Long, Low & Dangerous To Know: <br/>The Mantula Mantra
Sometimes You Don’t See It Coming

You expect one thing, you get another. Typically with classic British sportscars you might predict lightness and a phenomenal chassis, but you don’t necessarily put brutal power on the list. Think Lotus Elan or Cortina, which are all about performance over power. Seeing a Marcos, the first thought might be along those lines, expecting fantastic handling to make up for small capacity up front. But, like TVR and even Morgan, this Marcos represents the time when a British company went a bit loopy and started throwing big, bluff V8s at their little cars. Things got brutal, fast. And then the owner of this particular car decided to make his brutally fast.

Martyn Phillip's 1985 Marcos Mantula

This beautiful 1985 Marcos Mantula is the result of a ground-up rebuild by Martyn Phillips in the UK, who stripped the car down to its last nut and bolt and remade it into this glorious example of all that is good and proper about classic Brit metal. Lithe. Lightweight. Fast. Utterly beautiful. It’s so low that you just trip over it, just 41.5 inches (one metre!) high. There’s not a straight line to be seen from its acres of long nose through its flowing flanks and high rump to the sloping tail.

Martyn Phillip's 1985 Marcos Mantula

Then he strapped a 5-litre V8 in there. And the strangest thing is, that just seemed like the sensible thing to do.

Martyn Phillip's 1985 Marcos Mantula

For me, this Mantula is another step in the rediscovery of a great marque that has disappeared from the public eye; another niche British classic all but consigned to history. For Martyn, this car is something far more important. It’s the culmination of a driving ambition that goes back to his youth and pictures of Marcos cars stuck on his wall, picked from brochures that he’d sent off for.

Martyn Phillip's 1985 Marcos Mantula

It’s also a fine example of what you can do when you set your mind to something. Building this Marcos was a classic journey of discovery for Martyn, a self-confessed enthusiast rather than expert builder, where he found out just what he was capable of. It shows that dedication and passion are commodities that you can’t put a value on.

Martyn Phillip's 1985 Marcos Mantula

Why choose a Marcos? They’re not something that everyone has heard of – but they’re not easily forgotten once you’ve seen one. For some people it could be a Countach on the wall, but for Martyn it was a Marcos – and for a long time owning one seemed as likely as getting a Lamborghini…

Martyn Phillip's 1985 Marcos Mantula

The Marcos name was created in 1959 from conjoining the surnames of its founders, Jem Marsh and Frank Costin. The latter had made his name designing airplanes such as the legendary Mosquito for the De Havilland aircraft company, and his know-how of wood monocoques led to the first plywood-based Marcos sportscars. Kicking off with the 475kg Xylon GT (yes, you read that number right), there then came the iconic 1800GT and then the snub-nosed Mini Marcos, a not very pretty but still somehow appealing aerodynamic take on the classic Mini platform.

Martyn Phillip's 1985 Marcos Mantula

This Mantula is one of a relatively rare breed. Only 170 were made as part of Marcos’ second wind in the ’80s when it bounced back from its first bout of bankruptcy (this is a British company after all, so engineering always came before sensible book-keeping).

Based on the original GT, the Mantula was just that little bit tighter in its design; more modern looking, with more defined curves that further accentuated its long lines. It also introduced a 3.5-litre Rover V8 as the roaring heart of the new model. The Mantula went through various GT and other variants before the bulging Mantis model superseded it in the ’90s, but Martyn’s eye was fixed on the purity of the classic Marcos shape.

Martyn Phillip's 1985 Marcos Mantula

Martyn initially scratched his automotive itch via building a Jago Geep kit car – but pesky Marcos kept cropping up at meets he attended. Although not a kit car in the traditional sense, a large proportion of Marcos were sold in kit form, both as a less expensive route to ownership and to take advantage of various tax breaks. Martyn just couldn’t get away from them, but would still have to be patient. Like, two decades-worth of patient.

