Mini Marcos

Mini does not build many cars like the Mini Marcos: a 2-door coupé with BMC A-series as fitted to Mini, built from 1965 to 2005 in the decade that gave the world the pony car and the mid-engined supercar. Its designer of record is Malcolm Newell.

The background

The Mini Marcos is an automobile produced in limited numbers between 1965 and 1970 by Marcos, from 1974 to 1981 by D & H Fibreglass Techniques Limited and again between 1991 and 1996 by Marcos. It was based on the DART design by Dizzy Addicott who finally sold the project to Jeremy Delmar-Morgan.

Jeremy marketed the Mini DART as the Mini Jem. Jem Marsh of Marcos cars separately developed the project into the Mk I Mini Marcos and despite the similarity of the name, had nothing to do with the Mini Jem. In Sweden the Mini Marcos was sold by Elmhorn-Troberg Racing Service.

The engineering

Under the skin sits BMC A-series as fitted to Mini. Kerb weight is 1050 lb. The gearbox is a 4-speed manual. The wheelbase is 79 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.

Where it sits

Where it sits in Mini's history is not in doubt: the DART came before it; the Midas followed it. On a showroom list of its day it stood against the Ford Bronco, the Nissan Silvia, the Ford Transit. Its Mini stablemates include the MINI Beachcomber and the Mini (3rd Generation).

The money

There is no federal ownership record for the Mini Marcos — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.