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1970 MARCOS VOLVO 3 litre Like many others, I have been a fan of the original Marcos GT shape since it first appeared, way back in 1964. In 1991, I bought this daffodil yellow 1970 Marcos Volvo 3 litre without having even driven it, though I had seen it racing at Whenuapai at the annual Wings & Wheels classic race meeting. I bought it with the express intention of having a car that could be driven to and from race meetings and wouldn't need a tow car and trailer. Needless to say, it has come home several times on a trailer and as 2007 gets into its stride, and the annual mileage is so low, it seems more sensible and cheaper to trailer it... History
The car was initially supplied in kit form to Hexagon of Highgate (London) and was 'Tangerine' in colour. Registered EML 128J, little was known about its early life until early 2007, when Dave in the UK sent me this photograph. It appears that the engine is not the original Volvo 3 litre as supplied with the car, but was still the 2987cc, cast iron six cylinder engine from a Volvo 164. Quite how it came to NZ and the exact details, are a bit sketchy, other than it was probably one of two owned by a gentleman named Dorian, who may have 'accidentally' incorrectly recorded the car's age when it was imported, to get around NZ's rather onerous importation policies of the time. I have no idea of its early time in NZ but I first saw the car racing at Whenuapai air force base in West Auckland, at the annual 'Wings and Wheels' weekend in about 1985, piloted by Richard Atkinson. By early 1991, I heard that the car was for sale due to a marriage break up and property split, so I telephoned Ian, our friendly ASB Bank Manager and he arranged for me to walk onto his branch and out again with a fist full of money. The car had a speedo reading of about 143,000 miles, had rather dodgy tyres and a load of crud in the sump, but it was my first ever sports car and also the first car I had ever owned that wasn't a BMC/Leyland front wheel drive vehicle! |
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To be continued