I got my first car when I was 17 - a mini-van. Small, sensible and economical. With the help of Dave Vizard's guidance I tuned it, and thrashed it. However I decided that the car was basically unremarkable and I wanted something more interesting. Next car was a 3 litre Austin Westminster, and then a 5 litre V8 Australian Ford Fairmont, and a P6 3.5 litre Rover V8. Now we are getting somewhere

So what is the ideal car for someone who want something different ?

Modest Price - if I had the money I would get a bigger house, better garage, and not the Pagani Zonda
Good Looks - I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder
Good Sounds - The sound of a large V8 is probably my favourite, but V6 and straight 5 have their place
Tuning and Parts availability - Life gets tricky if an essential part is no longer available
Fit for Purpose - i.e. NOT general purpose, if you want a sports car and to tow a caravan, then get two cars.
Manual Gearbox - I had 3 autos, but somehow felt more engaged with the driving process with a manual change

And the result ? Well eventually it got me the following :
A sports car - the V8 Marcos
A general beast of burden and tow car, a Land Rover 110 V8
A GT car with comfy seating for 4, a supercharged V8 Monaro (wasn't looking for a supercharged one, but hey !!)
And an economical runabout, a Calibra V6
And a very crowded drive, now I am looking for a house with more garage space.

So here is the Marcos at the moment of birth, brand new and unregistered in December 1995 at the Marcos works. It was a long pregnancy, having been sold as a component car in 1990, before the owner gave it back to the works to build for him in 1995. Shortly after that it was bought by a Bennetton F1 mechanic, who used it every day for about 9 years before it came to me via Redline Sports Cars. During that period Marcos Heritage did a chassis rust repair and galvanising, the engine was upped to 4.5 litres, and the rear IRS was converted to fully rose-jointed race spec.


And here it is in 2009 - still much the same, but with a number of changes under the bonnet - like a 4.5 litre John Eales engine. And I think I have made a better job of the ride height than Marcos did - see rear wheel arches to wheel gap.



Here's its monster companion -about twice the weight and over twice the BHP (something like 550bhp from the supercharged LS2 Chevy V8).



So - what next ....well maybe the Calibra will be swapped for a supercharged Mini, and the Land Rover is very long in the tooth. We shall see. The Marcos stays !

Safety Engineer for major oil and gas company (designing things so that if the worst happens people don't get hurt).

Challenging, and maybe the only job that if you do perfectly, nothing happens !

All things mechanical - especially cars and bikes, but also have a selection of vintage lathes, old power hacksaw and pillar drill, ancient generator. People at work say I am turning into Fred Dibner - which I take as a compliment.