Mini Marcos is as ugly as ever. 

    I wouldn't call it ugly, just different!!!!!
    
    I like the front end of the Mini Marcos, I think it
    looks quite purposeful, but the rest, oooooooo.
    
    I'm a dedicated Mini fan so I'm biased.
    
    Matt

    
    Well I'd call it ugly! :^)
    
    Having said that a visit to Motorfair allowed me to sit in one at last.
    
    I'm 5' 10" and my head was pressing against the roof (not brushing, the
    headlining was crushed and the fibreglass was flattening my head!).
    Aside from the lack of headroom, the Mini was actually quite roomy
    inside with a couple of (very) occasional seats in the back. The dash
    is very basic, but there were plenty of dials there to keep you
    informed and, according to everyone who owns one, they're great fun to
    drive. Considering their potential for competition (a suprisingly good
    competition history ensures they're welcome at most historic rally and
    race meetings) it's suprising that they can still be picked up so
    cheap, although the low price does tend to mean finding a good one is
    extremely difficult.
    
    Like someone said, the bulk of production is bound for Japan, where 
    anything small, sporty and British is much admired (funny world, isn't 
    it?) and a win by a Mini Marcos on the recent Liege-Roma-Liege Rally 
    can't have done sales any harm either! (The L-R-L is a bit like the 
    Pirelli Marathon).
    
    Mark
    
    PS The Beast is in bits at the moment as I attempt to fix the water
    loss by replacing the head gaskets. Also planned for the winter months
    are some repairs/replacements to the bodywork and (I've said it before,
    but this time I hope it'll happen) a respray.

    
    I was offered a '67 basket case MM with competition gear box & alloys
    for �500 earlier this year. Stripped to almost the last nut & bolt, but
    virtually complete. Tempted, but didn't take it in the end as I had no 
    room -- & the wife found out!
    
    Colin

    
    Well, I had a funny dream in which I somehow became the proud owner
    of a Mini Marcos. I know it was a dream, because my head didn't bang
    on the roof. :^)
    
    Anyway enough of my cheese related fantasies.
    
    The water leak I reported elsewhere in this conference appeared to be
    head gasket related (I Hope). Derek Mitchell kindly checked the
    compression on all the cylinders and one bank was definitely down on
    the other, so I bit the bullet and took off the heads.
    
    I got them cleaned up and checked over and it was found that one of the
    heads was 5 thou off true. So I had them both skimmed back to flat (the
    other one was slightly off too) and they are now sitting in my garage
    awaiting reassembly (might get done at the weekend). I've already
    purchased a top set of gaskets and I'm going to replace a couple of
    hoses and pipes which lurk in inaccesible places (under the exhaust
    manifolds, for example) before putting it all back together.
    
    The other major job I'm planning this winter is to get the car
    resprayed. I've not started looking for somewhere seriously yet, but
    I've been given a couple of names of people to talk to. Hopefully by
    next spring/summer the car should be a smart BRG instead of the peeling
    metallic red it is at present.
    
    Mark

    
    Ok, I'm slow, but I get there.
    
    The Marcos' engine is now back in one piece and all I have to do now
    is get the damned thing to fire up (I think I've got the dizzy in 180�
    out) and sort of the leaking oil pressure gauge hose, tighten up the
    exhaust/manifold joint and away we go! :^)
    
    The next step after that is to get some quotes for a respray and do a
    further bit of tidying up (try and persuade the wife to do the carpets
    she promised to do 18 months ago! :^)).
    
    Hopefully the car'll be a nice shade of BRG by the time the next owners
    club rally rolls around (July) and I might even get another trophy to
    go with my somewhat fortuitous 5th in class from the last rally (At
    least I should get some more points!).
    
    Mark

    Mark,
    	About ten years ago, when Jan Marsh were trading at Westbury ( are
    they still ? ) resprayed a friend's Macros in 2 tone Metallic, and they
    used the shape of the car, especially the front wings to produce and 
    excellent and very different effect, to highlight the shape even more.
    Worth considering ?                                 
    
    Ady

    
    Hello Adrian,
    
    Yep, they're still at Westbury and have an excellent reputation for
    quality paint jobs.
    
    However, a factory respray runs at about �3000, once you've had a 
    few minor bodywork repairs done. That, unfortunately, is a little
    outside my budget! :^)
    
    Mark
    

    
    Spit, cough, rumble, growwwwwwwwlllll!!!!!
    
    Well it finally fired up on Saturday morning. After much fiddling with 
    the timing I finally gave in and called the RAC. I'm not sure that he
    really had any duty to sort out the problem (which turned out to be the
    distributor out by PART of a cylinder), but as someone who builds V6
    powered Land Rovers for a hobby, it wasn't too difficult to get him
    interested! :^)
    
    To be honest, in this cold weather I find it difficult to muster much
    enthusiasm for working on the car, so aside from recharging the battery
    and kicking it into life again on Sunday, I did no further work on the
    car. 
    
    To get it back on the road requires a few little jobs. First is to set
    the timing properly (it runs, but I suspect it's still a little out),
    then to make sure the new oil gauge pipe is not pumping oil all over
    the road anymore (I may need ANOTHER new pipe). After that I just need
    to refit the inner mud guards, get it taxed and start looking for someone
    to repair the cracks in the fibreglass and respray it.
    
    Soon be Spring!
    
    Mark
    
    

    
    Well, spring is here and the wife's been nagging me to get the Beast
    back on the road, and what's more resprayed!
    
    So on Saturday I re-re-....charged the battery and set off on a 30 mile
    round trip to get someone to give me a quote for stripping, repairing
    and respraying the Marcos.
    
    It's puffing like an old steam engine with the left hand (as you look 
    from the driver's seat) exhaust manifold still not sealed properly and
    when I got to Farnham (about 3 miles) someone stopped me and told me I
    was losing water. I stopped to see where from, but there was no sign
    of the leak (air in there still?) with the engine running.
    
    I got to the place I had set out for with little problem, except for
    the car running at 3/4 temperature (which was higher than before, but 
    during the rebuild I'd found there was no thermostat and so had fitted
    one). On checking the radiator, it appeared to be empty so I refilled
    it before returning (when I got home it was still full...something's
    odd).
    
    I got a quote for the work which was about what other people having
    been quoting, but it's a lot of money, so if anyone knows of a
    reputable resprayer who can do fibreglass, let me know QUICK!!!!
    
    Mark

Perhaps it's leaking while warming up. When hot, it doesn't leak ...

Just a thought ...

Don't suppose it could have anything to do with the head strip down
could it :-)

    Mark,
         a pal of mine in Salisbury does excellent work, he used to do
    warranty body work for BMW in the area until he got pi**ed with them
    not paying on time! He does (I think) have fibreglass experience.
    
    His name is John Peachey-Austing, trades as Austing motors. 
    
    Used to race minis in the 'old days' quite successful too. His work is
    as good as it gets, and he's genuinely honest.
    
    As his number has been changed, I don't have it, but call inquiries for
    Austing motors, Petersfinger, Salisbury. Tell JPA I recommended you.
    
    Nigel 

	Theale motors re-sprayed our NG after some nice person rammed us up
	the rear, they did a good job.

	Heather

    
    Well after trawling around many body shops, I've finally bitten the
    bullet and booked the Marcos in for a respray at a local bodywork
    repair firm who we've used for repair work in the past.
    
    They seemed enthusiastic about doing the job (which wasn't true of 
    most of the others) and I suspect they'll do as good a job as I'll
    get without getting into �5k Marcos factory respray territory. Fingers
    crossed! I've settled on Brooklands Green for the colour. It's a Rover
    Group colour which used to be used on Dolomites and the ilk in the mid
    to late 70s. Hopefully it should look good when it's done!
    
    I've also finally (I think! :^)) traced the water leak. On the way to 
    the bodyshop this morning there was much hissing and up went the
    temperature. I stopped and opened the bonnet and water was gurgling
    merrily out of the radiator overflow. I let it cool down and carried on
    to the bodyshop. When I went to leave I poured all of my jerrycan into
    the radiator, but it still didn't fill it. It was enough, though, to 
    get me home whereupon the car finally gave up the ghost and expired.
    
    I hopped out and opened the bonnet to the sound of gurgling and rushing 
    water, but there was no sign of any leak, so I knelt down and looked
    under the car and was greeted by the sight of water rushing along the
    underside of the car and falling in pools beneath it.
    
    The source of this turned out to be the heater! There was no water
    coming from anywhere around the engine or radiator, but plenty from
    beneath the heater (and the windscreen was covered in condensation).
    
    So, tonight I'll bypass the heater and fill the car with water again.
    Thank God it didn't decide to blow on the way to Thruxton and back on
    Monday! 
    
    Mark
    
    PS Does anyone know of a source of hose reduction fittings for heater
    hoses? Mail order or in the Newbury/Reading/Basingstoke/Farnborough
    circle (well whatever shape it is!) would be best.

    
    For anyone interested in the Probes (a while back someone asked about
    them) there's an article on all of them in the July 1992 Classic And
    Sportscar (The one with the Aston on the front - I'm thinking about a 
    trade in! :^)).
    
    Mark

    Mark,
    	I saw a marcos in like a candy red this morning A4 going towards
    Reading, roof down hair blowing job. I think it would look better in
    BRG. When are you coming into Newbury in it. I only have a week left to
    see this machine. I hope you keep it cleaner than the Calibra :-)
    
    	Have a good one,
    
    
    					Chris

    Chris,
    
    Well, if you really do only have a week left you could be out of luck.
    
    I rang the paintshop on Wednesday and they said they need it until
    at least the middle of next week. I'm away next weekend, so it's
    unlikely I'll get the car back before a week on Monday.
    
    Mark
    
    BTW The Calibra is _clean_ at the moment! You should see it when it's
    dirty! :^)

    Mark,
    	I have seen the car clean, and dirty as well. It wasn't me
    complaining about the dirt it was all the flys on the windscreen :-)
    
    Pity about the Marco, never mind I can always pop over and have a beer
    in Newbury.
    
    		have a good one,
    
    					Chris.

    
    Oi,
    
    Chris, take a Butcher's at the Calibra today. Now THAT is clean!!! :^)
    
    Well, if anyone's interested in the on-going saga of the Marcos (and
    judging by TV Soap Opera ratings, lots of you must be rivetted! :^) ),
    here's the latest.
    
    As you will have read, I put the Marcos in for a respray at the end of
    May. They originally estimated 2 weeks, but said "It may take a little
    longer".
    
    Well they phoned me the Wednesday before last to say it would be ready
    last Tuesday. As I had the Monday off, I asked if they could get it
    ready for then and they said they'd try.
    
    Well Monday came and I'd heard nothing, so I rang them up. "Sorry it
    won't be ready today. We'll call you back" was the response. They did
    call back, but only to say that it wouldn't be ready until Friday (this
    being last Friday)! Anyway, Wednesday arrived and they called again.
    
