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Another year, another set of door stickers for the cars. And that can only mean… another eventful few days at the Le Mans 24 hour race, this time with my chum Gary, plus Caz & Debbie in that lovely Carnival Red … Continue reading
I’m hoping to guarantee a faultless trip to & from Le Mans by getting the car serviced, so it was off down to Mr Chivers for some TLC for the Mantis. Apart from the service, Dave also fitted the new stone chip guards which look the dogs danglies, but I didn’t half wince when he wrenched the old ones off (taking half the paint with them!) – I am far too scared to treat the car like that! We examined the roll-bar positioning to see if there was any way we could counter the slightly off-center positioning caused by the chassis location, but it would have been a lot of work for a little gain; I have decided to live with the hood frame rubbing the nearside section of the rollbar. Chassis also liberally doused with waxoyl. Tried to fit the accessory built sent by MHS (discovered a spare in the boot as well – Doh!) to replace the squeaky one but however we strained it was just too short. Gave up eventually. The main achievement was the windscreen however! Dave removed the T-piece & scraped the windscreen surround down, revealing numerous holes in the seal where you could put your finger through to the inside of the car! Amazing the car didn’t leak more than it actually did really, but still pretty poor work by MHS when they fitted it a couple of years ago. Anyway sealant was duely reapplied then allowed to go off overnight, which seemed like a good excuse to stay over & go to the pub! T-piece re-fitted Sunday morning & looked sweeeeet. On the way home I called in at Redline Sportscar where Jeremy, the factory salesman, now operates the numero uno Marcos showroom. Despite just having locked & alarmed the building, when Dave C & I turned up in the two Mantis, JK opened everything up again so I could look round, & even responded to a casual enquiry about stock by taking the dust covers off each car & talking me through them. What a tremendous chap, and dammit, if I hadn’t already got one I would’ve bought another! I soon had the opportunity to test how successful we had been in resealing the windscreen, as the heavens truely opened as I drove back up north from Wiltshire. I must admit I was a little too stubborn about getting the hood up this time, & only stopped to reluctantly erect it when I realised that I had left the motorway & gone up a sliproad without realising, at which point I had to admit that I couldn’t see a bloody thing! Touchingly several people risked pneumonia themselves by winding down their windows to jeer at me as they shot past – fair enough!
Yesterday was Thunder Sunday at Rockingham (oval banked circuit). As per last year’s visit, the line-up was mainly Mantis, but Debbie & Darren were there in their uber-shiny LM500 again. Apart from showing the cars, we got another opportunity to do a couple of laps around the track in front of the crowd, which saw the usual hooning with the exception of myself, as I demonstrated the more sophisticated side of the Marcos Mantis. (There may have been a teeny wheel spin but personally I put that down to poor clutch control… ) The organisers also used Marcos to parade the race drivers for the primary event up & down in front of the crowd. I happen to be at the front of the line of Marcos so got to take the current champion (Steve someone?) – a thoroughly unpleasant fellow who was clearly bored by the proceedings & lacked even the manners to greet the person whose car he then proceeded to put his feet all over. (The other drivers were quite chatty apparently). I also succumbed to a Road Angel 2 (Speed Camera thingy) as they were fifty quid off. Bugger knows why I bought one as I don’t exactly thrash the car, on the other hand I’m a sucker for a gadget with a discount! I was gutted when I discovered that I couldn’t get at the 12V socket under the dash because the Stereo Amp is in the way, so it became a very expensive box…
Today continued on to the National Kit Car Show at Stoneleigh with some of the remnants from Rockingham. There were a good few Marcos there already when we bowled up. Mike McCullough (probably spelt that wrong!) seems to have powder-coated anything he hasn’t already chromed, his Mantis engine look stunning but I bet he doesn’t drive it when it’s wet! Weather stayed reasonable until mid-afternoon by which time I had my find-of-the-day, a collapsible bucket! Woohoo! God I need a life… Anyway drove back with the hood down & stayed dry enough except for the odd set of traffic lights & standing traffic. As usual after two days of ‘car stuff’ my head hurts & I am knackered!
I went down to ‘Thunder Sunday’ at Rockingham circuit to meet up with some other Marcos Mantis. I think we ended up with nine all told, which I am sure is the most I’ve ever seen together – certainly more than I’ve counted at any of the club rallies. We were allowed two (which turned into three!) laps of the circuit in front of the adoring crowd (as I perceived them!). Driving on a banked track is quite a novelty, & everyone got the most out of it, with a couple of near misses adding to the overall excitement of the Marcos owners!
