Marcos Mantis

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The Marcos Mantis M70 is a British (2+2) sports car introduced in 1970 by Marcos Engineering, powered by the same Triumph 2.5 litre 6-cylinder engine used in the Triumph TR6 and by TVR. In February 1971, Marcos announced that the car could also be purchased in component form, at a domestic market price of £425, compared to the recommended retail price of £3,185 for the factory-built version.^[1] For comparison, a sporty luxury saloon such as the V8 Rover 3500 would have cost £2,150 including sales taxes. With Marcos encountering financial problems and closing down later in 1971, only 32 examples of the Mantis were produced, although Motor magazine reported that there were another 35 unsold cars in the United States, and possibly other unsold vehicles elsewhere.^[2][3]

Following the closure of Marcos, Autotune UK acquired the moulds and produced a few more car kits in the mid-1980s, marketing them as "Autotune Mirages".^[4]

The Marcos brand was resurrected in 1981, but the Mantis name only appeared again much later in 1997, as a totally new 2-seater vehicle with a 4.6 litre engine. Boasting exceptional performance figures, this was further boosted in 1998 with the Mantis GT adding a supercharger, bringing power output beyond 500bhp. Production of this new version of the Mantis was 51 road-legal cars, with 16 being the supercharged GT version. There were also an additional 38 Mantis Challenge race cars.^[5]

In 1995 Dutch racing driver Cor Euser became the factory driver for Marcos, and in 2000, the Marcos racing business was sold to long time GT sponsor Eurotech, a Dutch engineering firm. By that time, all Marcos racing cars and road car chassis were built in the Netherlands. Cor Euser competed as Marcos Racing International, racing various Marcos derived models including a GT-3 spec Mantis, and a further development of the Mantis, the Marcos Mantis Marcorelly.^[6]