Marcos TSO

Marcos built some stunning cars in the 60’s, the Mantis XP and some questionable ones, the Mantis, but like so many British car builders it struggled through the 90’s with bankruptcy and then in a last gasp with a new owner itcame out with a new car in the 00’s. On paper it all sounds good, 2 seater coupe, racing pedigree , Chevy V8 with up to 400bhp, no electric driver aids and a chassis designed by Prodrive etc it even looked the part!!!! Okay granted it did look a little bit like a TVR. All sounds good but for some reason it didn’t sell, from 2004 to then the company went into liquidation in 2007 only about 12 road cars were built. Why? Well the £50-60k price tag probably didn’t help, that’s up there with the lairy TVR’s and comfortable Porsche 911’s, but form reports of the time was neither on or the other rather just another GT from a small builder.

Marcos Mantis XP

Considering it shares the same name as a similarly aged car the Mantis it thankfully doesn’t share its challenging looks. In fact you would think they were built by different companies. This single XP however was built to race at Le Man’s. Powered by a 3ltr V8 Brabhams F1 engine housed in a wooden chassis draped with fibreglass and Perspex this truly is a think to behold.

Marcos Mantis

This has to be a Marmite car, you love its obscure styling or you’re sick to your stomach. Produced in 1968, the Mantis was even sold in a kit form from 1971. Which, reading between the lines mean there were alot of spare parts lying around the factory, needing to be put together!!!!! Powered by a 2.5 litre Triumph TR6 six cylinder injected engine with 150bhp, at the time it was up there with its contemporaries, however it was expensive £3,185 (At this time the V8 Rover 3500 came with a UK sticker price of £2,150 including sales taxes.). Due to its looks and price, its reported that only 32 left the factory between 1970 and 71 when production ceased.