Just back from a very enjoyable CMI rally at Longleat. Predictably I never made it into the house itself, although I had every intention of doing so; I was too busy catching up with a few people & of course recruiting for the Forum. Once again I waived my almost certain first place in the concours by allowing some more needy soul to enter in my stead. Now I never thought I’d say this, but I also spent a very enjoyable half hour in the back seat of a Bentley with Lord Marsh!!! Steady on you lot… 
Jem is apparently putting a ‘coffee table’ book together at the request of Tony Stelliga, the new owner of Marcos, & took the trouble to show me the material he had collected so far. Despite not being a petrol-head, there was plenty of interesting stuff in there, even to the casual browser, but Jem is keen to source more material, which we agreed might be possible through a mailshot to all Forum members. I am to receive a mail with the appropriate wording & then we will see what turns up. Being a shallow type of chap, I am hoping some more shots of the 1997 Motorshow turn up, where Marcos launched the Mantis with two very ‘gifted’ models gratuitously draped all over it. Mmmm… In the meantime there is this video from Men & Motors at the time
MOT time & the Mantis has failed due to the handbrake not engaging on one of the wheels. I’ve also decided to buy the front damper modification kit from Marcos Heritage after they issued an alert about suspension failure. The gas struts for the bootlid fitted last year appear to be over specced & are shaking themsleves through the fibreglass lip of the boot surround. My garage have tightened up the nuts attaching them to the bodywork & added shaped washers to strengthen the bodywork, but it’s stil a tad annoying & more money to el Mechanico. Adding insult to injury the speedo stopped working on the way back from the MOT test & therefore the Mantis is all booked in again to have the transducer cleaned up, bush assembly & new handbrake cable fitted. The only good bit is that work is sufficiently manic atm that I am not missing out on anything, as I do not have time to go out & drive for fun in the evenings – I miss this. Ah well, only two weeks to go before the CMI annual rally at Longleat – everything must be fixed by then!
Back from Le Mans. Back from the Drivers Parade aka the ‘Parades des Pilotes’ 
. Ooooooooh yes! What a fantastic experience. On Friday, having parked the car in the exhibitors area at the Classic British Welcome in St Saturnin for a few hours, we assembled for the trip to Le Mans city centre & set off through a number of villages accompanied by motorcycle outriders from the Harley Davidson club, who zoomed ahead & blocked off side roads & roundabouts to ensure our passage was uninterrupted by the hoipolloi. This was ridiculously cool & almost certainly the closest I will get to feeling like the President of the United States! In many of the villages, the children were lining the road waving Union Jack flags & cheering which was real lump-in-your-throat stuff, making everyone feel very special. After weaving through a few cordoned off side-streets to get into the centre of the city, the Marcos cavalcade parked up with other cars to feature in the Parades des Pilotes & waited until it was our turn. As it turned out, there was plenty of time for a group photo!
One of the bikers also took a shine to my (admittedly very buxom) girlfriend who was very amused to while away the time posing for photos astride his Harley. I’m not sure what Mrs Biker said when he got home though… Tsk!
In true French fashion, we set off a couple of hours later than scheduled, about 2000 hours. It was still sunny but about four hours into the parade & the crowd, who had by now been ‘celebrating’ since lunch, were baying for wheel spins/general mucking about by the cars in the parade. The Gendarmes accompanying the parade cars through the streets of Le Mans made it quite clear that this would be frowned on however! An Entente Cordiale was reached, whereby on the odd occasion that someone’s foot slipped off the clutch resulting in inadvertent hard acceleration & loss of grip by the tyres, there would be some severe finger wagging (possibly accompanied by Gallic frowning), after which the driver would exercise better control over their pedal feet for the next few minutes. At various points along the route, there would be an extremely excited commentator keeping the crowd engaged, & they would pounce on one of the drivers to ask them questions about their car. I escaped interrogation!
After participating in the Parade des Pilotes the race itself was always going to be something of an anticlimax, although both myself & t’other half enjoyed sun, beer & company. No idea who came first, second or third… erm, so let’s just say that this weekend everyone was a winner! Even my exhaust cracking on the way back up from Le Mans failed to put a damper on things (‘cos it made me sound like a Corvette 
). Indeed, I have just got back from Tube Torque in Macclesfield who fabricated the current stainless system & who fixed the weld in question, er, without question! 
What a great weekend… 
The Spring issue of the CMI magazine arrived in the post this morning. I had been looking forward to this as it contains my article on last years trip to Le Mans (a modified version of this article from the website). It stretches to about twelve pages, fifteen includes pictures, and Isobel the editor has been kind enough to put it in uncut. I can’t imagine ever being knowledgeable enough to write a technical article for the magazine, so it was always going to be an ‘experience’ type piece, and I am pleased as punch to see it there in print! Kindly queue for autographs on the left please…
I cleaned the car yesterday & finally got round to attacking the leather. Oh the shame! I had not fully appreciated quite how grubby the transmission tunnel had got until I put on some Autoglym leather care gunk. Wow! Talk about ‘before & after’ 
. Anyway I lashed it onto all the leather & gave the headrests (which bear the brunt of the weather with my penchant for open top motoring!) & the gearstick gaiter (which just gets bloody dry with all the heat from the transmission) seconds & thirds. It all soaked in & came up nicely, and I feel happier that it is all protected again. As usual the rest of the car took about five hours to clean & polish, and it was dark before I finished (out on the street, under a lampost 
– I must get a house with a garage…), so no time for wax. At least I didn’t start off meaning to clean it then just go for a drive instead, like the previous thrity or forty attempts!
