I get to see lots of and lots of desirable machinery in my line of business, but one of the few cars that has merited a picture on my iPhone recently was a Marcos Mantis, the Wiltshire sports car maker’s one and only foray into the world of four seaters.
I have had a ‘thing’ about these cars for years, which is not the same as actually wanting one necessarily… and yet looking at that red example parked in the outfield at the Le Mans Classic (could it be the same one I drove for C&SC in the early ’90s?) I almost thought I really did want one, even though I know I should probably content myself with buying a brochure or reading an old road test.
That normally cures me of these fleeting romances, but the trouble is nobody ever seems to have done a proper test on a Mantis (which should not be confused, incidentally, with the mid-engined sports racing car of the same name).
In fact, it was only when sitting down to write this that I realised how little I know about these cars, beyond the fact that they only made 32 and they all had a Triumph 2.5Pi/TR6 engine and box.
They were allegedly very aerodynamic and I have heard talk of 140mph top speeds, but who knows? The Capri back axle is a clue to the fact that the original plan had been to use a Ford V6 engine and box, but that idea was scuppered by the USA’s new emissions regulations; later they finished Marcos off by impounding 25 unpaid for cars in customs, but that’s another story.
