The Rare Marcos 1600 GT – A Little-Known Lotus Rival Descended From The Mosquito

This is a Marcos 1600 GT from 1969, it’s a classic sports car largely unknown outside of Britain. Inside the UK the car has a cult following thanks to both its unusual history and its long list of David vs Goliath successes on race tracks across the country starting in the 1960s.

The Marcos GT first entered production in 1964 as an affordable fiberglass-bodied sports car designed to compete with the offerings from contemporary competitors like Lotus. Unlike any other car in production these first Marcos GTs had chassis made from a material more closely associated with boat building.

Fast Facts – The Marcos GT

• The Marcos GT is best known for the highly-unusual plywood chassis used on the first series of production cars that was made from 386 separate pieces all bonded together into a complex 3D shape.
• This plywood chassis was developed by Frank Costin, an engineer who had worked on the de Havilland Mosquito – a WWII multirole combat aircraft that was largely made from plywood and was faster than the Spitfire.
• Later Marcos GTs, like the car you see here, have more traditional steel chassis as they proved much easier to manufacture, but the cars retained the “Flying Splinter” nickname that had originally been given to the very first Marcos prototype.
• Over the course of the production run the Marcos GT was powered by a number of different engines including inline-fours, V4s, straight-sixes, V6s, and V8s.

Marcos And “The Flying Splinter”

Marcos Engineering Ltd was founded in Wales in 1959 by Jem Marsh and Frank Costin, the two men would form the company name by each contributing the first three letters of their surnames.

Costin is now remembered as one of the most influential engineers of the era, and with Marcos he would be applying lessons he learned while working on the plywood de Havilland Mosquito fighter/bomber during the Second World War.

Above Video: Jay Leno takes a look at one of the few Marcos GTs to have made the United States its home.

The men developed a 386 part plywood chassis for the new car that was bonded together to form a complex, rigid, and lightweight three dimensional shape. The car was fitted with a fiberglass body, a four-cylinder Volvo B18 engine with an overdrive gearbox, independent front suspension, and a De Dion rear end.

The original Marcos prototype had been nicknamed “The Flying Splinter,” the same nickname that had been given the the Mosquito during the war. Later Marcos cars would share this nickname and despite people’s reservations about a car with a plywood chassis it proved highly competitive in the British club racing scene.

The cost of the plywood was low however it required significant man-hours to bond it all together, as a result the company developed a welded steel box section chassis and made some changes to the internal body structure to match.

These new steel-chassis Marcos GTs were introduced later in the 1960s and most of the surviving cars are fitted with it, resulting in the earlier plywood chassis cars now being highly sought after by collectors.

Marcos has proven surprisingly resilient, surviving a number of company shutdowns over the years. Their most recent offering was the Marcos Spirit 220 that was launched in 2013.

The interior isn’t dissimilar to the Lotus Europa and many other British sports cars of the era, with a high center console, deep bucket seats, and a purposeful dashboard with all the gauges and flip switches you could possibly want.

The Marcos 1600 GT Twin Cam Shown Here

The Marcos 1600 GT you see here is a little unusual as the original Ford Kent crossflow engine was swapped out in the early 1970s and replaced with a Lotus Twin Cam inline-four cylinder engine.

The Twin Cam is one of the most desirable British engines of the era, it was developed for Colin Chapman of Lotus by a remarkable engineering team that included some of the biggest automotive engineering names of the time, including Harry Mundy, Mike Costin (of Marcos and Cosworth), Keith Duckworth (also of Cosworth), Neil Francis, and Bob Dance.

The engine would power a vast array of cars, from the Lotus Cortina to the Lotus Esprit, and it would take a slew of both class and overall victories in international competition.

Due to Mike Costin’s early involvement in the Twin Cam it makes a lot of sense to fit one to a Marcos GT, which was obviously the line of reasoning used by the owner of this car in the 1970s. The car is now being offered by Historics Auctioneers out of the UK and it comes with heritage records and an impressive history file.

If you’d like to read more about this car or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing.

Images courtesy of Historics Auctioneers

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Bizzarrini 5300 GT Strada: An Italian Masterpiece With An American Heart

The Bizzarrini 5300 GT Strada was developed by the same engineer who created the Ferrari Breadvan, the original Lamborghini V12 engine, and the legendary Ferrari 250 GTO.

When he was developing the 5300 GT Strada, Giotto Bizzarrini drew on all of the lessons he had learned working at Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, and Lamborghini to create a vehicle that was essentially a new and improved 250 GTO designed for endurance racing.