    This time the bodyshop manager called to tell me they were having a few
    problems and would I like to come in and see the car. Alarm bells
    ringing, I went over there on Saturday morning, not really knowing what
    to expect.
    
    However, when I arrived, I found that the car is now fully painted, but
    still in about 10,000 different pieces. To use a venacular which seems
    popular in this conference these days, the paint looks like canine
    genitalia! The colour seems to really suit the car and they seem to
    have done an excellent job in getting a smooth, blemish free coat.
    
    Anyway, the upshot is that they need the car for a bit longer (they
    admitted that they had underestimated the effort required, and said
    that they couldn't afford to keep someone on it full time for the price
    they'd quoted - which seems fair enough), but they've promised that the
    car will be completed by the 11th July at the latest.
    
    Still, in a way it's a good thing, as it means I don't have to pay for
    it for a while yet!
    
    Next job is to get two new front bumpers and a new set of badges to
    complete the effect.
    
    Mark 

	Mark,

	How much are they charging for the respray ? What preparation
	work did they do ? Is the Marcos plastic bodied ?

	Jon

    
    Forget Eldorado, here's the final episode (I hope!) of Respray-ado!
    
    I got home last Friday to be greeted by the wife shouting 'It's
    ready!'. As she's crashed her FIAT and it is being repaired, I guessed
    she meant that, but, no, it was the Marcos which was ready!
    
    So, come Saturday morning we headed to Whites to pick it up. A quick
    look around confirmed that all seemed ok. In addition the repairing the
    cracks and respraying the car, they'd also succeeded in getting the
    doors to fit a lot better and relieve the stickiness of the electric
    windows. Money (well Plastic) was handed over in exchange for the keys
    and home we headed.
    
    On the way from Whites to our house is my in-laws house, so I stopped
    there to show the car to my Father in Law and Brother in Law. I was
    telling them what a good job Whites'd done in fitting the doors when...
    
    I noticed a chip in the paint!!!!!
    
    Back we went to Whites and they agreed to do the work on Monday, if I
    left the car there. So I had the car back for 15 minutes on Saturday!
    
    Monday came and passed and Whites told me the job was complete. They
    offered to return it to me yesterday, so I waited in for it (I had a
    few jobs to do around the house and a dentist appointment, so I decided 
    a day off wouldn't hurt - Maybe I could get the car MOT'd too.). 
    
    By 11 I was beginning to wonder where the car was, but just as I was
    about to ring to find out what the delay was it arrived. It seems
    they'd run out of petrol on the way!!!! :^)
    
    Anyway, it's back now, the paint looks good and the dismantling and 
    re-assembly of the body seems to have made the whole thing feel a lot 
    more solid (they replaced a lot of nuts and bolts, so I guess many were
    worn out). 
    
    I didn't get to MOT the car, as in the process of reassembling the car 
    they've (seemingly) wired the bonnet up wrongly. If you signal right
    all as fine, but signalling left gives a solid light and rear lights
    too and the front offside headlamp refuse to give more than a token
    glow regardless of setting. So that's a job for me to put right in the
    next few days. A trip to the factory will yield a new set of badges and 
    front bumpers and then the car will be finished for now! :^)
    
    Mark

    Sounds like the earth connections haven't been put back properly.
    Or they could be connected to paint rather than metal ...

    
    Yep, dodgy earths, it is. I sorted out the headlamp last night, but the  
    indicators need more research. That's a job for the weekend, though,
    along with resetting the tappets and tightening up the bonnet hinges.
    
    Mark

    I've had this problem with indicators when I've had dirty contacts
    on the bulbs themselves !!!
    
    Plastic cars, bad earth. Just rewire the earth, not the whole car :-)

    
 �    Plastic cars, bad earth. Just rewire the earth, not the whole car :-)
    
    Sounds good, but believe me, there are so many bad earths that it'd be
    easier to rewire the whole car!!! :^)
    
    Mark
    
    PS I didn't mention the brake lights did I?

    The idea is to wire all the earth point on all the electrical
    equipment mounted to the plastic, to one or two really good
    earthing points on the chassis (does yours have one of those,
    or is it wood ???). Anyway, some suitable piece of metal, or
    directly to the battry

    
    Umm, it's all a bit of a Forth Bridge job really, but maybe it'd be
    worth making the effort to do this.
    
    I noticed that the bulb is actually earthing on the light fitting and 
    hence lighting the rear light too - Like this...
    
    
    {--------------------} When indicator (I/L) is lit the rear light (R/L)
    { I/L           R/L  } also glows, but removing the I/L from the fitting
    {--------------------} causes the R/L to glow brighter and the I/L to
    			   go out altogether, until it's reunited with a
    			   decent earth. Very odd. Any ideas?
    
    Mark

    RE: -1
    
    Classic symptoms of poor earthing. The unit in use, in order to earth
    out to something in a manner sufficient to allow it to work, earths
    through the adjacent units. The answer, as already stated is to provide
    each unit (light cluster in the case) with its own earth, and a good
    one.
    
    Laurie.

    The way I've seen it done sucessfully is to string an earth between
    all the units in the same part of the car together, and then to
    a single good earthing point. You usually need one such earth string
    per corner of the car ...

	*all* of my lights are earthed (via good, thick wire) onto the
	chassis.  Also, they are earthed within the body, out of the way
	of wind,rain etc.  A good example is the rear lights, they're earthed
	onto the chassis *in* the boot.  That way, they stay earthed.

	Dave 

    
    Well, thanks to my neighbour (who dabbles with PCBs and the like for a
    living) we got the majority of the lights sorted out. The brakes were 
    beyond redemption, so we simply laid in a new wire from the switch to 
    the lights and they were working again. The air horns were moaning
    rather than hooting, so I've temporarily re-connected the pathetic
    electric horn.
    
    So, off to the MOT. It was bound to fail (I thought), but I didn't
    expect to be told that it couldn't even be tested!!!! The garage found
    that they couldn't get their jack under the exhaust system to jack up
    the rear end. So, I've got to find somewhere else to test the car
    (presumably somewhere that's tested it before!) before I can
    legitimatly drive it on the road.
    
    We went to the Marcos factory on Saturday to collect some new bumpers
    and badges. The bumpers were not drilled ("the bonnets all have fitting
    holes in different places"!!!), but when I got home to match them up I
    found that Whites have actually filled in one of the holes for each
    bumper while  repainting the car (with more than just paint!), so (as
    I'm loathe to drill into my nice new paintwork) I rang them and they've
    agreed (with no prompting) to fit the bumpers.
    
    The enamel bonnet badges were still out of stock, but they offered to 
    send one free of postage charges, so we bought one anyway (Why do I doubt 
    that was a good idea?...).
    
    The car was running like an old banger (which it is, I guess), so I
    finally got around to sorting the tappets out yesterday. It was well
    worth the hour and a half that it took as the engine now sounds like a 
    6 again rather than a 4�!
    
    Oil change tonight.
    
    Mark

    
    Anyone got Demon Tweeks' telephone number?
    
    I'm also interested in knowing of anywhere in the Guildford/Basingstoke/
    Newbury/Reading sort of area which sells Spax shock absorbers. Any
    suggestions (with telephone numbers if poss)?
    
    You guessed it. The Beast failed its MOT. Quite a catalogue including
    rotten chassis rails (quote for repairing is actually very resonable!),
    ineffective handbrake, passenger side windscreen washer not reaching
    screen(!) and a duff front shock absorber.
    
    Mark

    
    
    	0829 - 70625  (24 hour order number)
    	0829 - 71002  ( fax )
    
    
    		or
    
    Spax Shock absorbers and springs.
    
    Unit 11E
    
    	Telford way industrial estate ,
    	Bicester,
    	Oxfordshire
    
    	08692 - 44771
    
    
    Hope that helps,
    
    Garry
    
    

    
    Anyone got an ideas how to solve this one?
    
    I was trying to get the rear wheels off the Marcos (to adjust the
    handbrake), but found that 2 of the roadwheel nuts were seized
    (somehow) onto the studs - I managed to get one off (both the stud and 
    the nut were stripped though), but the final one just refuses to move.
    
    BIG problem is that the stud does move. So the stud and the nut revolve 
    merrily when a socket is  put on the nut!!! The stud is inaccesible
    until the wheel is removed. There's no room to fit a nut splitter over
    the nut (as the alloy wheels are quite deeply set)!
    
    In desperation last night I tried drilling through the nut, but with
    only very limited success (By now I reckon the stud is beyond
    redemption).
    
    Any ideas/brilliant tools?
    
    Mark

    Without looking at this particular problem, it's difficult to suggest
    something. However, heat (and lots of it) might free things up a
    little. How are the other studs 'mounted'? Are they screwed in from the
    front (wheel side)? If so, it should simply screw right out again. Are
    they pushed in from the back, into a square hole so they don't turn? Can
    you drill from the back? Can you push it back and get a grinder on it?
    
    For this sort of problem, you have to sit back, and look at it from all
    different angles. There's more than one way to skin a cat! You might
    have to be pretty destructive to get the thing off.
    
    Sorry I can't help more.
    
    Laurie.

    One last thing.
    
    Can you grip the wheel nut in mole grips, and drill the stud with
    progressively larger bits until it's gone?
    
    Laurie.

    
    The studs appear to be an interference fit from the back (but the back
    is hidden inside the brake drums!). Without getting the wheels off
    there's no way of reaching the stud.
    
    The idea of drilling away the stud might be something.
    
    Keep 'em coming.
    
    Mark

    If all else fails , if you can't drill the stud or nut successfully ,
    if you can get hold of one , use a die grinder to split the nut.
    
    Garry

    
    What's a die grinder? Where would I be likely to get hold of one?
    
    Mark

If your wheels aren't ally....cut it off with a blow torch...

    
    Sadly they are, and irreplaceable (well all but, anyway).
    
    Mark

    
    	Mark, does any of the offending stud protrude beyond the nut? If 
    	so, it may be possible to grip it (moles?) whilst getting a ring
    	spanner to the nut (put the ring spanner over the nut first..). 
    	Not easy, but I've managed to free a similar situation before, 
    	though admittedly not on a wheel nut.....
    
    	Once/if you get the nut started, things look up considerably..
                                 
    	Andy.

    
    No, it's a real bugger! The nut and stud surfaces are virtually flush,
    certainly not enough to get a grip on the stud.
    
    Someone suggested splitting the nut with a cold chisel, so I might try
    that.
    
    Mark

Can you get the drum (or hub) off ? With a lot of drums, the centre nut is 
accessible through the centre of the wheel (little cover in centre of wheel).

If you can get the drum/hub off, then things might become a little easier ... 

Another idea.

Use a socket to hold the nut still, clamp the socket in a mole wrench. Then
drill the thing out through the hole in the end of the socket ...

I suspect that you will have to replace the drum/hub when it's all over
though. Just replacing the stud probably won't be enough ...

    
    Umm, maybe I COULD get the hub off. I'll try that too!
    
    Mark

If you can, drilling from the back, or even smashing up the hub to
"liberate" the stud and then cutting it off will avoid damage to the
wheel.

