Marcos Maniacs

Hi Dan,
Thanks for posting this fascinating info!!!
I remember seeing Prestige Imports mentioned in one of the articles 
in the Brooklands Marcos book, but had no idea that all that was 
going on behind the scenes.
Great stuff!!! Now, I have to figure out how to roll that into the 
web-site!


Jeff
#8052 1984 Ford V6 GT


--- In MarcosManiacs@y..., Dan Orie <dorie@s...> wrote:
> 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