31 May 2009

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The first of the two annual Tatton Park shows I (try to) organise. Despite being the 50th Anniversary, or perhaps because of (everyone saving their cars for the ‘big weekend’ in August perhaps?) I can only find four other owners willing to come along & exhibit their cars. It’s disappointing but at least the marque is maintaining a presence! I expect the post-50th weekend euphoria to guarantee a fight for places at the second Tatton show at the end of August! (Famous last words…). Anyway. as we had a small number of cars the Tatton show organisers tucked as away behind the big copse, which at first I was a bit miffed by as it’s less visited by the punters, but… as the temperature rose & it began to get seriously HOT the shade came in handy somewhat! It’s about time we had a sunny Tatton Park show as the last couple have been seriously soggy (& I haven’t had the Mantis at one for two years due to the various tales of woe covered in 2007 & 2008’s blog). Anyway, my Mantis scrubbed up well & it was fab to be back there with her. I think I’ve mentioned it before but I just love the idea of all those photos of my car sitting on people’s PCs or being shared around at schools or colleges etc. She’s a looker after all!

January 2009

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I’m still more than a little twitchy about the new engine from TopCats. Not being ‘technical’ on the engine front it’s hard to articulate what it is that feels different from the original engine, but a few things spring to mind:

  • Overwhelming smell of petrol whenever I go to the car, & whenever I get out of the car (as my beloved has commented on a few occassions now…)
  • MPG seems to have dropped.
  • Engine temperature higher than on original engine
  • Idle never drops below 1200rpm. Thr original engine tended to initially idela at 1200 rpm then settle down to 600 rpm
  • Emissions test shows 6.8%

Again apologies for lack of updates but car was sent back to TopCats who investigate the issues listed above: TC adjusted the idle from ‘race setting’ back to 600rpm, but can’t find anything else wrong with the engine to some considerable mutual frustration. The replacement A/C rad from MHS is fitted & the A/C gassed. The car is trailered back from Topcats to Cheshire & I start using it again. Petrol smell far less prevalent. Idle is fine if very slightly lumpier than on the original engine: not a problem though. MPG ‘seems’ improved but overall, I’m just grateful to have the car back, & an emissions test shows the levels have dropped back down to 1.8% (I can’t find the paperwork so may be expressing this using the wrong terminalogy or quoting the wrong figures) which for a non-CAT test is fine. Upon receiving the car my initial focus is on how the engine drives (fine… I think. Now slightly paranoid perhaps!), & it’s not until a week later that I try the A/C only to find warm air being dispensed, & the A/C clutch not being engaged, which suggests no gas. This is very frustrating indeed, having paid for new hoses & a new rad, but Topcats are adamant that the A/C was tested sucessfully on the Saturday before it was sent up. The next step is to get the system filled with dyed gas to locate the leak, if that is what the problem is, but preparations for the 50th Anniversary Rally are the priority so the investigation is on hold.

2008… Annus Horribilis

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Annus Horribilis again – hence lack of updates. I think it’s fair to say that I have not had much luck with this car, however much I may love having it.

Several months after Topcats took receipt of the car, straight off the ferry from Zeebrugge, they have partially taken the engine apart but have been unable to identify a reason for the engine failure. Failure it is as the advice has been not to attempt a rebuild using my original engine due to the excessive wear on the majority of the components. (Quote “It looks like it has done 150,000 miles, not 53,000“). The next step is to source a replacement engine which I initially assumed woul dbe a reasonably straightforward endeavour, however the 96-98 version of the engine seems to be in short supply, & despite being offered several brand new 99-02 versions at a very reasonable cost, I am wary of going this route as at the time I was not aware of anyone else having fitted that version, & a fixed budget meant ‘development costs’ were out of the question. I considered fitting an LS3 but despite it’s significantly improved performance & current availability, the cost would be between £7K & £10K which is not an option. This is a crying shame as it would really bring the Mantis back up to date, but…

I receive a call from Warren at TopCats to tell me they’ve gone ahead & fitted one of their spare race engines! This was discussed a few months previously but I’d decided to pursue a new engine instead, as the history & condition of any race engine would be a bit of an unknown for me, so I was understandably a bit taken aback. However, Topcats are offering me the engine for £1500 (plus fitting) which seemed pretty reasonable & the fact was that I wasn’t making any significant progress elsewhere, so I guess the decision has been made for me! I’ve spent everything on getting the chassis sorted, so anything new will be financed via a loan, so I bit the bullet & asked Topcats to get a replacement set of Air Con hoses made up. This is done but then highlights a hole in the A/C rad. Bugger!