If the cold chisel will split the nut, it will make a real mess of
the wheel if it slips off ...

    A die grinder is small straight grinder, normally for use with grinding
    stones, as apposed to an angle grinder. Of course you could use one of
    them but with an angle grinder I think more damage may be done. Come to
    think of it, if you can get some small grind stone , don't use the
    little Black and decker packet, They are not up to the job of grinding 
    that much steel away, a good engineering shop would sell the right
    ones. Put the stone in an electric drill and use that to grind the nut
    away. It might take a while ( I've had to do it with a taper roller
    shell ) , but it gets the job done without damage.
    
    When you get it off, before you put the new nuts on, put a little smear
    of copperease or better still snap-on never-seeze on the new stud.
    
    
    Garry
    
    

    Mark, if the safety of the wheel is paramount, go for the drill method.
    Don't forget to oil the hole between drill bit sizes, and only go as
    deep as you need to. Dot-punch the top of the stud to start off with,
    and place the mole grips in such a way that if the drill slips, it
    helps you avoid hitting the wheel.
    
    Laurie.

�    I'm also interested in knowing of anywhere in the Guildford/Basingstoke/
�    Newbury/Reading sort of area which sells Spax shock absorbers. Any
    
    Mark, how about Koni's ?  Probably better than Spax.
    
    Don't they have some sort of tie-in with CAF at Mytchett ?
    
    I thought that they had some sort of facility there for
    either testing or calibrating Koni dampers.  Maybe worth finding out.
    
    
    Re. stuck wheelnut.
    
    Sounds like a very awkward problem.  Drilling the stud out also appears
    to be the safest method.  If you do try to split the nut with a cold
    chisel, try to drill into the face of the nut first to give a weak
    point to increase the chance of it working.  This would also give a
    bit less risk of the chisel slipping off and damaging the wheel.
    
    A variation could be to drill and tap the wheelstud, and screw in a
    bolt until it bottoms out.  You may then be able to undo the nut by
    using the bolt to prevent the stud from turning.  I must say that I
    would not expect too much success with this method, but if it did work
    it would probably be quicker than drilling a large series of holes into
    the wheelstud.
    
    J.R.
    
    
    PS - I take it that your deadline for fixing things and getting an
         MOT will be for the Sandown show ?

    
    Konis? Heh come on, I'm only a contractor not Onassis! :^)
    
    Konis tend to be a factor of 3 dearer than Spaxs (on Marcos cars
    anyway) even when you can get them. I just want something to keep
    the front of the car from bouncing up and down, not double the value!
    
    � PS - I take it that your deadline for fixing things and getting an
    �     MOT will be for the Sandown show ?
    
    Don't talk to me about Sandown - I've got to go and visit my sister in
    law that weekend (It was the only weekend they could manage and we need
    to pick something up from them...). Grrrrrrrr. Deadline is now the
    following weekend as that's the CMI rally at Longleat - I will be VERY
    unhappy if I don't make that...
    
    Mark

�    Don't talk to me about Sandown - I've got to go and visit my sister in
    
    Well, I was none too happy at having to work in Scotland this weekend
    as there was a Stratos Replica meet in Sussex, which was planned to be
    a 'very large' meeting.  And I couldn't go.  Grrrrrrrrr too.
    
    J.R.

    Just for the record .
    
    
    Not sure of the model of your Marcos but, a quick look at the price
    list for a spax damper against a koni is simple. I only have 2 Marcos
    listed a mini marcos and a 2 seater coupe. The only dampers listed for
    the Coupe are �55.98 from spax, Koni don't list . And for the mini
    marcos they range from �10.98 for monroe to �37.62 for Koni, spax come
    in at �29.57 . That is direct out of demon tweeks.
    
    Garry

    
    Konis are made (not sure about available) for the Coupe (which is what
    my car is) and usually cost in the order of �150. However, Shock
    Tactics told me yesterday that the Koni importer was told he must order
    100 off front and rear before Koni would provide them and he declined.
    
    The ad in the Marcos Owners club magazine for Konis has also recently
    changed from the c. �150 price to ring for details - suggesting,
    perhaps, that availability is not what it was?
    
    Mark

    
    Quite probably. They used to (I noticed an ad for them in a 1988
    Autosport last night!).
    
    Mark

    .239�    Konis tend to be a factor of 3 dearer than Spaxs (on Marcos cars
    .239�    anyway) even when you can get them. I just want something to keep
    .239�    the front of the car from bouncing up and down, not double the value!
    
    ... and I don't see the Koni's doing the job. 
    
    Remember last year's Ferraris (before they switched to Bilsteins). Koni
    belongs to the past (60's, early 70's) 

    
    Well, little joy with drilling. No way of getting the hub off and the
    stud and nut are proving almost as hard as my drill bits!
    
    Next attempt will be to get a grinding wheel (although it'll need to be
    a very long thin one, do they exist?) and attempt to grind the nut
    away!
    
    Mark
    
    PS I've got a pair of shocks on order. Shock Tactics had one(!) and
    have ordered another so they'll arrive in stages, but at least it'll 
    get through the MOT (Assuming I EVER get this wheel off!!!!!).

    
    Mark,
    
    	Did you use an ordinary drill, ie: the sort you get in packs
    (jobber). Before you give up it may be worth trying an engineering
    drill, don't ask me what the difference is. However, I was doing a bit
    of work with 1/2 ton steel girders that needed drilling, ordinary drill 
    bits went blunt at the mention of the word girder, but the engineers
    drill (16mm) stayed sharp for a dozen or so holes before it needed
    sharpening again.
    
    As for the grind stones, you can get pretty much whatever shape or size
    you want.
    
    Garry 

    I second -1 on the drills, and I still believe it's the only safe way
    of doing the job (notwithstanding the fact that I can't look and feel).
    
    Laurie.

    
    Ok, I'll try and get a better drill (any idea on where to look?).
    
    Mark

    Mark, not just any bit, you'll need at least three in increasing
    sizes. Start with a really small one, really small. Drill, with oil,
    then drill a slightly bigger one, with oil, then a bigger one and so
    on, until you drill the stud from the nut entirely. It is a waste of
    time and effort to try it with one hit, unless you have a HUGE, fixed
    drill, and a VERY good bit..
    
    Laurie.

    
    Names and addresses ???? but I would recommend a real tool shop. Not a 
    DIY place, they know diddly and would probably sell you an orginary
    drill. The sort of place to look is the kind of shop that sells Pillar
    drills, lathes, milling machines or have a look in yellow pages. I
    could only give you names and addresses in and around london. 
    
    I think the correct name of the type of drill I mean is a Blacksmith's
    drill, People like SKF make them ,not black and decker. Also something
    else to think about is the drill speed, don't try drilling at high
    speed, it will burn the tip out and get you nowhere quick. Try a slow
    drill speed.
    
    Garry 

    � speed, it will burn the tip out and get you nowhere quick. Try a slow
    � drill speed.
    
    I was wondering that. I'll try drilling at slow speed next time (So far
    I've drilled at medium speed. Half way through the speeds on my drill).
    
    Mark

    Re stuck nut.....
    
    What about welding a bigger nut onto the existing one?
    This would make it stick out a bit more and make it possible to get a
    better leverage on it.....
    
    
    Ian.

    Don't weld but roughen and use an industrial strength adhesive. By
    which I don't mean ``Super glue'' - perhaps Araldite (?sp). There are
    glues about which will bond metal to metal and are stronger that the
    actual metal.
    
    	Sorry I can't be more specific you could phone Ciba-Geigy I think
    thay have some form of help desk.
    
    	Rik

re -1 

>    Don't weld but roughen and use an industrial strength adhesive. By
>    which I don't mean ``Super glue'' - perhaps Araldite (?sp). There are
>    glues about which will bond metal to metal and are stronger that the
>    actual metal.

Loc-tite 601 is the stuff. You need a very clean surface. I use their cleaner
to get areally grease free finish before glueing. 601 is very
strong. Model engineers use it to hold an the wheels of their locomotives.
However, this would probably require smooth bonding surfaces to be 
effective. 601 is not the rapid bond stuff sold in DYI stores etc. 

Source of drills: try Millhill Supplies in Crowmarsh Gifford on the B4009.
About 1/2 hour from Newbury area. They are a model engineers suppliers.
I would emphasis Laurie's comments about using oil as a lubricant while drilling.
All cutting tools require cooling/lubrication when cutting steel. Large 
quantities and also use different sizes. Remember once the drill is blunt,
it will only get hotter.

Wolf, I think do a range of drill bits which are claimed not to require
cooling and will cut through hardened steel, brick, masonary etc. I have 
seen these demonstrated but I have no direct experience. I think Millhill
supply them.

	Dave

    I can't see what the nut-and-glue idea would buy. I understood it to be
    a case of a seized nut on a now non-captive stud. In other words, turn
    the nut, and you turn the stud too.
    
    Laurie.

    
    You're not missing anything Laurie. That is indeed the case.
    
    Mark
    
    PS Still might be useful in another case! :^)

Why won't the hub come off ?

Just curious ... it'll HAVE to come off at some point.

I would imagine that just replacing the stud won't be enough. If it's
been turning, the chances are the hole in the hub has increased in size too.

Depending on the type of nut, rather than drilling out the stud, why not
drill between the stud and the nut. Two holes, one either side of the nut.
Gradually increase the size until the nut comes in two ...

ALso, nuts tend to be softer metal than studs (can't believe I just wrote
that :-)

    
    The hub is secured by a big nut (held in with a split pin). This nut
    is behind the wheel and only accessible through the centre of the
    wheel. The hole in the centre of the wheel is covered with a plate
    secured from inside the wheel...
    
    Mark
    

    Is this plate replaceable ?
    
    It's much easier to drill an alloy plug than a steel bolt ...

    
    It maybe, but I don't think the hole would be big enough to remove the 
    nut (not to mention get the split pin out). However, I'll investigate
    that option.
    
    Mark

    If the stud is spinning then why not just glue that ?

    
�     If the stud is spinning then why not just glue that ?
    
    Can't reach the stud (where it fits the hub) without taking off the
    whee.....
    
    Mark

    I have kind of lost track of this one as there are a lot of ideas
    flying around....
    
    I agree with Dave Robinson that you'll need to use the best drills that
    you can in stages. What is needed are HSS or better and be prepared to
    do some careful resharpening and go through a lot of small increments
    in size of hole being drilled.
    
    Toomers in Newbury, Sargents or Drews in Reading and Mill Hill supplies
    are the places that I have used to be sure of getting HSS drill bits.
    
    Best lubricant to use isn't ordinary oil, but cutting oil and used
    neat. That's usually used as an emulsion in water on machine tools
    flooding over the tool bit, but since you don't want all the mess, use
    it neet and squirt it right down the hole and clear the chips away
    frequently.
    
    Keep the cutting speed as high as you can which for steel means about
    100 ft/sec peripheral speed at the cutting edge.
    
    I have some cutting oil and if you want, give me a call at home tonight
    (0635) 521842 and you can pick some up tomorrow.
    
