Marcos Ford - Page 2

Geoff Mackenzie wrote:

I don't know much about the Marcos but I know a guy that owns a later
one, a Rover 3.5 engined unit, never liked the styling of any of them
myself. Main reason for posting is that I live in the area where they
were made and have met a number of people that worked on or made them in
the early days and some later. About the switch from a wooden chassis to
metal, one guy said that was down to not being able to get suitable
quality ply for the chassis so the switch was made. Being a wood chassis
what is the state likely to be these days, maybe the wood/metal switch
was just a cost issue with the materials, the ply working out more
expensive for the required product.

On Fri, 29 Oct 2010 20:00:58 +0100, David Billington wrote:


The chassis, IIRC, were high-grade marine ply, which should be pretty
durable (plenty of marine ply boats[1] from that era still about: in fact
it may be the survival rate is rather better than steel cars of that
era....). The ply construction should make it eminently repairable, too.

Some interesting comments at:

http://www.rory.uk.com/marcos_wooden_chassis.htm

suggests that with the Granada V6 (130ish-140some bhp from the carb'd
3.0, depending on exhaust system - Ford, of course, claimed more..) the
wooden chassis is at the limits of its stretch, and you'd need to be
careful with tyre sizing. The Zodiac engine, at 120something bhp, should
be OK power-wise, though both engines will have a lot of torque compared
to the Volvo donk. Care with tyres again, maybe..

Anyway, that makes it sound like it was the limit on engine output/torque
through the chassis that led to the adoption of the metal chassis -
probably easier to do that than to design a completely new wooden
chassis..

On Fri, 29 Oct 2010 19:09:20 +0000, Andy Breen wrote:


Elsewhere on the same site (home page for it) there seems to be the
answer: the steel chassis was much quicker and cheaper to build, allowing
production rate to be upped.

V6s with the wooden chassis certainly existed - a quick search turned
this up:

http://www.motorsnaps.com/v/Cars+M/Marcos/tom+b/

Evidently they have no worries about upping the grunt levels in the
wooden chassis, going by the "3.4 V6" on the rocker cover..

Given that wooden-chassis production finished in 1969 (so far as I can
tell), any V6 cars would have started with the Zodiac engine.

Andy Breen wrote:

I'll have a bit more of a read around that site later as  I think that
is the guy I was talking to previously that mentioned the ply supply issue.

IIRC it was earlier in  this year that there was a gathering to honour
Jem Marsh , him attending, at a local pub in Bradford on Avon and many
that made Marcos happen attended. It was Invite only as I understand it
but a few heard and popped in to say hello.

On Fri, 29 Oct 2010 20:36:03 +0100, David Billington wrote:


OK. I'd be interested to hear more..

A quick think regarding high-grade marine ply and 1969 prompts the
thought that that was the year of the Honduras/El Savador border dispute
went critical, culminating in the "soccer war". Given that those
countries were major sources of the durable hardwoods used in the best
marine plys of the day (long logged out now, I guess..) that /could/ have
put a crimp in supplies. Also the year of the Biafra war, so that's
another big supplier of high-grade tropical wood out of the picture.
Could well have been a bottleneck in supplies, and worries that it might
be permanent..

Hmm.

Many thanks to all who responded to my original query.  Decision is a 2.8i
with 5-speed box as fitted to the last of the "production" Capris.  No doubt
there will be issues with prop shaft, diff etc but that's a fair way down
the line.

Geoff MacK

Good choice IMO. Hmm is there any chance that the 4.0V6 Mustang SOHC
(also a Cologne block) would fit? I think it's a better engine than the
2.8 and IIRC it weighs the same and has similar dimensions.

Plenty available from scrapped Ford Exploders at the moment. Some owners
tend to be a bit too enthusiastic and roll them.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember "Geoff Mackenzie"


2.8 Cologne definitely. The Essex was a dreadful old boat anchor and the
associated gearboxes were as bad.
Keep an eye open for a donor 2.8i Granada with Bosch K-jetronic
injection - utterly bulletproof and a worthwhile extra few hp.