Collected the car from Topcats in November. A quick 3 minute drive up & down the strip outside the Topcats premises reveals a fantastic exhaust note (& the previous one wasn’t bad!!!). Warren extols the virtues of the replacement engine, but in reality despite having driven 35K miles on the original one, all I can remember at the time is the horrible juddering as it staggered back to Zeebrugge from the Le Mans Classic six months earlier. I am (excessively) eager to get back in the car: the cheque is written & I set off home.

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Le Mans Classic 2008

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I will admit to having got a bit nervous about getting the car back from Lee in time for Le Mans, but he has come through!

The 2008 Le Mans Classic has been something of an adventure. Having got the Hull-Zeebrugge ferry over & headed down to Le Mans to stay at the Morrisons farm again, all seemed well. I was accompanied in style, nay, overshadowed with style, as Caz brought along his newly restored a la ‘Christine’ Plymouth Fury. Cor she’s gorgeous!

The Le Mans Classic itself was very different from the 24 hour & a bit more to my liking if I’m honest. Ignorant fellow that I am, I can appreciate the much older cars more than the very latest diesel / hybrid technologies & on balance find the coachwork of an old Bentley Blower more interesting than the spoilers on the Audi R8. Oh dear! It was also great fun to get up close to the race cars, something you certainly can’t do at the 24 hour. There was in-field parking for Marcos, which although pretty dusty & a little off the beaten track, was pretty cool as you got to drive through the crowds & tunnels that are completely off limits during the 24 hour.

The highlight has to have been driving two laps of the full, official & current Le Mans circuit, with Dave Parslow kindly fulfilling media duties. It was fantastic driving round the track but spine-tingling stuff roaring down the finishing straight & over the line between the grandstands.

                                                                

 

The lowlight was buggering my engine somehow. At one point I was throwing neat oil out of the nearside exhaust on my track laps which was a bit of a worry. However, once parked back up again in-field, the general consensus from people who know a lot more than me about engines (including a few people who built Mantis’s for Marcos!) was that the Ford 4.6L Quad Cam was pretty much bulletproof & even the race teams hadn’t managed to break them. Hence… I should be fine! On this basis I carried on driving the Mantis for the rest of the weekend, conscious that whilst all was not well I could enjoy LMC & look into things when I was back home.

The trip back up to Zeebrugge was not without incident. Caz’s Plymouth gave up the ghost whilst still in France, & I was beginning to wonder if I would make it as the car guzzled oil at an eye watering rate. By the time I was approaching the ferry terminal, I was stopping off at every garage I encountered to buy more oil, & arrived late (but not too late!) & with plumes of white smoke coming from the back of the car. By this point I was just glad to have made the ferry & looking forward to getting back to the UK. Upon arrival in Hull, a sympathetic ferry crew cleared the level around me of all vehicles & I was last off, trailing smoke again like a poor man’s Red Arrows. Having limped off the ferry & got through passport control, I pulled over immediately & called The AA. The car was flat-bedded straight to Topcats Racing who I felt were best placed to investigate & resolve the engine problem, whatever it was.

After a thirteen month wait, I had the car for around 10 days before it has become undriveable again… At least I didn’t have to worry about the chassis anymore!

Getting on a bit & showing its age

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I’m forty today, which has inevitably triggered an assessment of life so far. Two children, hefty mortgage & engaged (Yup… finally popped the question after sixteen years! Gulp! No ‘date’ set for the event itself though – one step at a time, eh?) but, I think, fairly content. (Work? Hmm…) I’ve had the Marcos for seven & a half years now, which has included some fantastic experiences, many of which I simply wouldn’t have had with any other car. It’s been off the road far, far more that I would have ever imagined, & I shudder to think what I have spent on it since I bought it, but the various trips to Le Mans (especially participating in the 2004 Driver’s Parade) & invites to shows around the UK have allowed me to meet all sorts of nice people & engage in some lovely drives. I reckon the roads are busier than when I first had the car (even over a short window like eight years) & the running costs, particularly fuel, are increasingly challenging but so far the option of having to sell the car has not been discussed. The current government’s inability to manage any aspect of transport in this country is truely breathtaking, & I can’t help but wonder if some ill-conceived ‘green’ measure will force the Mantis off the road in the next few years. They certainly have a record of such buffoonery… In the meantime, I have been pondering Lee’s comments in our latest call; the SPAX shocks are, well, shocking, apparently, & the springs are taking up a lot of time (read ‘money’) to clean. Do I want to do something about it? So, a post or two on the Forum prompted some interesting responses which have resulted in my opting for a replacement set of shocks & springs from the highly regarded Protech Shocks Ltd of Melksham. I had to talk to Guru Chivers about the specs for the springs, but the order is now placed; [2 1/4″ springs, 200 lbs 10″ at the front, 250lbs 14″ for the rear]. Lee turns out to be the chap who set up the Mantis Challenge cars at the Marcos factory, so right man for the job already. Result! I will be very interested to see how the Protech shocks improve the ride over the original SPAX, but if I’m honest I have not driven the car for so long it’s unlikely I’ll be able to tell, at least at first. Lee reckons I’ll have the car back at the end of May, latest. Hope he’s right as we’ve had some nice days recently & I am definitely pining for it… Big time!

