Marcos Mantura Hardtop Coupe red by Promod 242R

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 bankrupt again in 2000, but thanks to a wealthy Canadian buying the company, production was again revived. The race car production was relocated in Holland while road car production moved to Kenilworth, Warwickshire, England.

Marcos Mantula, Spider and Martina

In 1984 the Marcos Mantula appeared, with a reborn company, still under the original founder, Jem Marsh, looking very similar to the old GT, but now powered by a 3.5 litre Rover V8 and 5 speed gearbox. The alloy Rover engine weighed much less than the old six cylinder cast iron units and put the car back into serious contention against other Rover powered sports cars such as TVR and Morgan.  The Marcos Martina was externally a very similar car to the Mantula, but with flared front arches, however it was powered by a 2 litre four cylinder Ford Cortina engine and used steering/suspension components from the same car. In 1986 the Mantula became available in convertible form as the Marcos Spyder with a design similar to the GT. Both the Mantula and Martina cars were made up to 1993.

 Marcos Mantara