1968 Marcos 1600 GT

The first product of the Jem Marsh and Frank Costin partnership was the Marcos Xylon of 1960. The unique design included a notch-back rear window, four-piece windscreen, gullwing-doors, fiberglass body, and frog-eyed front end. It used an advanced plywood composite chassis with a Ford four-cylinder engine of various capacities. The Xlylon's successor, the 1800GT, was powered by a Volvo 1800 engine and a Dennis Adams-styled body. For the 1500 and 1600 models, Marcos returned to Ford engines. Later models used a steel chassis and various engines, mostly from Ford.

The Marcos 1800 GT was expensive, so a lower-cost alternative was introduced in 1966 using a pushrod inline-four-cylinder Ford Kent engine of 1.5-liters. The engine was modified with Marcos rocker covers, and the Weber carburetors were replaced with Stromberg units. Although it was less powerful and thus had less performance, sales increased.

A Marcos 1650 GT version was introduced in 1967, with a total of 32 examples built. They had larger disc brakes and a Webasto sunroof. The 1500 and 1650 GT were replaced near the end of the 1960s with the 1600, which proved very popular, with 192 cars built until early 1969. A new 2 Litre model appeared at the January 1969 London Show powered by a Ford Essex V4 engine from the Ford Corsair. Instead of the plywood chassis, it used a square-section steel platform that was easier and more cost-effective to produce.

by Daniel Vaughan | May 2020