    I was with Dave when he mentioned the superhard drill bits on demo: we
    saw them drilling through old files, pliers, bricks, hard glaze
    ceramic, and getting red hot as well and still cutting easily.
    
    I think the word that comes to mind is "Awesome".......
    
    They are sold under the "FRHEI" trade name..... I can post details of
    how to get some if wanted.

Mark,

I had  the same problem on the GT6 a couple of years back.

The fix then was to hit the offending stud/nut with a large hammer, that seemed
to lock the stub so allowing the nut to be undone with a socket.

Cheers,

Nigel.

    
    Well the shocks arrived (yesterday, in fact! Very prompt service).
    
    Quite where they found a second one, I do not know, but 2 I have and
    I'm not complaining. Just got to get a coil spring compressor now and
    away we go.
    
    It'd be nice to achieve something!
    
    Mark
    
    PS Re .265: Nigel, that'd work if the stud was screwed into the face of
    the stud, but unfortunately as they're pushed through from the back of
    the hub, it doesn't. Thanks for the thought, anyway.

�    Just got to get a coil spring compressor now and
    
    I've got a pair of spring compressors, if you need to borrow them.
    They are of the basic sort with two 'hooks' on a long threaded shaft.
    
    I know some vehicles use different styles of compressor, so I don't
    know if these would be suitable for your car.  Let me know.
    
    Re stuck wheelnut
    
    Maybe my idea of drilling and tapping the stud may just work.  If it
    does not, you would at least have made some headway in drilling it out.
    
    There is an engineering-type toolshop down the road from my house,
    where decent drill bits should be available, but I cannot remember
    their name.  They are on Aldershot High Street, the road leading
    into Aldershot from Ash, between the ELF petrol station and the
    Golden Lion pub.  If you don't get a more convenient source for
    drills, I could try them for you.
    
    J.R.

    John,
    
    Thanks for the offer of the coil spring compressors. I've hired some
    now (keen to get on with it!), but if I need any again I'll bear you
    in mind! :^)
    
    I'm going to forget about the nut for now and concentrate on sorting
    out the shocks. I'll go back to the nut at the weekend! 
    
    Mark

    
    Just a very quick note to say that I got the nut off by drilling it
    away in the end. I didn't buy a blacksmith's drill (c. �13 each!!!!),
    but I got an HSS bit (c �1) which cut straight through the nut as if it
    were lead!
    
    An update on the rest of the work will follow next week.
    
    Mark

Did you manage to salvage the hub ?

    � Did you manage to salvage the hub ?
    
    I _THINK_ so. The Ford dealer said it looked like the splines on the
    stud had worn down, but I'll only know for sure when I fit the new
    studs (assuming I can get some!).
    
    Mark

�    stud had worn down, but I'll only know for sure when I fit the new
    
    If you aren't sure about the condition of the splines in the hub,
    maybe it would be worthwhile getting a spot of weld put on the back
    of the new stud to ensure that it doesn't spin again...
    
    J.R.

    
    There aren't any splines on the hub (as far as I can tell). The splines
    on the stud are tapered and lock into the hole in the hub (but I might
    well put a touch of araldite or something similar in there to ward off
    the same problem).
    
    Mark

Not araldite ... locktite or superglue would be better.

To fit the stud, do you have to heat the hub and freexe the stud ?

    
� Not araldite ... locktite or superglue would be better.

    O.K.
    
� To fit the stud, do you have to heat the hub and freexe the stud ?
    
    I'll tell you tomorrow! MAYBE...
    
    Mark

    
    Well the studs arrived and I got them fitted eventually (required the
    use of a ring spanner and an old wheel nut!). They fit very tightly and
    they feel secure enough when tightening and removing the wheel nuts
    now.
    
    I'm still waiting for a spring seat for my second new shock absorber,
    but the old and new currently fitted are both at the same height now!
    
    Unfortunately, the welder, who was supposed to be coming to do the
    welding today has had to go to hospital to visit his ill child so I
    won't be getting the Beast MOT'd tomorrow as I'd planned. Hopefully
    he'll come to do the welding on Sunday or Monday, but does anyone know
    a good (careful!!!) welder who'd come to the Fleet area?
    
    Things are getting a bit tight for time now!!!!
    
    Mark

    
    Done :-
    
    i)   Wheel studs fitted.
    ii)  Handbrake adjusted. (ii required i!)
    iii) Welding done. (yeah!!!!)
    iv)  Nuts and bolts and self tappers for refitting sill covers
    purchased (Anyone ever been in Unimaster Components in Newbury? What an
    Aladin's cave! :^) - Also Industrial Fastenings by Newbury station were
    very helpful.).
    v) Sill covers repainted - They'd got a bit tatty.
    vi) Leaking shock absorber replaced.
    
    To Do :-
    
    i) Refit sill covers.
    ii) Check out the car one last time.
    iii) Try and get it MOT'd again...
    
    Wish me luck, only 5 days until the club meet!!!!
    
    Mark

    
    It's been a long time since my last note in this topic, but if you've
    read the other notes you'll know that I've had a lot of trouble getting 
    this MOT!
    
    Well, having finally obtained the rear suspension bushes (Wishbone
    bushes from an A35, it transpires), I took the car in for it's third
    MOT test this year on Saturday. When I arrived I was greeted by a
    different tester to the one who'd done it last time. My heart sank, as
    the fan belt was still rubbing on the steering (they all do) and I
    couldn't rely on the tester agreeing with his colleague (who failed it
    because of this last time) that this might just be the way the car's
    designed. 
    
    Anyway, it turned out that this  tester has a very old Dutton (with the
    cycle wings) and is toying with putting a 2.8 V6 in it. All he really
    wanted to do was talk about kit cars and drive the Marcos in and out of
    the testing bay! When he opened the bonnet, however, the first thing he
    said was "The fan belt's close to the steering". Here we go, I thought.
    "It's not touching though, is it?" I asked. "Yes, but that's not a
    fail", he replied!!!!! Remember this is the same testing station as
    failed it on the previous occasion!
    
    Happily, the car obtained its MOT certificate this time with little
    effort and I was able to attend the meeting at the Swan in Thatcham.
    In spite of the dire weather a good number of cars turned out (nearly
    all new models, mine being the oldest by many years) and they looked
    pretty good lined up outside the pub (despite the spoilsport in the
    Metro parking in the middle!).
    
    The 'exciting news' turned out to be of a racing nature, but is much
    more ambitious than merely a one-make series. The idea is to enter a
    car at Le Mans (under the GT or IMSA regulations) in 1994. The factory
    (Chris Marsh, Jem's son, was there) seem enthusiastic, but the fund
    raising and much of the organisation is being left to club members, and
    whilst their enthusiasm is undoubted, their knowledge of sportscar
    racing (or racing in general) seemed inadequate for the task. Time,
    alone, will tell if they can make a go of it.
    
    If a car is built, it's expected to be something along the lines of the
    XP2 car built for Japan last year (very much a Mantula in appearance),
    but the regulations will determine EXACTLY what the car is like. 
    
    Mark

    
    Well, I'll drag myself back into CARS_UK (a bit like a junkie having
    just one last fix...) to ask a question...
    
    Has anyone ever taken part in the Norwich Union Classic Car run?
    
    I've (as you may have guessed) entered this year's event with the
    Marcos (yep, still got it, but it's not been on the road since last
    October!) and I'm wondering what to expect.
    
    Basically, I think, I drive from Brooklands (my allocated start point,
    there's one in Newbury too, BTW) and then make my way to Silverstone
    via various checkpoints at motoring related sites (eg Crowthorne test
    track, museums, etc). You also got a chance to see a lot of lovely
    classic cars and drive around Silverstone.
    
    It sounds like a fun day out (30th May, btw), but I'd be interested in 
    any experiences anyone has of the event, if only to goad me into
    sorting out the radiator and other little jobs which need doing on the
    car?
    
    Mark

Well, I don't know (and frankly doubt) if anyone's interested in the Marcos'
progress, but I fancy putting in an update so NEXT UNSEEN now, if you don't 
want to read anymore!

My last note was a question about the Norwich Union run, but judging from the
dearth of replies, I assume no-one else has been on one. Well, we went and a 
jolly good day out it was too! 

First, though, I got the pinhole in the bottom of the radiator fixed and 
FINALLY cured the long running over heating and water loss problem which I've 
had since the last CMI rally (over 2 years ago, now). I decided to get the car 
serviced professionally before the run as it meant a round trip of around 300 
miles in a day, more than we've done for a very long while. The local Marcos 
Service dealer (Alan Fereday) did the work and, although it cost a little more 
than I'd bargained for, he did a very thorough job even replacing a weeping 
rear brake cylinder that I've been meaning to fix for ages. The new man in 
the stores at the Marcos factory surpassed himself (and my expectations of the 
factory) by replacing a faulty bonnet badge not once, but twice (the first 
replacement being overly convex for my bonnet) in time for the run. Full marks
to Marcos for a change!

Eventually the day dawned and we turned up at Brooklands in plenty of time 
for the start (If anyone fancies an afternoon out, Brooklands is surprisingly
interesting). We found a Mercedes bearing OUR entry number, but that was soon
resolved and we parked between a Ferrari Daytona and Hannu Mikkola's 1969 Ford
Escort rally car (looks good in the photos! :^)).

The start involved going up a 1 in 4 hill and then out onto what's left of 
the banking at Brooklands, which is an interesting experience! We then drove
out onto the roads of Surrey and, using the very detailed road book, onto 
Longcross which is the army's vehicle testing track near Chobham (as seen in
the recent Young Driver of the year). This involved 4 laps at reasonable speed 
of the oval, a go at the Snake (imagine the worst road you've been on for
adverse cambers, blind tightening bends and blind crests and triple it!) and a 
go at the test hills. Next stop was Crowthorne, but frankly it was dull compared
to Longcross so we limited ourselves to 1 lap there. After a brief stop to get
our route card stamped at a stately home (Name of it???) near Henley 
we drove on to lunch at Luton Hoo (another stately home) and then onto the
Henry Royce Museum at Paulerspury (no time to stop, we had a time limit to
stick to too, although it had seemed generous when we started!) and finally to 
the finish at Silverstone. 

At Silverstone, we received our finishers awards and then had 4 laps of the GP
circuit. Again, this was great fun, and we'd heartily enjoyed the day, despite
gloomy (but mainly dry) weather, and we got home in under 2 hours as well.

About 3 weeks after the NU run an A4 envelope turned up containing a photograph
of us receiving our finishers awards at Silverstone. This now graces our 
hallway.