Then, of course, there is the question of enlarging the garage entrance to fit the Mantis in. God, I hate dealing with builders.

On hold

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Progress on the Mantis has slowed somewhat while Lee does some urgent work for Jeremy at Redline. We’d discussed this & I don’t mind waiting a bit longer. The quality of work I saw on my pre-Crimbo visit was excellent, so I have no intention of rushing Lee. Very positive feedback about Lee from elsewhere has been trickling in, which is also reassuring. There is even a queue for Lee’s time building up behind me, but so far the other Marcos owners have been very understanding (& sympathetic).

Away days in Warminster

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The car remains with Lee in Warminster, with steady progress on the chassis. We have a call to discuss progress about once a month or so, but neither of us are great at remembering to contact the other so it can be longer. The weather has been awful in the North West with few if any of those crisp, sunny Winter days that I enjoy driving in so much – hood down, obviously! So… I’m not missing the car right now. The Marcos forum continues to give me my Marcos fix most days. I suppose I can empathise a bit more now with those owners who have to do without their cars for months (years, frequently) while they restore them. My LM500 chum in Todmorden continues to have a super-charged (but non-running) car sitting in his garage which must be even more frustrating for him than me with the Mantis. At least I know something’s happening on my car – poor old Caz seems to have run up against a brick wall with his ECU problem, & I gather the manufacturer is being a bit arsey, not returning calls & so on. It’s a crying shame because with the colour-coded rear wing it will (sadly) outshine the Mantis & totally totally deserves to be out on the road. Although Caz remains very philosophical about things, I suspect his experiences as a passenger in the Mantis at last year’s Le Mans 24 Hour came nowhere close to the pleasure he has got from taking his own car over there in previous years.

Chassis update

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Just got back from a trip to see the Old Man in Henley (filial duty & all that), which I cunningly combined with a going to see the Mantis at the workshop in Warminster. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t been pining for her these last few months (despite the grim weather), & of course it was an opportunity to meet Lee in person. What a thoroughly nice chap! He certainly knows what he’s doing with the car, although it was a bit disconcerting to see it without any floorpans… He has done a splendid job of welding new sections, & has even managed to use 3mm stainless sections, rather than the 1.5mm mild steel sections used by the factory (Grrrrr…). I guess this means some extra weight, but frankly who cares – I’m not racing it, or even getting any track time in it. The main thing is I can put the threat of rust at the back of my mind for a few years. Lee seems to be uber thorough which is a delight to hear; he is planning to use 129 rivets on each floorpan! We discussed what to do with the rest of chassis that is sound, but requires some sort of protection, & has been looking pretty scruffy for some time. Lee agreed to scrape down & paint the rest of the chassis (bar removing the engine) for a reasonable sum, so I’m going with that. I don’t habitually pop the bonnet at car shows, but it will be nice not to wince when I do!

Cunning plan

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I have a plan. A plan to keep the Marcos, and not have to sell a kidney. So it’s a good plan. I have been put in contact with a chap called Lee Keller who is ex-Marcos factory & apparently a dab hand with the old welder. The fact is that I can’t afford a complete new chassis however ‘creative’ I get with the numbers, so I need to get the current one patched, & patched properly. After several discussions with Guru Chivers it turns out that there has been another Mantis with similar rust ‘challenges’ & that they were addressed by cutting through the sills from the inside of the body & accessing the chassis via that route, thus avoiding any external damage & costly respray. Huzzah! I have bitten the bullet & told Rory that the galvanised chassis solution he offered was (way) beyond my means. Rory was pretty decent about the news, & was kind enough to warn me to ‘be careful’. The car is being picked up by Dave C/Lee & nursed over to Warminster where Lee is based. It will be interesting to hear what he thinks of it.