Fast Facts – The Bizzarrini 5300 GT Strada

• Although it’s far less famous than the 250 GTO, the Bizzarrini 5300 GT Strada is viewed today as a sibling of Ferrari’s legendary racer.
• Both cars were developed by Giotto Bizzarrini, and both used a long nose, a low roofline, a long sweeping roofline, and an engine mounted so far back it’s classed as front-mid-engined.
• Italian automaker Bizzarrini would build 133 examples of the Bizzarrini 5300 GT during its 1964 to 1968 production run making it the company’s most successful model.
• Rather than using a complex overhead cam V12, Giotto Bizzarrini opted to use a much simpler pushrod American V8 that offered excellent power output in a more reliable package.

Giotto Bizzarrini And The Night Of The Long Knives

Known as the “Night Of The Long Knives,” the walkout of senior engineers and a number of other staff from Ferrari in 1961 changed the face of the Italian automaker forever.

The 5300 GT has excellent aerodynamics by the standards of the 1960s, Bizzarrini used all the lessons he learned developing the Ferrari 250 GTO in the development of the new Le Mans challenger.

The events had been caused by friction between Enzo Ferrari’s wife and sales manager Girolamo Gardini – the two had frequent, heated disagreements about company operations.

Finally it reached boiling point and Girolamo Gardini co-signed a letter to Enzo Ferrari regarding the problems. Other signatories included Romolo Tavoni, chief engineer Carlo Chiti, and experimental sports car development chief Giotto Bizzarrini.

Enzo Ferrari called a meeting, the result of which was a mass walkout of critically important staff. Many believed it would be the end of Ferrari, but the company survived and the engineers who left went on to have a major impact on the Italian automotive world outside of Ferrari.

The Bizzarrini 5300 GT Strada

If it wasn’t for the above events the Bizzarrini 5300 GT Strada would likely never have been built. Giotto Bizzarrini had been a critical development engineer at Ferrari, he created the 250 GTO prototype using his own personal 250 GT SWB as a mule that he would nickname “Il Mostro” or “The Monster” due to its unappealing looks.

As a “Strada” version, the interior of this model is better suited to grand touring, the race-specific “Corsa” version is considerably less comfortable and more track focussed.

Giotto Bizzarrini had started his working life in 1954 working at Alfa Romeo’s “Servizio Esperimenze Principali” as a test driver and engineer. He was then headhunted by Enzo Ferrari in 1957 as a test driver, before quickly being promoted to chief development engineer at the age of just 31.

“I became a test driver who coincidentally was also an engineer, with mathematical principles. I always needed to know why something fails, so I can invent a solution.” – Giotto Bizzarrini

After leaving Ferrari a number of the engineers including Carlo Chiti and Bizzarrini founded Automobili Turismo e Sport (ATS) to develop and build a Formula 1 car and a GT sports car.

In 1962 Bizzarrini founded Società Autostar and one of his first major clients was Ferruccio Lamborghini, who hired him to develop an all-new V12 engine for his planned luxury GT car. A car that he was having developed specifically to get back at Enzo Ferrari after the two men had had a falling out.

Bizzarrini was also hired by Iso Autoveicoli S.p.A. to develop cars for them, he created the Iso Rivolta IR 300, the Iso Grifo, and the Iso Grifo A3/C, however a dispute led to Bizzarrini creating his own version of the Iso Grifo A3/C, then building it and selling it under his own name – this car would be the Bizzarrini 5300 GT Strada.

Bizzarrini 5300 GT Specifications

The Bizzarrini 5300 GT was closely based on the Iso Grifo that had been designed by Bizzarrini in the mid-1960s for Iso.

The car is powered by a 368 hp Corvette V8 provided by Chevrolet. Not only was this engine vastly less expensive than an overhead cam V12, it was also cheaper and more reliable.

The Bizzarrini used an advanced (for the time) welded unibody structure with an exceptionally low roofline, and long low hood, and an engine mounted as far back as possible, making the car front-mid-engined.

The A3/C and the subsequent 5300 GT was designed specifically for racing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans which it did with some success, winning its class at the 1965 Le Mans.

Power is provided by a 5.4 liter( 327 cubic inch) Chevrolet Corvette small-block V8 producing 365 hp and 284 lb ft of torque, the “Corsa” version of the car had an engine capable of 400 hp.

Power is sent to the rear wheels via a 4-speed Borg Warner T-10 manual gearbox and a limited slip differential, Dunlop disc brakes were fitted at all four corners. The car weighs in at a relatively light 1,200 kgs (2,646 lbs) thanks to the alloy body, and it rides on independent front suspension with de Dion tube rear suspension.

Given the solid gold heritage of the Bizzarrini 5300 GT they always attract some attention when they come up for auction. The example you see here has been completely restored by Salvatore Diomante in Italy, the former head of the Bizzarrini factory.