Next event on the Marcos' calendar was the classic car show and country fair 
at Loseley House near Guildford in July. As it was close I decided to go for 
both days. Last year's event was pretty low key (as John Rutter commented in a 
note elsewhere in the conference), but this year the classic car entry was much
larger than last year. The Morgan, Jaguar and TVR owner's clubs were very well 
represented (especially on the, busier, Sunday) and most of the owners of the 
cars were very friendly, especially a man with 62 Beetle on the Saturday and 
the Berkely 3 wheeler owner who was there both days. The weather was reasonable
(Good, even, on the Sunday) and I'll almost certainly go again next year as this
looks to be a show which, if this year's improvement is maintained, will become
a top quality show, although at �5 each the entry fee did seem a mite expensive,
even if the proceeds do go to charity.

Next on the agenda (after enjoying our laps at Silverstone) was the Classic
Car Action day at Castle Combe in August. The owners' club provided a free 
track pass and we decided to combine the day (a Saturday) with a couple of 
days in Bath (which I've been promising my wife ever since I met her!). The 
journey down the A4 was a lovely journey and we joined the Marcos ranks early. 
The track was getting busy by the time we joined the queue to go out and that's 
when the problems began...

The organisers' idea of a Classic car consisted of anything that anyone who paid
up chose to drive (including numerous kit cars, Peugeot 205 Gtis and an F-reg
2 litre Carlton!). They started off letting out about 13 cars on the track at 
once, but when it got busy doubled the number to around 26 which made the 
track too crowded in the opinion of many. Finally, the organisers had issued
strict rules about tyre-squealing, passing on the left and so on and like a 
fool I believed these would be enforced. First lap out I was almost run off the 
road 3 times and I spent the first 3 laps (of 5) crawling round watching my 
mirrors for sideways Scimitars, Kamikaze Morgans and numerous other cars driven
by people with little or no intention of sticking to the rules laid down and the
organisers obviously had NO intention of imposing them. Laps 4 and 5 were better
as I'd decided to ignore the rules too and let the other cars worry about me 
rather than doing the worrying myself.

The car hadn't be running particularly well for a while and on the way to Bath 
it suddenly started to overheat badly. We stopped and found that there was water
in the oil and coming from the exhaust! Oops, head gasket gone... A Cobra 
replica pulled up, but short of a tow he couldn't help, so we crawled to our 
hotel in Bath, enjoyed the weekend and then tried to limp home. We gave up a 
few miles from Bath and called the RAC to take us home, which was probably a 
good idea as the head wasn't warped when the gasket was replaced and the car 
was back on the road in a couple of days. Bath, by the way, is a wonderful 
place and we were lucky enough to be there in August when they open the Roman 
Baths at night and illuminate them with gas flame torches which is very 
atmospheric.

While at Castle Combe I picked up a leaflet for entry to another classic car
run based around Longleat house and the 'Offley Port Classic Festival'. I 
decided it would be good to do another run (Having decided against the �450 +
accommodation Euro-Classic!!!!) before the car's tucked away for the winter,
but first the dreaded MOT loomed. I booked the car in in advance of the expiry, 
as I usually do, and stood worriedly by as the test was done. The tester 
returned with the failure form and (with memories of last year's tribulations
fresh in my mind) I prepared for the worst. 

The worst turned out to be a clogged screen washer jet on the passenger side
and the, by now expected (and often missed) missing brake pedal rubber. The 
testers said they'd retest the car for free if I bought it back in a few days,
so after clearing the jet and gluing a Cortina brake pedal rubber into place
I gleefully collected my fresh MOT. It must mean next year'll be a disaster!

I then entered the Avalon Classic Tour (as it is called) which was run on 
the 19th of September. The weather forecast wasn't good and the day dawned
cold and misty, but as the day wore on the weather improved in leaps and bounds
and it actually turned out a beautiful day (Almost too warm as we'd dressed for
cold and wet, not hot and sunny!). The event started at Longleat, so we had a 
longish drive there before the start, but we arrived in time to sign on and
receive a cursory check of the documentation and car. The event is very good
value as, as well as the basic entry, you receive a packed lunch and 6 months
subscription to Your Classic magazine for the �45 entry fee.

There was a good entry with the oldest car being a 1935 Bentley and the latest
eligible cars being from 1975. We were flagged away from Longleat at 9.57 (after
a brief scare when the car refused to start, due to the negative terminal on 
the battery coming loose) and set off to Stourhead House, just a few miles away.
This is a large stately home with very impressive gardens (although the 
checkpoint was at the house itself). Quickly we set off for checkpoint 2, which
was at the even grander Wilton House. The checkpoint at Wilton didn't open 
until 11.15 and we arrived about 30 minutes early, which seemed odd, but in 
fact was a good idea as a good number of cars were gathered and the visitors
to Wilton House seemed very interested in the extra attraction. 

After a refreshment stop at Wilton we set off to the next chechpoint at the
nearby hillclimb at Gurston Down. I've visited Gurston as a marshal and 
spectator a number of times, but I'd never driven the course. We were in the 
second batch of cars to drive the course and, like the Norwich Union run,
the emphasis was on fun rather than true competition, but it was too much of 
a temptation to drive the hill with a bit of enthusiasm rather than just touring
up it. 

First of all Gurston goes DOWNhill, which always looks intimidating as a 
spectator, but the course seemed much wider and less steep from inside the 
car. At the bottom of the hill the track swings left and then into a section
called The Carousel which is the real 'meat' of this course. It consists of 
a right handed 90 degree uphill bend followed almost immediately by another
and then a short straight to a sharp left handed bend. I cocked the first 
corner up completely as the car snicked into second gear so easily that I
mistakenly believed that I'd missed the gear completely! By the time I'd
reselected it, I'd lost too much speed, but I reckon I made a better job of 
the rest.

From Gurston Down we had a 40 mile section to a pub near Stourton. Again the 
checkpoint opened well after most people arrived and we enjoyed a couple of 
drinks and our packed lunch in the pub garden in the, unexpectedly, good
weather. once again, the assembled entry produced quite a good turnout of 
spectators and, no doubt, boosted the pub's takings for the day.

The final checkpoint, before returning to Longleat was a National Trust site
called Alfred's Tower. We only stopped briefly here to take some photographs 
and get our timecard signed and then continued onto Longleat where, after a 
delay whilst someone found the key to the back gate (seriously!), we finally
checked into the final checkpoint and received a pair of rather nice engraved
glass tumblers as finishers awards. I hadn't thought I'd been driving very 
quickly, but we had passed a fair number of other entrants on the road and
at checkpoints and having started 57th we ended up as the 5th car back (given
better roads we'd have been 3rd, though, as we followed the 3rd and 4th cars
for a number of miles through twisty lanes at speeds less than I would have
driven them if on my own).

So, that's it for this year, the car is now going into winter retirement as
the road tax is almost expired and the mileage limit on the insurance has 
almost been reached. 

Next year? Well, hopefully, we'll do the Norwich Union run again and quite
possibly the Avalon Classic Tour again and probably a couple of shows. I 
plan to look into the London-Brighton Classic car run (provided it doesn't
clash with Le Mans) and the local Marcos Club organiser is trying to interest 
me in a 4 Peak's challenge which would involve driving to Ben Nevis, Snowdown, 
Scafell Pike and a mountain somewhere in Ireland in something like 48 hours, 
but I'll have to decide if the car (or I) am up to that!

Mark

    Well I enoyed that Mark. Keep 'em coming.
    
    Laurie$Frogeye_off_the_road_cos_I_can't_afford_the_insurance.

	This is usually a good and interesting day out.  It's near Weybridge
	(just inside the M3/M25 corner) and entrance is 3.50 per adult.   It's
	not touristy and you can usually wander where you will.  The time I
	went with the Marlin they suggested I might like to drive on the 
	banking, which I did, alas no camera to record this.  Oh and it's got
	a good little cafe.

	Dave

	I will soon be starting construction of a Marcos Martina. The 
kit I have ordered is a Coupe, as Scotland has a very short open topped 
driving season each year. The basic concept of the car has been 
described in detail earlier on in this note. The aim in it's design is 
to use as much as possible from a Ford Cortina. This is OK, but I was in 
the market for something a little bit more sophisticated. If Marcos had 
still been making Mantula kits I would have bought one of those. I can't 
afford the 25K+ that the turn key type approved Mantara's sell for. What 
I intend building is closer to a Mantula than a Martina.

    Marcos are ceasing production of the Martina, to concentrate on the
    type approved cars, so mine will be one of the last. 
    
	I visited the Marcos factory in September. They have one tin 
hut for assembly of cars and kits and another as a showroom and office. 
The showroom had a number of Mantula and Mantara cars, as well as the 
Martina demonstrator. There was also a Mini Marcos, very ugly.
Some people like them as they sell a lot, many to Japan, as well as replica 
Mini Coopers. The workshop had four Mantara's under construction and a 
Martina kit awaiting collection. 

	The Martina demonstrator is several years old and was built
around a scrap Cortina, with little reconditioning of the doner parts.
The engine was very sick, with not much in the way of oil pressure. I
tried to drive the thing, but the pedals had been set for someone much
taller. This car doesn't have the adjustable pedal box. In general, the
car showed that I could build something that met my requirements; a
closed roof two seater, reasonably practical and without any strange kit
car type styling quirks. The vinyl interior trim, although built down to a
price looked OK and had worn reasonably well. 
 
	If anyone is interested here is a run down of how my kit is 
likely to differ from the standard Martina. This will be the second kit 
I have built, so there a few more ambitous ideas, without getting 
involved in major modifications.

Engine
2.8 Cologne V6. 	I have a complete mechanical fuel injection set up for 
			this. If I can't get that to work, then there is 
			a carb and manifold available as plan B. The 
			engine I have is in remarkably good condition and is 
			in the process of getting a mild overhaul, with new 
			bearings, a fast road cam and a high pressure oil pump.
			The engine was originally from an automatic. I have
			yet to find a suitable flywheel.
			This engine should produce somewhere in between the 
			power and torque of a tuned Pinto 2 litre engine and 
			the 3.9 Rover V8's that Marcos use on the production 
			cars. Fuel consumption, while unlikely to be good, 
			should still be an improvement over a Rover V8.
			
5 speed Gearbox		Still to be sourced. Probably from an '82 to 89 
			Granada, or a 2.8 Capri.

Rear suspension		I have ordered the kit with independent rear 
			suspension. The standard Martina uses a modified 
			Cortina axle, with four leading arms and a panhard rod.
			The IRS system is the one originally developed for the
			Mantula and used on the Mantara turn key cars. It uses 
			Ford Sierra diff, drive shafts, hubs and disk brakes.
			The IRS should make the car much more comfortable 
			on the spine over potholes. From experience with 
			a Westfield, lightweight cars with live axles 
			just behind the seat can deliver quite a jolt. 
			The propshaft will probably be a shortened Sierra one.

Front suspension	This uses a Cortina front subframe. It is 
			the aspect of the kit I am least satisfied 
			with. I have toyed with the idea of building up 
			lighter and more precise wishbones, but this would 
			involve some fairly major chassis alterations, as well
			as having to learn suspension design from scratch. I 
			do plan to uprate the brakes from solid disks to vented
			disks with modified Austin Princess four pot calipers. 
			This should balance the extra braking effort offered by
			the rear disks over standard Cortina drums. Just in 
			case rear wheel lock up is a problem I will include 
			some sort of adjustable pressure limiting valve to 
			the rear brakes.

