Marcos 3000 GT - the 1960s V6 rare British classic sports car!

Marcos 3000 GT This is the Marcos 3000 GT, a lesser spotted sports car with plenty of get up and go. One magazine even dubbed it the three litre fireball thanks to the Ford Essex V6 engine under the bonnet. If you remember the Zephyr we tested earlier this year, it’s the bigger version of that engine. The Marcos 3000 GT was a real win for the company, it was a big step up from previous iterations which had featured 4 cylinder engines and really added flair to the talents of the company founders Jem Marsh and Frank Costin, which by the way, is where the MAR and COS bits of the company name comes from! One of the bits of the car i think you’ll find interesting is the plywood chassis. You’re probably used to the idea of a steel frame but with this, it’s sheets of marine-grade plywood bonded together which creates a stiff, lightweight structure. The company then fitted a fibreglass body to it to create the car you see before us. There are 386 bonded plywood panels if you’re counting. Now look, this wasn’t new for the chaps in charge, because during the war Frank Costin had worked on plywood planes such as the DeHaviland and Mosquito fighter bombers. Talent clearly ran in the family, because Costin’s brother was Mike Costin of Cosworth. Anyway, back to the car, the shape itself wasn’t new for 69 and in fact had first been used on the Marcos 1800 GT in 1964. it was designed by Dennis Adams and he wanted a design which was remarkably low with a long bonnet, defined arches and a tiny cabin. There are adjustable pedals, which predictably I forgot to show you, which help drivers of different heights get into the car. And height was certainly a consideration, because Jem Marsh was 6ft4 and wanted a car which would accomodate him and other people who were exceptionally tall for the time - he felt at time of launch that the market just didn’t have anything suitable for people of his stature. To be fair, put any tall person in something like an MGB and you’ll soon see his point! It’s worth noting that whilst the shape didn’t change from 1964, the engines certianly did and the company didn’t make their own but purchased from other manufacturers and you see them use engines from Volvo in addition to Ford. The BHP rating varies across reviews and brochures and some seat it at 136bhp and other 140 - but that’s a rough ballpark for you. The zero to 60 is around 8 seconds and top speed is quoted between 125 and 130mph. A 1969 magazine review puts the cars cost at £1,790 plus a purchase tax of £560 with the alloy wheels costing an additional £55 if the buyer wished to pick them. Although this is a handsome car, the progress didn’t stop here and in fact, if you look at later examples of the 3000 GT you’ll notice they’ve got a tubular/box section steel chassis. It was done simply to make production more conventional. Sadly, all is not well at Marcos as the 60s ends and the 70s begins and the company after moving into new premises chasing rapid expansion goes into receivership. It wasn’t the fault of the cars, more the fault of an ambitious team who chased an American market which wasn’t quite ready and experienced production and development costs which hadn’t been foreseen. It did eventually get saved but dipped in and out of problems until the late 2000s when it ceased completely. Some brilliant ideas, excellent engineering and deserved far more attention - a forgotten gem in British motoring history.