It was the second show of the year at Tatton Park today, and my second show there without the Marcos. It was nice to see the other Marcos cars & owners, as always. Guru Chivers had kindly agreed to attend Tatton with the purple Mantis Coupe & was staying at the house, which was nice as it gave me the opportunity to repay their hospitality from previous occasions. Predictably the main topic of conversation was the dire straights I found myself in with the corroded Mantis chassis. The weather held for the show itself, but Dave & Mandy had a rather moist journey either side of that.
Monthly Archives: August 2007
Not quite according to plan
Back home from MHS two days earlier than planned, without the Mantis & not sure whether I’m keeping the car or not. What a complete 
yesterday was. Just totally un--believable.
I got down to MHS about 1000 hours, left the car with them & borrowed the current courtesy car (the new Mini-Marcos! In ‘can-be-seen-from-space’ yellow no less!). Thirty minutes later my mobile goes & although I ignore it the first few times eventually I decided it must be urgent so I pull over & take the call. It’s Rory at MHS & he says… “I think you’d better come & see this”. So, I turn around & half an hour later I’m walking towards the door to the MHS workshop with a sombre looking Rory. I am perplexed. At least, I am until Rory walks up to the Mantis & puts his finger through the chassis side rail, then repeats this on the other side of the car. Oh . “You’ve got a problem”. Yup – even I can see that & I know eff all about cars. Rory then kindly points out that the floor panels have also corroded & that the carpets can be seen from underneath the car. Fab.
So…
“You need a new chassis & floor pans Oliver. This car shouldn’t be driven again in its current state.”
“I can see that! Um… what’s that going to cost, Rory?”
“£10K + VAT & it will be the first Mantis we’ve had to replace the chassis on. It’s like rebuilding the car”
Cue 3 nanosecond pause while I think if I have won the lottery recently. I haven’t.
“Haven’t got £10K at the moment Rory. Can I leave it here?”
“Course you can.”
“Thanks. Any chance of a lift to the station?”
… and that was it. (I got the lift!). The unexpected train journey home was a pensive one. Wonder what the hell to do now.
Cracking me up
Yikes! The Mantis failed its MOT today, with a 6″ crack in the windscreen in driver line-of-sight. Bugger. Bugger. Bugger. I knew about the crack & have arranged to go down to MHS to get the windscreen replaced on Thursday, but had hoped it would scrape through the MOT.