	Thats it for the time being. Further updates may get written as 
the build progresses. No doubt I'll be asking questions elsewhere in the
conference on problems that turn up. 
    
		Jeremy

    
    Jeremy,
    
    At last! A fellow Marcos owner...
    
    I was lucky enough to drive a well built Martina earlier this year
    (It's the demonstrator that belongs to Alan Fereday and featured in
    some of the kit car press earlier this year).
    
    His has a tuned Pinto and a short-shift five speed box. It really
    shifts, but sounds a bit coarse compared to the six (Personally, I
    always think the eights sound a little unrefined too, lots of people
    comment on how nice my 6 sounds). His had a live axle, I think,
    but it definitely felt like a proper Marcos. It's a shame the company
    are hell bent on production car manufacture as the Mantara really isn't 
    as good as TVRs latest offerings.
    
    Anyway, enough of my ramblings. I'll just wish you luck and hope you 
    keep us informed of progress.
    
    Mark

Sorry folks, but you're going to get the 1994 Marcos update, whether you like 
it or not. :^)

1994 looked as though it may be a quiet year for CLE 100H when I didn't get 
around to entering the Norwich Union run. However, I managed to get my act in 
gear enough to get an entry on the London-Brighton Classic car run, held in 
June.

Before that, though, I decided to go and watch the Marcos GT cars in action.
I've been a sportscar racing fan since I visited Le Mans for the first time, in 
1979, and the return of Marcos cars to the track was a perfect blending of my
two obsessions. The race cars (LM500) are based upon the Mantara, which is based
on my old thing, but they are very wide and feature breathed on 5 litre V8s! 
They race in the BRDC National GT championship, which is growing in stature, 
helped, no doubt, by the high profile of Marcos' sponsor, Computacenter.

By June, the cars were beginning to qualify respectably amongst the Porsches,
so I decided to go and watch them race. Derek Mitchell has always said that 
Oulton Park is a good circuit, so I made the long trek 'Oop North' to Oulton to
watch the cars. My efforts were rewarded by the team's first pole position,
albeit without the presence of the Chamberlain Lotus Esprits. The progress with
the cars had been helped no end by the drafting in of ex-Group C, ex-BTCC and
sometime Rover Turbo and TVR Tuscan driver, Chris Hodgetts as a test driver.
Although the cars hit minor troubles in the race, they still won their class, 
although a Porsche 911 (what else!?!?) won the race outright. I was fortunate 
enough to enjoy the hospitality tent provided by Marcos and Computacenter and
had a long chat with Steve Foster, who owns THAT yellow LM500 convertible which
has done the rounds of the motoring press (the race cars are Coupes, like all
proper Marcii! :^)).

The following weekend, we set off for the London-Brighton Classic car run. We 
started from Syon Park, to the west of London (there was another start to the 
East) on a very hot morning. The weather didn't get any cooler, which is not 
a good thing in a Marcos with the engine and gearbox only inches from you! 

This classic car run didn't seem to be as slick or well run as the others I've 
been on (see 1993's report), there being only one checkpoint along the way. In
addition, many of the lanes which we traveled along were too narrow for the 
bigger cars on the event, which led to very picturesque, but frustrating traffic
jams. This wasn't helped by the manner in which some drivers insisted on 
dawdling along in the middle of the road when a wider, straighter stretch did
arise.

The route also took us up Richmond Hill, which, as many will know, features
some fearsome speed bumps (like pyramids with their tips cut off!). The Marcos
didn't take too kindly to those, being around 3 inches off the ground...

All was not lost, though, as the single checkpoint, Amberley Chalk Pits Museum,
proved an interesting and attractive lunch halt. Essentially, this place is laid
out as a turn of the century village, with equipped shops and working pottery,
lace makers, etc. Worth a visit, I'd suggest, if that kind of thing is of
interest and picnic-ers are welcome (Tip : Park at the top of the hill if
you have a sticking electric window switch which flattens the battery...I 
really must fix that sometime).

The final leg of the journey took us onto wider roads and up over Ditchling
Beacon and across the Downs. Finally, we arrived in Brighton and struggled 
through the heavy, June Sunday traffic. The car started making some very 
unpleasant noises from the rear as we crawled onto Madeira Drive and we only 
stayed long enough for a paddle in the sea and to say 'Hello' to the local MOC 
members who had a club stand there.

After crawling back through the traffic leaving Brighton (worse than that coming
in earlier) we managed a pleasant journey home, although the car continued to
make strange noises. 

This year the 3 Marcos Clubs (Marcos Owners Club, Club Marcos International 
and the Mini Marcos Owners club) and the factory had set aside their differences
and organised a 35th Anniversary rally, which promised to be good, so I quickly
booked the Marcos into a local garage to investigate the strange noises. I hoped
it was wheel bearings, but feared it was the axle. Sure enough, they reported
that the diff was making the noise. However, they said it didn't sound too bad
and suggested Slick 50. Given that the diff was on its way out, I decided to 
give it a try, although I chose Molyslip instead as it was something like half
the price!

The Rally was spread over two days with an overnight stay in a hotel in 
Coventry. We decided to go for both days and so we set off on the Saturday
morning with me in the Marcos and Mandy, Lauren and Mandy's sister, Rachael,
in the Tipo. 

Our first day was to be a track day at a sprint circuit called Curborough, not 
far from Coventry, which I'd never heard of. Our journey there was uneventful
and we found the circuit in time to sit down and eat our picnic. It's a very
small track shaped like a 9. The real competitors start on the tail, loop around
and finish back at the tail, but, in the interest of insurance, we were only
using the closed loop of the 9, with that being liberally slowed down with coned
slaloms.

After lunch and chatting with some of the 30, or so, other owners there, I 
donned a crash helmet and set off for my first lap. I've been around Silverstone
and Castle Combe in the Marcos, but never with the intention of setting a time
and, although my first lap FELT slow, I had no idea whether it was good or bad.
At least, I didn't until I got back to Mandy, who greeted me with a disgusted,
"That was PATHETIC!". Apparently, the commentator had been generously saying
that I was checking the circuit out. The first time I set was to stand as the
slowest lap all day, excluding the person who span. Oh dear, bang go my hopes 
of being a works Marcos driver :^) 

However, I got to have another 3 goes and I now had something to compare with.
My second lap (each lap was a single lap from standing start to stop), started
with a great deal of acceleration (the commentator commenting that I was 
obviously out to better my previous lap time) and, despite my seat belt coming
undone and restricting my arms through the twisty slaloms, I knocked 9 seconds
of the first lap time. The third lap was better still, although I stomped on 
the throttle in one slalom instead of the brake, which upset the rythmn a bit! 
By now, my times were respectable V6 times (although still a couple of seconds 
shy of the best) and I knew I could go faster on my 4th lap. 

I was really fired up for my last lap and made a good start and was up the 
straight into the first slalom well. The slaloms were a problem as I could only
go in hard on the brakes and then, more or less, coast through them, so I was 
losing time there, but I'd got used to my belts being in the way by now, so I
got through it reasonably well. Next was the short burst to the short slalom 
on the start of the long left hander, into the slalom and then out as quickly
as I could without provoking the tail out too much (more than one person was
losing time here with wild oversteer) and round the long bend to another slalom
on the back straight, then into a chicane, which you could accelerate through
all the way, with just a left-right-left flick of the steering, but, again, too
much steering would provoke the tail out and lose time (One car span here). Out 
of a final coned chicane and accelerate hard up the timing beam and brake hard
to stop in the coned 'garage' (failure to do so, resulted in a 5 second 
penalty).

The lap felt good and, sure enough, was my best of the day and good enough to
knock 13 seconds off my first, exploratory (shall we say? :^)) lap. This time
wasn't as good as the best V6's but it was better than some (including a number
with trick heads, carbs, etc), so I was fairly pleased. The main thing was
that it was LOTS of FUN!!!!! The fastest time was set by a Swede with a Volvo 
1800 engined, wooden chassised car. He races it in Sweden and is no mean 
driver, although the ease with which his car changed direction through the 
cones indicated that it is a very well set-up car, too.

Steve Foster had a go with his LM500 and, despite it's huge girth (this car's 
around 6ft wide), set some respectable times.

As a finale to the track events, an Aston Martin Test was run. I'd never seen
one of these before, but, basically it consists of driving out of a coned 
'garage', accelerating hard up a straight and into another garage (stopping as
close to the end as possible, without hitting cones) spinning the car round and
racing back down the straight to end up nose in in the original garage, again
without touching the cones. Due to lack of time, we only got one attempt each.

It sounded impossible, but I thought I'd have a go,and was third to go. Lots of 
revs and away we went reaching third gear before braking hard into the garage.
No flag to indicate I'd hit the end so reverse out quickly and turn the car 
around (this is probably possible as a reversed handbrake turn, but with the 
handbrake under my left knee, this wasn't the time to try it out), before
squealing away down the straight and braking into the original garage. Wow,
that's fun! To add to my enjoyment, I was fastest so far and had incurred no
penalties! It didn't last long, but I beat a number of people who'd done this
event before (including the Swede who'd won the track event and who's a bit
of an expert at this event, I've heard) and of the cars that did beat me 
most incurred penalties, but the V8s accelerate much quicker.

Everybody had had a great day (wife, 20 month old daughter and 16 year old 
sister-in-law included) and the only damage any cars had incurred was a bizzare
front suspension failure on a Mini Marcos, which was fixed with a new balljoint
and a big washer from the local Les Smith's within an hour.

Next stop the hotel in Coventry. After getting lost in the Coventry one way 
system, we weren't expecting a mansion for 20 quid a head a night, but that's 
exactly what we got! The Royal Court Hotel is an old(ish) country house which 
sits in its own grounds and has a modern wing with extra rooms overlooking a 
large car park with (the key point in its selection) no speed bumps! Our room 
was in the old house, overlooking a large lawn, and had a bathroom of similar
proportions to our bedroom at home!

30+ Marcii made an impressive sight in the car park all parked together and we 
managed to get virtually a whole wedding reception (Bride and Groom included) 
out to look at the cars. Everything from early wooden coupes (C. 1965) to the 
latest Mantaras were represented with a majority of V6s and Mantulas, and a few 
more cars turned up at the hotel in addition to those who'd been at Curborough.
That evening we chatted with other owners, including a very pleasant couple 
from East Anglia who use their 1970 V6 as daily transport, whilst eating a 
carvery meal and then Jem Marsh gave a short talk on the current and future 
plans for the marque. 

After breakfast the following day, we set off for the Heritage Centre at 
Gaydon (Rover's proving ground), where the main gathering of the cars and the
concourse judging was to take place. The route to Gaydon, however, was in the
form of a cavalcade/treasure hunt. Along the way (following directions in a 
route book) the drivers and passengers had to stop and take part in various 
tasks (such as guessing the pressure in two tyres and throwing different weight
objects at a target). Again prizes were awarded for the best 3 drivers and 
passengers and it was a pretty entertaining way to spend the morning without
being as frustrating as some treasure hunts can be.