Martyn Phillip's 1985 Marcos Mantula

An MG Midget was his next long-term love, but then in 2008 the inevitable happened after the result of something I’m sure most of us do: some anything-but-innocent eBay trawling. Up popped this Mantula, in need of both a quick sale and a lot of care and attention.

Marcos_Mantula-011

The Mantula’s then owner had the car in a mid-project state, partially disassembled and taken off the road with a known – and major – issue with the chassis rails, but was emigrating to Canada literally the next week and couldn’t engineer a way to take it with him. The gateway to dream Marcos ownership suddenly opened up for Martyn, and a short while later a slightly tatty Mantula and a box of bits were sitting outside his garage at home.

That must be when panic could have set in – and maybe did a little. With the wafer-thin bodywork removed and suspended from the garage roof, the wiring, bulkheads, ancillaries and finally the running gear were all carefully extracted, leaving just the Mantula’s simple box-steel frame. This is where optimism would only get you so far.

Limited Space, Limited Time, Unlimited Dedication
Martyn Phillip's 1985 Marcos Mantula

Undaunted, Martyn just got down to work. He’d previously taken a welding course at night school, so bought himself a MIG welder, mugged up with a wiring guide he’d downloaded, and got on with things. Sensibly, he put himself under no pressure or self-imposed deadlines, and stuck to a methodical approach. Over five years, and in a cramped single garage with limited space and basic tools, the Mantula was reborn. It’s a salutary lesson about putting quality time in to get a quality result out.

Martyn Phillip's 1985 Marcos Mantula

From the moment Martyn picked up his new toy, he also kept a personal and incredibly detailed diary of the work involved on his personal blog. Starting in March 2008, every milestone was recorded as the Mantula was gradually dissected down to its component parts, before being meticulously restored, rebuilt and refined. It’s a great read and reinforces just how much effort was put in, not just in hard graft but in tracking down suppliers and the right partners to help with key tasks he couldn’t handle himself.

Marcos_Mantula-014

Although the bodywork was going to be relatively easy to patch up, being made of woven glass mat, the chassis was a different matter. The protective powder coating applied by the factory was always known to be a pretty desultory affair, so the whole thing would need to be repaired and then re-coated. Rotten sections were all cut out and new pieces let in; Martyn also added additional bracing to further stiffen the car. A year into the project the chassis was sent off to be zinc primed followed by a double top coat of polyester powder coating, then finished in factory blue. All the sub assemblies were also removed and dismantled, shot-blasted and coated before being put back together.

Martyn Phillip's 1985 Marcos Mantula

Alongside getting his hands very dirty, Martyn also delved into the car’s history. At first, the results were confusing and initial research ended up down blind alleys: this seemed to be the car that didn’t exist… Marcos Heritage Spares, who are the guardians of build sheets and chassis details for pretty much every Marcos built, came up empty. There was no chassis number. Where was this car from?

The story was gradually revealed as he followed up leads and tracked down previous owners. The car was obviously a competition model, as it featured a factory-fitted FIA-spec roll-cage, used uber-thin bodywork and lacked all the refinements that Marcos cabins usually had. This was a stripped down racer, for sure.

Marcos_Mantula-016

It turns out that the Mantula was built in 1985 by the Marcos factory for the Alexandra Palace Motor Show (the second year of coupé production) but then handed over to Rover V8 engine specialist John Eales to settle some financial wrangling. He then used it as an engine development platform for almost a decade, campaigning it at various sprints sporting light silver paint and a low rear spoiler.

Martyn Phillip's 1985 Marcos Mantula

In ’96 the car was sold on and the new owner road-registered it; at this stage it was assigned an age-related plate, as it was effectively built up using new parts. The forward Perspex windows were replaced with glass and electric side windows installed, though the lightweight rear screen was kept. Through one final owner, who installed a new dual exhaust system and custom alloy fuel tank, the story led to Martyn.

