1970 MARCOS VOLVO 3 LITRE - Ray Green New Zealand

I have owned this car since April 1991 having bought it from Richard Atkinson, who at the time, also owned the Marcos V6 currently owned by Phil Foulkes. I had been a long time admirer of Marcos cars and had often seen Richard's and the black car, racing at Pukekohe and Whenuapai air base, at meetings organised by TACCOC, then the premier organising club for classic cars in the Auckland area, whilst I was acting as a flag marshal.

History

I believe the car was imported to NZ from the UK back in about 1983, but that early NZ history is a bit sketchy, but fortunately, I was able to get a copy of the original build sheet, dated September 1970.  That car having been assembled by Hexagon of Highgate (London), and finished in Tangerine, with black upholstery. Someone kindly sent me a photograph of the car with its UK plates, EML128J.

NZ REPAINT 1

The car was bought by Richard Atkinson and sprayed a daffodil yellow and at that stage, was 100% standard.  Richard also sprayed his Marcos V6, acquired later, in the same shade of yellow...  (That is the Phil Foulkes car.)

Richard raced the car alongside good friend Dave Walker, who then owned the other Marcos Volvo 3L in NZ. (Now owned by Brian Jones).  At the time, one of Dave 's daughters was best buddy with my step daughter, and Walker's effectively just around the corner.  Coincidentally, both Richard and Dave also owned Reliant Scimitars and MGs.  In fact, there seems to be a strong link between Scimitar owners, as the owner of the V4 I still haven't seen, was also a Scimitar owner.

I purchased the car April 1991, without even having sat in it, thanks to a cash loan from a friendly bank manager.

I entered several race meetings, usually organised by TACCOC, but also meetings run by the Datsun Z Club. Alfa Romeo, Lotus/BMW/Jaguar but at that stage, most race meetings were just a collection of cars, put into classes by the race organisers. Race numbers were usually different at each meeting and apart from the Datsun meeting, which was split into speed groups, there was usually a fairly healthy variety of sports and GT cars on track.     

I fitted a full set of new tyres (Firestone F100's, on the original 13" Cosmic rims) but they proved to be useless, particularly in the wet!

Although I raced it not long after purchase, it obviously needed work and after a near WoF/MoT failure March 1993, due to cracks in the rear chassis, the decision was taken to totally restore it. By this time, those spotlights had been removed as they weren't exactly doing the cooling air flow any good, though having said that , the water temperature never rose.  As for oil?  Who knows? Although the engine ran well enough, there was some evidence of servicing neglect, particularly when the sump contents were more akin to treacle than oil.  At that time, the odometer showed about 143,000 miles.

I had already made up my mind that the car would be silver - my preferred colour, but a bit of experimentation with spray cans preceded the strip down.  Although the yellow stood out, it was never a colour I identified with and my corporate colours (sounds grandiose for a one man business!) were silver, black and red. 

Whilst heading back from a trip across town, the left Perspex lamp cover disappeared.  With a Marcos, you can't just pop down to the local Repco/Halfords/BNT or the local breakers for a replacement.

At that stage, I was a member of the UK Marcos Owner's Club and through magazine articles and also someone doing a build manual, the strip down overall was pretty straightforward - though a recently purchased angle grinder soon became an essential tool, when several of the 85 self tappers holding the body to the chassis, were reluctance to part company.

The manual suggests a four person lift to separate the body from the chassis, but without windscreens, and  a stripped tub, two of us managed it quite easily.

Page updated January 2019