When we got to Gaydon a lot of cars were already there and the organisers claim
there were around 70. Certainly there are over 50 in a photograph I took late
in the day, so the figure doesn't sound outrageous. This may not sound a lot to
those of you used to attending MG or Mini meets, but it's unprecedented in the
Marcos world where there must be a total of only a 1000 or so in existence. Some
of the cars present were beautiful and, as usual, Richard Partridge's yellow V6
won best car. It was nice for us that one of the local owners took third prize
in the post-80 section with his very tidy, home built Mantula.

Unfortunately, the weather decided to intervene on the Sunday afternoon. After
being hot all day Saturday and Sunday morning, it rained (teemed may be a 
better word) for nearly two hours, whilst the concourse judging was going on,
so it wasn't as easy to get to chat to the other owners as it might have been.
However, it did force us into looking around the Heritage Centre. If you like
motor museums, it's probably pretty good, but with a bored wife, sister-in-law
and baby daughter in tow it was difficult to spend long looking and the totally
BL content is a little tedious after a while (just how interesting can the 
'last Allegro made' be? :^)).

It cleared up a bit for the journey home and guess what? All that hard 
acceleration had obviously worked the Molyslip around the diff, because it
had quietened down to a level well below that which it been at even before the
odd noises began. Hopefully, if the rally is run on a similar basis in 1995, 
we'll attend again.

The week after the rally, I attended the Loseley House classic car show and 
country fair. As in 1993, I attended on the Saturday and the Sunday, unlike
most of the other exhibitors. Once again, attendance seemed to be higher than
in the previous year, with a good selection of classic cars (and some bikes
and commercial vehicles), including a good display by the Ferrari club, the
TVR club and the Aston club. The men with the VW Beetle and the Berkley both
arrived on the Sunday and they agreed that the show was, once again, an 
improvement on the previous year. It was better for visitors, too, as the 
price was held at �3.50 for adults (it seemed dear last year, but not this...
I wonder why?). The only problem I had was running out of petrol TWICE on the 
Saturday, firstly on my drive as I got the car out of the garage, and later as 
I left Loseley, to return home. A kind person ran me to the nearest garage and 
back and with a new plastic fuel can full of 4 star, we were off home again. 
I suspect there may be a problem picking up the last gallon or so of fuel, but 
for the time being, I'll just steer clear of letting the tank get too low. 

Whilst I was at the show, I got a radiator builder to give me a quote for a 
new radiator, as the car still runs hot. He had a book which gave details of 
the correct radiator size/rows for virtually every car built and it transpires 
that the Marcos has a radiator with about half the number of rows it should 
have. I'll try and arrange to get a new one built when I'm home for Christmas.

We've not been to Brands Hatch for a couple of years, so when the TMRG organiser
offered us tickets for the next round of the BRDC National GT championship (with
all the hospitality, etc thrown in), we jumped at the chance. The race was on
the Indy circuit, which offers the chance to see a lot of the cars, but is a 
bit 'mickey mouse', so it would be interesting to see how the big, front(ish)
engined cars went against the (theoretically) more nimble Lotus and Porsche
entrants. We arrived in beautiful sunshine and made our way to the Computacenter
tent, where we received our freebies and a drink. The best news was that Chris
Hodgetts had been drafted in as a driver, to replace Andy Purvis (rumour had it
that the sponsors wanted to see the cars winning and didn't feel Andy could
achieve it). Practice was quite entertaining, as the Chamberlain Lotus Esprits
and the two Marcii battled for the front of the grid. They looked very evenly
matched and so it proved to be, with the front row being evenly split between
Marcos and Lotus, the second Marcos being bumped to the third row in the second
session.

Could this be Marcos' first win? This was the buzz during the lunchtime break
as we looked at the assembled Mantaras (At first I was doubtful of Marcos' 
ability to build cars to compete with TVR, but the Mantara is still evolving 
and it looks better all the time) and the delightful LM500 coupe, which (in
my eyes) looks twice as good as the convertible (especially as this one has
'proper' instruments and a walnut dash).

Soon, the support races were over and, in the afternoon heat, the GT cars pulled
out of the pits to gather on the grid. Both Marcii and Loti took advantage of 
the rules to get a couple of extra warm up laps, by driving through the pits.
Obviously both makes were keen not to be shown up by the other and, although
Lotus' history has been more glorious, the rivalry goes right back to the Marsh/
Chapman Austin 7 special days.

However, one set of supporters were to be sadly disappointed, for as the cars
roared away from the green light, Chris Hodgetts took a slight advantage into
Paddock. Thorkild Thyrring in the front row Lotus then tried a wild move around 
the outside of Paddock. It looked wildly optimistic and so it proved as the 
Lotus lost grip and span into the sand trap, the lead battle was over... 
Hodgetts then broke away into a comfortable lead, which he maintained until the 
chequered flag.

Chris Marsh had had an interesting battle withe Richard Piper's radically 
altered Escort Cosworth, but a problem later in the race had seen him settle 
for a worthy third place. The second Lotus, driven by Andreas Fuchs, looked, 
frankly, horrible as it lost place after place with a misfire and what looked
like evil handling in the early stages. both seemed to disappear mid race and
he started climbing back through the field, but fell to a lowly finish again
as the race wore on.

Everyone in the Marcos camp was ecstatic and the champagne flowed as Hodgetts
received a hero's welcome back in the hospitality suite. The victory was even
sweeter as the Loti had been the class of the field for much of the season 
and were the element which gave the Marcos win added credibility. It had been 
a great day out and, with beautiful weather, we returned home happy and tanned. 

There was still one Marcos event to attend before I started to think
about putting the car away for the winter, the Club Marcos International
Thames Valley Group treasure hunt. Last year this consisted of a single Marcos,
an old Cortina estate (which gave up half way around, when he got lost) and
a cement mixing lorry, which actually won! However, this year about 8 Marcii 
took part (including ours) along with a fair number of Marcos owners and other
'hangers-on' in more mundane vehicles.

I almost didn't get to take part as this job in Munich came up and I was due
to fly out on the very day, but, getting my priorities right, I arranged to
fly out on the latest available flight. As the event was right on my doorstep
(the start and finish being at a pub about a mile from my house), I couldn't
miss it if at all possible.

The day dawned bright and clear and it stayed that way all morning. The person
who sets these events revels in setting the most perverse and cryptic clues and
matters weren't helped when he actually gave the coordinates of the answers the
wrong way round! Still we struggled around and managed to answer a few 
questions. The best bit, for me was that it took me along tiny lanes that I
had no idea existed, and yet were all within a 10 mile radius of my home.

Back at the pub, part 2 of the treasure hunt involved a quiz with questions
taken from a children's general knowledge book. I think we got 4 right of the
12, but that was actually quite good, compared with most! We ate our barbecued
food in the pub garden and had a couple of shandys, but had to make an early
exit to ensure that I reached Heathrow in time for my 5 O'clock flight. The 
club secretary and his wife, won the hunt section and we finished second,but 
the quiz saw us drop to an overall third as someone obviously has a copy of the 
Children's bumper knowledge book at home! :^) Apparently, engraved glassware
awaits us as a prize.

In the first 7 weeks that I spent in Germany, I only spent 3 weekends here,
due to prior engagements in the UK. Two weekends were for a holiday in Wales 
and a third was for a friend's wedding in Bournemouth. As luck would have it, 
the same weekend that he got married, the Marcii were racing at Thruxton, which 
is our nearest circuit and a place I've been marshaling at for years.

We skipped on the 7 o'clock start that marshaling would have entailed and 
enjoyed brunch at my parents before driving up to Thruxton in time for the 
2PM first race. Unlike the BTCC rounds, there is little problem getting into
Thruxton for the F3 rounds (which the GTs supported at this round), which some
would say is to be expected, but, although the BTCC is always good 
entertainment, the BTCC support package is (in my view) not a patch on the 
Best of British package (with such things as TVR Tuscans, Rover Turbos, 
Caterhams, Porsches and the Group N saloon car championship).

We picked a spot near the Complex and I went down to the Computacenter tent
to see if I could find anyone I knew. There were a few people there and I 
found out that Andy Wallace (ex-Jaguar Group C driver) had qualified the ADA
De Tomaso Pantera Bi-Turbo on pole, ahead of Chris Hodgetts. The Pantera had
shown considerable promise at Le Mans and with it's 5.7 litre turbocharged 
engine, obviously didn't lack power at Thruxton (now the fastest circuit in 
the UK).

After enjoying the first couple of support races, we prepared for the GT race. 
At the start Wallace got the lead and for a couple of laps stormed away, but 
soon Hodgetts reeled him in and the Marcos was all over the De Tomaso through 
the bends and it was clearly only a matter of time before Hodgetts made a move 
for the lead. These two had broken well away from the field, but Chris Marsh 
had moved up well from a disappointing grid position to lead the 'best of the 
rest' ahead of the Escort Cosworths, Porsches and the very lacklustre looking 
Lotus Esprits.

For a number of laps Hodgetts pressed the De Tomaso hard, but Wallace wasn't
going to give up the lead easily and then, suddenly, Hodgetts made his move 
and was past as they headed out of the Complex. Wallace looked as though he
was going to harass Hodgetts as Hodgetts had harassed him, but seconds later
the De Tomaso suddenly slowed. However, although Hodgetts made good his escape,
Wallace continued to take an eventual second place. Marsh picked up a distant,
but well ahead of fourth, third place to put both Marcii drivers on the podium
for the first time.

It turned out that the De Tomaso's windscreen had been smashed by a bird (didn't
do a lot for the bird, either!) and this led to Wallace having problems seeing
the apexes of some corners. However, the De Tomaso had made a good impression
and certainly made Hodgetts work for his victory. This has turned out to be 
a very successful debut season for Marcos and for the GT series and they are 
now looking forward to an even stronger championship in 1995 and, hopefully, 
the cars will also run at Le Mans (It is reported that Derek Bell, who started
his career in a Marcos, has been seen testing the car. Maybe, just ONE more
Le Mans, Derek?).

November this year sees CLE's 25th birthday, but (assuming I'm still in Munich)
I don't plan a party :^) At the moment it's sitting in the garage covered up
and waiting for me to vainly start it up. Next time I'm home I'll fire it up 
and move it up and down the drive to make sure the brakes haven't seized, but 
plans for a major engine bay tidy up have had to be shelved for the moment.

1995? Well, who knows...If the Marcos team DO race at Le Mans, maybe I'll make
my first continental trip with the car.

Mark

PS Hodgetts finished 2nd to Michel Fert� in a Venturi in the final round of the
BRDC GT championship at Silverstone.
    
PPS Come on then, Jeremy, where's your update?

	Mark Saxby has prompted me for an update on the Martina build 
described in .283. Well I've been at it for ten months now and progress
has been slow. A basic Cortina based car would be fairly simple to
build, but the mechanical spec. I want has added to the complication. 

