Marcos Maniacs

I don't know how many Marcos were made LHD originally. Presumably all 
those bound for the states (mainly Volvo 3 litres) would have been, 
but it's very simple to convert a Marcos from LHD to RHD and vice 
versa (the dash and footwells are symetrical), so there's no 
guarantee that a Marcos that is now LHD started that way.

I'd guess that all the Triumph cars were, originally, RHD as these 
were built by Rob Walker cars to use up parts and sold through Rob 
Walker dealerships in the UK.

In one of the Brooklands books there's a picture (unless my memory is 
going completely) of an early-ish 1600 with LHD in London, so they 
weren't unheard of on the early models, although it's not clear where 
cars were going. 

In the UK, at least, the Marcos was a VERY trendy car in the 60s with 
many rock stars and TV personalities owning them The Walker Brothers 
had two, Rod Stewart (allegedly) went solo to pay for his and John 
Noakes (British TV presenter - Blue Peter for anyone with memories of 
British Children's TV :^)) had one. Therefore it's not unlikely that 
a number were bought by European celebrities and built in LHD.

END_OF_RAMBLE.

Mark

PS My car's currently with Alan Fereday Cars being refurbished ready 
for a return to the road in the Spring (I hope :^))

--- In MarcosManiacs@y..., David Skora <David@a...> wrote:
> Hello Dan
> Thanks for the interesting history. This is almost more than what is
> currently available in print about Marcos cars! Is your car left 
hand drive?
> My car (5006) is LHD. Do you have any idea how many Marcos were 
left hand
> drive? Were all the Triumph or Volvo 6-cyl. cars also LHD?
> Thanks Dave
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From:	Dan Orie [SMTP:dorie@s...]
> > Sent:	Tuesday, January 22, 2002 6:02 AM
> > To:	'MarcosManiacs@y...'
> > Subject:	[MarcosManiacs] More historical tidbits - a bit long
> > 
> > Hello All;
> >   I had a chance over the weekend to really pour over the 
documents from
> > my
> > build history ordered from Rory. Some of it may be common 
knowledge, but
> > it's new to me since I haven't read much of the information 
available
> > about
> > our cars - I hope it's not boring.
> > 
> > Prestige imports of Los Angeles CA. seemed to be the first 
authorized
> > dealer
> > of completed cars in the USA. The biggest problem at the time 
(summer &
> > fall
> > of 1969) was getting the Marcos to comply with smog regulations. 
They
> > pre-sold over 200 cars, but couldn't sell one due to this fact. 
They were
> > almost in a panic to get the cars certified by the EPA before 
customs sent
> > them back to the UK, and seemed distressed to find out that Volvo 
engines
> > were taking the place of the Fords - maybe they were tied to Ford 
somehow?
> > 
> > My car as I mentioned earlier, was ordered by the President of 
Ford at the
> > time. The car was first delivered to a company called Kar Kraft, 
who at
> > the
> > time was a performance and tuning specialist working with Ford. 
Kar Kraft
> > was responsible for all of the work in changing regular Mustangs 
into the
> > 'Boss 429 Mustangs'. 'Boss' was how the workers of that project 
referred
> > to
> > the President of Ford at the time and the name stuck. It is my 
speculation
> > that having Kar Kraft initially work on the Marcos to comply with 
the USA
> > regulations at the time could have been an informal test and 
first step to
> > an eventual selling agreement in the USA by Ford.
> > 
> > There was considerable frustration on the part of the guy from 
Kar Kraft
> > in
> > charge of getting my Marcos road-worthy. The correspondence 
between him
> > and
> > a couple of Marcos employees - including Jem Marsh was almost 
comical at
> > times. Evidently, my car arrived with 'bad engine bearings'. Some 
thought
> > it
> > was due to overheating, but Marcos claimed that it was due to 'oil
> > surging'
> > which was purported to be a problem with almost 20 percent of all 
of the
> > Essex engines. The Reliants and TVR's along with the Ford's were 
claimed
> > to
> > be experiencing the same problems. A bigger radiator along with a 
new
> > engine
> > was ordered for my car.
> > 
> > Also, it seems that someone from Marcos (I'm almost positive is 
was Jem)
> > was
> > trying to get Kar Kraft to be a Marcos distributor for the 
central and
> > east
> > regions of the USA. He claimed that they really didn't have any 
interest
> > in
> > selling the Marcos in the UK, and told them that a new factory 
was being
> > built and they could produce around 350 cars per year. Kar Kraft 
claimed
> > that the Marcos attracted considerable interest from the public 
just
> > sitting
> > on the trailer. Kar Kraft was almost being begged by Prestige 
imports and
> > by
> > Marcos to provide engineering in helping Marcos pass the 
emissions tests.
> > 
> > In summation, I don't know if the President of Ford got to drive 
my Marcos
> > before he was fired in 1970. However, the considerable problems he
> > experienced with the car probably soured him on ever thinking of
> > officially
> > importing the cars as part of Ford - if he were thinking along 
those
> > lines.
> > The correspondence between Ford USA and Marcos on my cars 
indicates that
> > there was some confusion as to who was doing what at Marcos.
> > 
> > Dano
> > Essex V6 3M/5463
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> > MarcosManiacs-unsubscribe@y...
> > 
> >  
> > 
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> >