Well major excitement indeed! It looks like Marcos have been invited to participate in the official city centre parade on the Friday evening in Le Mans! One of the chaps on the forum (who ironically has swapped his Marcos for an RX7!) came through with a contact who is part of the Classic British Welcome organisation, who are showing great taste & sophistication by wanting us! Not sure how many cars we are allowed to enter but I’ve mentioned it on the forum & asked people to mail me on a ‘first come first served’ basis. Obviously I am numero uno! Hurrah! More posing! In the meantime the car continues to behave itself, and the clutch that i thought was slipping a tad seems to be OK again, which is good as I am not too flush atm…
… Which doesn’t quite explain why (as a birthday treat from me to me) I have booked the Mantis in to John Noble Motorsport in Chesterfield, for a couple of hours on their rolling road. They didn’t have any Saturdays free before the end of April so that was what I went for – I am interested in exactly how much of the claimed 352BHP is actually arriving at the wheels, and also would like the peace-of-mind of knowing that the engine is doing all it should be, as every now & then I wonder if it’s not pulling as hard as it used to when I first had it. Probably psychosamatic (Hmm, bet that’s not in the spell checker!) but there we go. Either way I’m definitely not looking for more power, just checking I’ve got what I’m meant to!
I was driving back from a heavy night in Leeds in my Evante 140TC. It was a lovely sunny morning in Spring 2000 & I was crossing Saddleworth Moor on the M62 – always the most picturesque bit of my commute back to Manchester. The top was down, the sun was shining, the air was crisp and the car was behaving. I distinctly remember thinking to myself “It doesn’t get any better than this” a few seconds before something shot past me on the outside lane. It was very wide, very low & sounded rather splendid. As I have never really been into cars, I hadn’t got a clue what it was (not much has changed over the years), but it stuck in my mind and over the next few days I started to try & identify the make and model, courtesy of Google. I don’t recall exactly how I concluded it was a Marcos but I remain convinced it was an LM or a Mantis I had seen. It was wide!!!
But did I need another car? I had a Vauxhall Vectra as a company car, and the Evante for fun. However, having toured Ireland in the Evante in 1999 with the Old Man, it had proved somewhat cramped for longer journeys. You know there is a problem with boot space when you have to remove the CD multi-changer to make room for socks! I was reluctantly coming to the conclusion that I needed something with a bit more room than the Evante, both back & front. However, I loved the fact it was British, hand built, rare & with a performance pedigree. What could possibly replace it? Some basic reading up on Marcos confirmed that it was British, hand built & low volume… it was ticking all the boxes!
A few weeks on Autotrader & I had homed in on a stunning red Mantis with black interior that was down at Peninsula Auto in Devon. It was another couple of weeks before I had the time away from work, and hockey commitments, to go down & look at the car. I called Peninsula to let them know I was finally on my way, only to be told that some Johnny-come-lately from London had also called & was viewing the car on the same day. I was not very impressed! Fortunately, I had also seen that Optima Sportscars in Birmingham had a green Mantis for sale, so the plan was to drop by on the way to Devon, as I still had not actually seen a Mantis. And as everyone knows, ‘never buy the first car you see’. Alas, I never made it past Birmingham… I fell in the love with the shape as soon as I set eyes on it (thank you Chris Marsh!). Of course, the test drive is an important part of deciding whether to buy a car, so I duly jumped in the passenger seat for a tour of Birmingham’s remarkable collection of speed humps & speed cameras. Then the moment came… I sat in the drivers seat, put the car into gear, shot off in a cloud of tyre smoke and… No, that’s not right. Um. I sat in the drivers seat and… couldn’t reach the pedals. I remember now. So the sales chap, who had surely been waiting for this very moment, proudly explained the moving pedals to me, pressed the switch on the dash & brought the pedals fully forward. I was most impressed, until we both realised that I still could not reach the pedals. Undeterred, we finished the test drive with me sliding down the seat each time I wanted to change gear. After a lengthy period of reflection, and drawing upon a wealth of experience negotiating commercial contracts, it was time for some hard-nosed discussion with the dealer. In hindsight, “That’s brilliant! How much do you want for it?” may not have been the best opening gambit, but at least it kept the conversation brief. A couple of weeks later I had remortgaged the house, & was back down at Optima picking the car up.
Twenty years and counting… I hope you enjoy the rest of the blog.