Martyn Phillip's 1985 Marcos Mantula

The condition was poor, but the potential of the car was joyful. It had fully rose-jointed suspension; a ZF limited slip diff; a blueprinted 3.5-litre Rover V8 with twin SUs; Koni 8212 shocks and adjustable rear anti roll bar; Girling 4-pot callipers with vented discs front and oversize drums at the rear. Apparently even the shocks were special, part of a lightweight series developed by Koni for the iconic six-wheeler Tyrrell Formula 1 car.

Martyn Phillip's 1985 Marcos Mantula

Throughout the build, Martyn was completely open to advice: he took advantage of the support of the Marcos Owners Club and followed a number of other rebuilds, whilst at the same time seeing more and more people follow his own progress. He was getting contacts from all around the world, with people asking questions or offering tips. Although he took on a great portion of the work, there was no question about bringing in experts for specific jobs.

Martyn Phillip's 1985 Marcos Mantula

The car has seen plenty of different engines over the years, but Martyn has up-gunned it further. Early on in the project he bought a 5-litre, cross-bolted Edelbrock short-block from V8 Developments, lighter and more powerful than the Rover, which then sat in his poor daughter’s old bedroom until the time was right to start on the engine bay. V8D then got to work, stripping off swappable ancillaries from the Rover V8 and adding their own Stage 3 heads, Edelbrock carb, a Stealth cam and MegaJolt ignition.

Martyn Phillip's 1985 Marcos Mantula

There was no chance of using the archetypal circular air filter, but by luck the straight-through would just fit in the natural bulge of the bonnet created for the original engine setup. Despite the big engine, the Mantula is thought to have pretty much perfect weight distribution because of the block sitting low-down and quite a way back.

Martyn Phillip's 1985 Marcos Mantula

Out back, after trying out different options (including a four-pipe setup), Martyn opted for the tidiest solution, routing twin pipes either side of the centreline before bringing them back together into a single oval tip.

Paint, Polish, Performance & Presentation
Martyn Phillip's 1985 Marcos Mantula

One important milestone was to get the car back on the road and settled into its new form before starting on any finishing touches. Concerned with the restored but fragile bodywork developing cracks or other issues, Martyn ran the car in with a bare cabin for a very noisy and not altogether comfortable 12 months.

Martyn Phillip's 1985 Marcos Mantula

Only then, confident that everything not just fitted together but would stay together, and that no major issues would likely rear their head, the Mantula was be prepared for its final flourish There was the option of going completely off-piste with the colour, but Martyn decided to retain a thread to its history and opted for a silver, albeit a much darker shade. It’s actually a Mercedes colour, Palladium Silver. The split rims were also returned to their gold shade, having been silver and gold previously.

Martyn Phillip's 1985 Marcos Mantula

Although Martyn had a clear vision of how the car would be mechanically, the interior was the one thing that came together late in the project.

The cockpit had been a glass-fibre shell with vinyl seats and a ratty panel holding back a vomit of cables, wires and brackets. Martyn started afresh with a blank wood template and cleaned the whole fascia up to give himself this clean and modern look. The dials had been hidden behind the wheel, which made them basically useless, so moving them centrally made perfect sense. The Marcos switchgear was a bit Victorian, so Martyn took more modern, sturdy and appropriate looking units from an MG.

Martyn Phillip's 1985 Marcos Mantula

After a lot of research and discussions with his trimmer, he opted for this uncluttered, sleek cabin style finished in black leather and silver diamond-stitch on the material elements. The dash top is finished in Alcantara to reduce glare, and the cabin was sealed using Dynamat Extreme proofing material to try and reduce the heat coming from both the engine up front and the transmission tunnel that bisects the cockpit.

During all this time Martyn had deliberately kept the car out of the public gaze, wanting to wait until he was satisfied with the result. Back in 2013, and with five years of graft put in, he was ready, and the car took pride of place on the Marcos Owners Club stand at the Classic Motor Show in the UK – which is where I first gawped at it.

Martyn Phillip's 1985 Marcos Mantula

Last year saw Martyn gently refine his Mantula; little things here and there as issues cropped up. The main thing was the headlight power: with the original sealed units you might as well have a couple of candles mounted out front, and after some near misses at junctions (remember just how low and long this car is; a super loud horn helped in the short term) Martyn upgraded the beams to halogen units.