	I collected the kit from the Marcos factory in December '93,
using a car transporter trailer. The kit is supplied with the body shell
and doors assembed to the chassis, but the bonnet and boot lid are just
taped down. The chassis was ratchet strapped to the trailer with old car
tyres underneath to provide some cushioning. Everything else went inside
the tow car. Travel back to Scotland was slow, but uneventful, a group
of four unloaders being arranged to transfer the whole thing into the
garage. 

	Over the first few work sessions much time was spent working out
where things went, what all the holes in the fiberglass where for and so
on. Quality of the parts was impressive. The first task was to run the
brake, fuel and electrical lines through the car from front to back.
Latter on this task would be much harder as the engine bay, transmission
tunnel and rear suspension area filled with other components. After that
the method of work was to have several aspects of the car on the go at
once. That way, if any delay occured there was something else to do. 

	At present most of the major mechanical components are fitted.
The engine needs an exhaust, the fuel injection pipes, alternator,
electrics and the water pipes fitted and it'll be ready to start. The
alternator will need a bracket fabricated to move it from beside the
engine to abvove it. In it's current position it would be trying to
share the space with the steering column. The rear suspension is
independant, using Marcos wishbones and uprights, with Ford Granada
Scorpio diff, hubs, brakes and shortened drive shafts. The hubs where
converted from five to four nut wheel fittings, to match the Cortina
front suspension. The engine is a 2.8 Ford V6 with mechanical fuel
injection. This was originally attached to an auto box. A lightweight
flywheel has been fitted to allow use of the manual five speed gearbox.
The box is fitted with a quickshift lever. 

	In the near future I'll be arranging to pick up the interior 
trim and the rear screen glass. The rear glass wasn't available at the 
time I collected the kit and it is not something that Marcos will send 
by parcel or courier, due to the risk of breakage. Now Marcos have
ceased producing the kit form cars support has gone to Fereday Cars in
Hampshire. Both their and the factories support on part supply and
questions has been pretty good. 

    		Jeremy

    Mark,
    
    On the topic of the diff....
    
    How hot should it run?
    
    Quite a while ago I was poking around under a Taimar and we couldn't 
    decide if the diff was ouch hot because:
     - it should be
     - it was close to the exhausts
     - it was on the way to replacement
    
    Peter

    
    Sad news in the latest CMI magazine is that Frank Costin (the COS of
    Marcos) has died. I don't think he was a young man, but he had a great
    influence in the design of many famous cars. He did a lot of work with
    Colin Chapman early on, as well as designing the early Marcos cars
    (although not the current style which was (and still is) Dennis Adams'
    work) and, of course, the little known Costin Amigo.
    
    Frank was an aerodynamicist by profession, having done a lot of work on
    Mosquitos during the war (one of the reasons the early Marcos cars were
    wooden chassised) and many of the classic 50s sports racers and single
    seaters  owed a great deal to him.
    
    Mark

	Re. Frank Costin. Are you sure?. There were two Costins, and
	indeed Frank was the shy aerodynamicist persuaded by the 
	brother to work on cars - initiallly the Lotus 11 I think.

	His greatest achievement was the Vanwall F1 car. I thought that
	it was the brother (Mike) who was involved with Marcos. Frank
	did develop his own car too - I forget the name now and indeed
	it was a pretty forgettable car.

	-John

    
    No, Mike is involved with Cosworth (Keith Duckworth being the worth bit
    I think). I, too, think Frank did the Lotus 11, but as Lotii are not my
    strong point, I shyed away from specifying any models! :^)
        
    The Costin Amigo was actually a pretty impressive car. It was very
    aerodynamic and, despite humble Vauxhall mechanics, was very quick. The
    problem was that it was very expensive and only a handful were made.
    
    Early Marcii were famed for their excellent aerodynamics, but they were
    a little unconventional (shall we say :^)) in appearance which made them 
    hard to sell as road cars. Dennis Adams 1964 design proved more popular 
    with the paying public and seems to continue to do so, despite the 
    addition of various bumps and bulges throughout the years.
    
    BTW, Frank Costin wrote (or is it a biography?) a book called 'Flying on 
    the ground', which make interesting reading for anyone interested in Lotus 
    or Marcos cars as it presents 'the other side' of the story with regards to 
    the development of some of the early models of each company.
    
    Mark
                                                                

    Mark,
    
    	Will you be at Stoneleigh this weekend coming?
    
    Cheers,
    Dan

    
    No. It's a bit of a way to go (for me, if not the car).
    
    Mark

    Shame. Oh well, never mind.
    
    Anyone else hitting Stoneleigh this weekend? Maybe we could meet up?
    
    Cheers,
    Dan

    
    Some Marcos trivia.
    
    Aparently Rod Stewart only left the Faces because he needed �1000 to
    buy a Marcos!
    
    This may even explain why one member of the club goes out of his way to
    look like Rod - perhaps his car is the car Rod used to own!
    
    Mark

       The Saxby man is on the net, with his Marcos Page:
    
        http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/mark_saxby
    
        His work e-mail address is [email protected]     
    
        Greg

    Mark has updated his page referenced in .295.

From:	VBORMC::"[email protected]" "(Saxby, Mark)" 27-JUN-1996 17:19:08.99
To:	[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
CC:	
Subj:	Trip to Le Mans 1996 with a Marcos

     
     I've owned a Marcos 3 litre for the last 7 years. The car itself is a 
     1969 car and hasn't had the luxury of a ground up restoration (at 
     least not recently!).
     
     However, the fact that Marcos now race at Le Mans meant that I had to 
     make the effort and take the Marcos to the race. I should've taken it 
     last year, but I was in Munich and it was in Fleet, Hampshire, so this 
     was my first chance to take the Marcos to see the Marcos racing at Le 
     Mans.
     
     I booked the ferry way back in January, but I was a little concerned 
     about the ground clearance on the ferry. I needn't have worried 
     however as, when I arrived and lined up with all the other low slung 
     sports and classic cars bound for Le Mans, the efficient Brittany 
     Ferry marshals loaded all of us onto a flat deck. Even amongst all the 
     Porsches, TRs, TVRs, Caterhams, etc, the Marcos attracted attention 
     and a couple of people in a Porsche 356 wandered over to it and were 
     overheard to comment that it was 'much nicer than the new ones'; nice 
     people.
     
     The ferry crossing was smooth and uneventful, as the drive to 
     Portsmouth had been, and I was one of the first cars off the ship. As 
     another car was travelling down with me I had to wait for them and 
     took the opportunity to photograph the car with the ferry in the 
     background, just in case anyone ever doubts that we did make it to 
     France!
     
     Once we joined up and headed out of the busy port of Ouistream (just 
     outside Caen and shown as Caen in the brochures) we were quickly onto 
     the open road. I was just beginning to wonder about the slight weave 
     from the tail over bumps when a terrible noise began. There was 
     nothing else around, so it was clearly my car. I stopped and looked at 
     the back of the car - A puncture!. Still, easily fixed, I thought and 
     got out the jack and socket set. After half an hour I gave up - the 
     wheel was stuck firm. Fortunately I had taken out some European 
     assistance cover, so I called the Freephone number from a wine 
     merchant run by some friendly French people, who spoke no English. 
     Sadly, the number was wrong, but after ringing two numbers in the UK I 
     eventually tracked down the right number and after a further 45 
     minutes wait a man appeared. He then promptly broke the only socket I 
     had which fitted the wheel nut and bent a mild steel bar from his 
     toolkit into a bow, before finding something strong enough to free the 
     wheelnuts. I felt a little better about calling him out after that.
     
     We drove into Caen to find a garage which the assistance man had told 
     us could fix the tube (as the spare is the 60s equivalent of a space 
     saver - a 145/13 remould!). Sure enough the proprietor agreed to fix 
     the tube, but in true French style nothing was hurried. Still, it was 
     a nice afternoon and all the locals paused to give the car a once over 
     as it sat on the garage forecourt - whilst Marcos are rare in the UK, 
     they must be virtually unheard of in France! Once fixed, for a very 
     fair price, we continued on.
     
     It had taken us 3 hours to get the 5 or so miles to Caen, but the next 
     100 or so to Le Mans took us just over 2 and a half. The car, however, 
     was making some strange sounds by the time we get to Le Mans, as if 
     something in the transmission was loose or not properly attached to 
     the car. We stocked up on beer, wine and some food for the weekend and 
     reached the circuit around 9PM.
     
     There was still some light, so I decided to drive down what is the 
     Mulsanne Straight during the race to see if it was possible to take a 
     photo outside the famous Hunadieres restaurants. It wasn't, so we 
     drove on with the plan to turn around at the roundabout at Mulsanne 
     corner. As we reached the second chicane, however, a Gendarme waved me 
     off the road and into the chicane itself. I noticed they were stopping 
     every British registered sportscar. The Gendarme asked if I'd been 
     drinking alcohol and seemed stunned when I said no - he then 
     breathalyzed me, which of course showed nothing, and I continued down 
     to the Mulsanne corner roundabout and turned around to make our way 
     back to Garage Rouge.
     
     On arrival at the 'Garage' we found the gates locked, but another set 
     of gates further up were open and we decided to try our lock and park 
     by one of the few clumps of trees. Usually the officials are zealous 
     in their organisation of the cars, but on this occasion they left us 
     alone so we enjoyed a little shade at least some of the time over the 
     weekend.
     
     The race came and went as it does every year. The singleton Marcos 
     disappointed by expiring with engine failure after just 4 hours, 
     although it had shown well, leading its class, before that. I managed 
     to sleep quiet well for 2 nights in the car, which suprised me a 
     little.
     
     As the race ended, I returned to the car and set off back to the 
     ferry. The journey took around 2 and a half hours, but during that 
     time I stopped twice as the noises I'd heard on the way down turned 
     into serious vibration from somewhere in the drivetrain. 
     
     The vibration seemed worst at very slow speeds and evened out to just 
     slight discomfort at a steady 60 mph, so I cruised back to Ouistream 
     gently and arrived in plenty of time for my 11PM ferry. All along the 
     way, the locals had waved and cheered as I passed.
     
     After a fine glass of Belgian White Beer in a harbour side cafe, I 
     pulled into the ferry area right behind a nearly new Mantara Spyder. 
     The owner, his daughter and I spent a few hours chatting about the 
     cars and the pair of them drew a lot attention amongst the, 
     predominantly Le Mans returnee, ferry passengers.
     
     I've not yet traced the problem with the vibration. I suspect it may 
     be a failing rear axle, as the diff's been growling for a couple of 
     years now, so I'll probably need to have that attended to in the near 
     future.
     
     Overall, the experience was wonderful. The car drew admiring glances 
     and interested questions from all sorts of people all weekend. Despite 
     the problems I encountered, there was little doubt that'doing' Le Mans 
     in a sportscar adds to the pleasure of the event and  I plan to take 
     the car again next year, but this next time I'll check I can get the 
     wheels off without resorting to a third party!
     
     Mark

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