Now back from the 50th Anniversary of Marcos weekend. Wow!

Another solid breakfast addressed the hangover (well, a bit) then it was off to the Prescott Hill Climb circuit for the main event! This time the convoy managed to stay reasonably together & I arrived with an incredible feeling of anticipation. We were marshalled into different display areas based on the era of the model we were driving, & I found myself parked amongst many Mantis, LMs & Mantulas. Bah! It turns out my car is quite common after all…

Progress in all directions is slow, with people to say hello to, & many, many fabulous cars to look at. I mean to spend a few minutes watching the first few cars start ‘going up the hill’ but it’s hard to leave & I end up spending an hour or more just behind the start line. It’s fascinating with Marcos models from every era, in every shape & in every colour (& condition!) driving the hill climb. It’s hard to single out individual highlights from the day but seeing the Mantis XP belting up the climb with Ned at the wheel must be one of them. Another is undoubtedly the site of Cor Euser burning some rubber on the first of many trips up the hill in one of the Dutch Supercar Challenge cars, with a willing (but perhaps slightly nervous!?) passenger alongside. Fortunately some of the cars were videod so you can see for yourself.

Too many people to mention, but was pleased to see a Mantis had made it down from Macc for the day (although didn’t stay long due to crowds & traffic), & also Lewis in his ‘World’s most expensive Mantula’ which he took up the hill very successfully. My guess is that there were about 260 cars there, but I await the ‘official’ count from the 50th organising committee at some point. I was content to watch others take their cars up the hill, & had already decided that I couldn’t afford to risk anything else breaking on the Mantis as there is no money left at this point. I had some very kind offers to ride shotgun but I’m never mad keen on being a passenger in a fast car & anyway the real pleasure would have been to have had the experience in my own car, not someone else’s.

Coming home was inevitably something of an anti-climax. I clung on to a little bit of the Marcos high by following another green Mantis as far as the M5, whereupon he turned south & I turned north. I admit to doing some ‘hunting’ along the M5 & M6 for another Marcos to travel north in convoy with, but in a stark reminder of how rare the cars really are (having been surrounded by hundreds of them an hour previously!) I only encountered one other Marcos – a foreign Mantis being trailered back to a port. A quick flash of the headlights & they were left behind. At the Services one or two people asked me what the car was as so often happens, & as I tried to explain about Marcos, I thought to myself… “Cor, you should have been where I was this morning!…”