Martyn Phillip's 1985 Marcos Mantula

The Mantula was also unleashed on a dyno. And immediately tried to leave it in quite a startling way. Even heavily strapped down, the featherweight car began to move about alarmingly as soon as the revs rose, and the attempt was abandoned after at around 2,800rpm. The figure must be in the 300hp range, which with 820kg to play with is positively volcanic.

Martyn Phillip's 1985 Marcos Mantula

Being practical in the wider sense is a more difficult, and perhaps unachievable, goal for a car like this. It’s just not like any other normal car you can drive on the road. Sure, it already looks so unique, but it’s all about driving position and visibility combined with the respect for what’s up front and what’s beneath you. Seats? There aren’t any. The padding simply follows the contours of the car, so there’s no adjustment. The pedal box comes to you…

Four-point Willans harnesses hold you in place – so much that the handbrake is tough to reach. Martyn now sees why a lot of people move the handle…

Martyn Phillip's 1985 Marcos Mantula

You don’t simply ‘get in’ to a Marcos. You more step down into it and then slowly thread yourself into one of the narrow apertures either side of the engine. It’s like a gym exercise. The bulky transmission tunnel divides you from your co-pilot to such an extent that you can just about see shoulders and above.

Martyn Phillip's 1985 Marcos Mantula

Out front, I have been in few cars that give that immediate sense of being so low to the ground and so reclined that at first you constantly strain your shoulders to try and see up, over and down the miles of bonnet that stretch out ahead. You have to learn to relax into the position and accept that what’s there is what you’ve got.

The power bulge in the bonnet further reduces visibility, and the rear view is non existent: but as ever, these are all things you quickly got used to – though never becoming normal.

Martyn Phillip's 1985 Marcos Mantula

The Marcos a glorious thing to drive though, or even to be driven in. With its long wheelbase and super low aspect it’s utterly planted through corners, with the proviso being that you have to be incredibly careful with your right foot: you can break traction in an instant. The V8 growls away up front, sounding unrefined in the most positive sense of the word. It’s not tuned up to a thousand: it’s just a monstrous American V8 in alien surroundings.

Martyn Phillip's 1985 Marcos Mantula

There’s a different track front to back, with the rear a little wider. Checking the Revolution split rims in detail, Martyn realised that the wheels were different sizes: but again not what you’d expect. It’s actually the fronts that are wider, perhaps to compensate for the extra width of the Atlas axle at the rear.

Martyn Phillip's 1985 Marcos Mantula

What’s next? Stopping being boiled alive is one thing. The seating (lying?) position means that your lower half is right next to the full heat of the big V8 and the expanse of sloped glass exposes your top half to the full glare of the sun. Martyn has sensibly already cut in cockpit vents and plumbed in piping, but needs to connect them up to the intakes at the front. A small inline electric fan will back up the natural ram air effect.

Martyn Phillip's 1985 Marcos Mantula

The engine sounds ferociously raw, but is being partially throttled by a silencer. The issue is that the silencer presents the lowest part of the car, meaning that getting anywhere in modern urban Britain, a place embattled by speed bumps and poor roads, is not so much fun.

Martyn Phillip's 1985 Marcos Mantula

A smaller task is that having a single, cursory windscreen wiper means that Rain-X is the fall-back for keeping any kind of visibility in the wet. However, this is not really a car you want to take out on a damp, slippery road surface, unless you like visiting hedges backwards at speed.

Martyn Phillip's 1985 Marcos Mantula

The Marcos is one of those head-turning cars; something you just don’t see every day, and one that Martyn has sensitively updated. His main issue is now going to be avoiding any more of those ‘accidental’ eBay searches; his mother-in-law worked for Jensen, and the idea of a four-door project sounds all too appealing when mentioned…

Jonathan Moore
Instagram: speedhunters_jonathan
jonathan@speedhunters.com

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1

waiting for comments about the inline electric fan.....

just an overall beautiful car that I never even heard of, great build and story!

