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The company was founded in Luton, in Bedfordshire, England, in 1959 by Jem Marsh and Frank Costin. Frank Costin had earlier worked on the De Havilland Mosquito fighter-bombers and from there he got the idea to use plywood for the chassis. The company moved to a converted mill in Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire in 1963 and in 1971 to a purpose built factory at nearby Westbury.
Problems with exporting cars to the USA and the move to the new premises led to financial troubles in the 1970s and by 1971 they were out of business. Jem Marsh however stayed in the auto business and in 1976 he bought back the rights to the Marcos name, and in 1981 the Marcos was relaunched with the Marcos V6 Coupe that was sold in kit form.
Marcos went out of business again in 2000, but thanks to a wealthy Canadian buying the company, is now producing cars again. The race car production is now located in The Netherlands while the road cars are now made in Kenilworth, Warwickshire, United Kingdom.
The first car, the 1960 Marcos GT was a rather strange looking device with gullwing doors and a windscreen in four panels. For production the body was made less radical but initially retained the gullwing doors. It was powered by a choice of Ford engines varying from 997 cc to 1498 cc and had Standard 10 and Triumph Herald steering and suspension components. Thirty nine were made up to 1963.
In 1961 the brothers Dennis Adams and Peter Adams started working with Marcos and they introduced a number of changes to the original design and in 1963 they displayed the two seater coupé Marcos GT at the London Racing Car Show. Originally this used the 4 cylinder Volvo 1800 cc unit with overdrive gearbox and De Dion rear axle but in 1966 this changed to a Ford engine in 1500 cc, 1600 cc or 1650 cc capacity and a coil sprung live rear axle. In 1969 this changed again to the Ford V4 engine as used in the Corsair and Capri. In 1969 the GT changed from plywood chassis to a more conventional steel one. This shortened the production time and also made it possible to use more powerful 6 cylinder engines with a choice of 140 bhp, 3 litre Ford Essex V6 engine (UK), 140 bhp, 3 litre Volvo straight 6 or more rarely the Triumph 2.5 litre straight 6. The cars were sold into the North American market and for them to pass the exhaust emissions regulations the Volvo engine was used there. The car had a wheelbase of 77 inches, a height of only 43 inches and weighed 18 cwt. The Ford V6 version achieved over 120 mph on test.
Another new car, the TSO, arrived in 2004 with a Chevrolet V8 engine in either 350 bhp or 400 bhp versions. The car's components were CAD designed in England, while chassis engineering has been done by Prodrive.
Also in 2004, the 5.7-litre Chevrolet Corvette (LS1) V8 TSO GT was announced, but solely for the Australian market. It was joined in 2005 by the GT2 for the European market.
In 2006 Marcos announced the TSO GTC, a modified version of the current TSO with a racing suspension, racing brakes and a rear diffuser. The car continues on with its Chevrolet-sourced 420 bhp V8, but there is also a 462 bhp Performance Pack available as well. With the extra power from the Performance Pack the TSO GTC accelerates to 60 mph in 4.1 seconds and to 100 mph in 8.5 seconds. With the bigger brakes, 340 mm AP Racing brakes, the TSO GTC delivers a 0-100-0 time of 12.9 seconds. With the extra power, its 50 to 70 mph time requires just 2.1 seconds. Top speed is over 185 mph.
source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcos_TSO |