2

amazing. Drooling over that shape

3

Another british manufactuer sadly no longer with us.Why us brits cant build cars anymore is beyond me,i know a hand full of low volume manufactors survive now.
Great to see some british automotive history being saved.A true home built hero.I just love those retro revolution split rims very 80"s

4

I, for one, would like to do a sex change so I can do a butt job. So my butt looks like dat.

5

Awesome build and great story johnathen

6

turbom There are a lot of strong communities keeping the spirit of these kind of car firms going – certainly Martyn benefited from the help of the Marcos club. it's great to see: there are a surprising number of dedicated specialist parts firms tucked away around the world, for all kinds of classic marques.

7

turbom Although the number of cars built in the UK is at an all time high....

And not just dull Japanese hatchbacks, JaguarLandRover are at the top of their game (I won't hear any moaning they are now Indian, as you could equally now claim Chrysler/FIAT is British).

8

No joke Marcos was my dream car when I was young. I was first introduced to them when a small piece on the local TV news announcing that they had started to make them again and it was love at first sight.

Nice one in getting this example back on the road where it belongs.

Just my opinion but it could do with slightly wider wheels to fill up the arches more and add a second wiper but loose the kill switch.

9

Truly inspirational.

10

My brother in law had a Mantara and a Mantula, as you can imagine he was an instant hit in the family. They were low, loud and I can vouch for them being very warm inside. This car is stunning and very inspiring, just popping over to eBay and also going to look at an evening welding course!

11

kayjaypug205 Yep, not surprised. For me it was the wide body LM GTs. Incredible! But yes, Martyn's done a fantastic job in getting this one back into pristine condition. However, remember the kill switch is period correct: this was a competition car. The second wiper is coming! And wheels? Personal preference of course, but I don't think you'd want to go much bigger without turning it into a different kind of car. :)

12

doug_c Both?! Ha, that's just showing off! ;) And let me know when you find a good welding course...

13

TVR, Lotus, Radical, Noble, Caterham........you Brits make the most pure sportscars.

14
RichieTipsyKariuki

Jaemcius Agreed. This is my kind of ride!

15

sigh.

16

I have never been to keen on the shape of these, much like Bristols, I find them visually challenging.

17

Megajolt can not control fuel, hence the carb...

18

Frank Costin also developed a Lotus 7 type car in Ireland called the tmc Costin when the company went bust the rights to make it where sold to panoz.

19

HANG ON WAIT A MINUTE.

So this is:


a) not Japanese in the slightest

b) moving.  In a straight line.

c) has wheels that sit well inside the arches with tires spec'd for driving
d) probably not on instagram
c) on Speedhunters?

Things done changed.

JK, keep your pants on, haters.  No negs please.

20

If it works, then I'm a big fan of his solution.  I guess a big V8 kicks out a lot of heat, so you probably need a bit of help cooling the cabin and if you can get better airflow through the front vents rather than chopping in a roof vent which wouldn't look as good, IMO.

Well, you said you were waiting for a comment about the fan.


*coat*

21

Wow. Beautiful car, and yes, it has it's faults (I wouldn't want to cross Death Valley in it for example), and would be a monster to keep planted in moist weather (The UK doesn't have that issue, does it?)... I would still say my favorite car of the month, without question. 

After looking at Martyn's journal, I can honestly say it's good to have a singular project you are focused on. Well done, and thanks to Mr. Moore for bring it to us!

22

This was my car... I bought it from Jon Eales without engine and box, fitted a 4.6 V8 on EFI with an R380 gearbox.
Black flagged at Donnington (too loud!!!)
You could hang the tail out all the way round gerrards in 4th, great fun
The dampers are indeed of the 6 wheel Tyrell, they are Koni special D, and Koni informed me they only knew of 6 others in existence and you have 4!!
Fantastic job on the rebuild, a real credit to you, have fun

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