Bizzarrini specialist Jack Koobs de Hartog has inspected this car twice and certified its originality. It’s now due to cross the auction block with RM Sotheby’s on the 19th of November with a price guide of $850,000 – $1,100,000 USD. If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing.

Images: Peter Singhof ©2021 Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

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Full Documentary: The Changing Architecture of the Motor Car

The Changing Architecture of the Motor Car is a 1970s-era documentary from General Motors that takes a look back at the very earliest examples of the automobile, then tracks the key design changes that were applied to cars over the intervening decades.

Given the fact that this documentary film only runs for a little over 19 minutes it does a great job of highlighting the rapid evolution in automotive design over the course of approximately 100 years.

The film uses a combination of photographs, period film clips, and illustrations to showcase the changes in automotive design, with the narrator discussing each change in detail.

The pace of development, particularly in the early years, is shockingly quick. Just 22 years passed between the release of the somewhat basic Model T Ford (1908) and the luxurious Cadillac V-16 (1930).

The film uses both models and animations to show how cars were constructed, and how they’ve evolved over time.

As we now move ever closer to electric (and perhaps some hydrogen) vehicles becoming the dominant form of transport on our roads it’s interesting to look back on the gasoline automobile and marvel at just how far it’s come since Karl Benz first rolled the Benz Patent-Motorwagen out of his workshop in 1886.

Although this film was funded by General Motors it does feature a broad selection of cars from other brands, and it discusses just how many automakers there actually were in the United States before the Great Depression wiped most of them out after 1929.

If you’d like to read more about this history of the automobile you can click here to read the expansive article on the subject by History.com.

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For Sale: 1 Of 2 “Jump Car” Corvette Grand Sports From “The Fast & Furious 5”

This is one of two “jump cars” used while filming the movie The Fast & Furious 5, and it’s one of just three of the Corvette Grand Sport Replicas to survive filming – the others were wrecked or otherwise destroyed.

As a jump car it was never going to be possible to use one of the front-engined Corvette Grand Sport Replicas due to the significant front weight bias. Instead this vehicle was developed by Mongoose Motorsports with a rear-mounted VW engine in a custom spaceframe chassis.

Fast Facts – A “Jump Car” From Fast Five

• The Film “Fast Five” famously features a Corvette Grand Sport, or at least a replica of one. It’s one of the most memorable vehicles used in the film and for many younger viewers it was their first time ever seeing the legendary American muscle car.
• The original Corvette Grand Sports were developed by the father of the Corvette, Zora Arkus-Duntov, and a small engineering team at Chevrolet in the early 1960s to take on the new Shelby Cobras.
• The Corvette Grand Sport replica you see here has a custom tubular steel chassis designed and fabricated by Mongoose Motorsports. It’s powered by a rear-mounted VW engine for optimal weight distribution for jumping.
• This is one of two jump cars built for Universal Pictures and one of just three Corvette Grand Sport replicas to survive filming.

The Fast & Furious 5

The Fast & Furious 5, also known as Fast Five, was released in 2011 as the fifth installment of The Fast & Furious film franchise – one of the most successful action movie franchises of the modern age.

Above Video: This is the clip from Fast Five that features the Grand Sport, after watching it it becomes clear why only three cars survived filming.

The film stars Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Gal Gadot, Dwayne Johnson, and Joaquim de Almeida. Unlike the earlier films in the series, Fast Five was written as a heist film with an emphasis on cars, rather than a film dedicated to street racing and car culture.

Fast Five would become the highest grossing film in the series up until that point, clearing over $625 million USD worldwide, and it all but ensured that more films would be made.

The Corvette Grand Sport

The Corvette Grand Sport was developed by an engineering team led by the father of the Corvette, Zora Arkus-Duntov, in the early 1960s. Over 100 examples were originally planned in order to homologate the car with a view to racing it at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The car is fitted with heavy duty coilovers on all four corners, the rear end of the car sits high to give the maximum amount of ground clearance and suspension travel for the off-road driving sequence.

Arkus-Duntov and his team threw everything they had at the Grand Sport, the model was named after a quote from Arkus-Duntov after the release of the 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Z06, a car he said he “would be proud to drive alongside the grand sports cars of Europe.” 

The 1963 Corvette Z06 was fitted with Chevrolet’s fuel-injected 327 cubic inch V8 producing 360 bhp, power was sent back through a 4-speed gearbox and a positraction rear-end to the rear wheels. The cars were fitted with a prodigious 36 gallon fuel tank for endurance racing, and they were fitted with heavy duty suspension and power assisted drums brakes with fins for cooling.

The Corvette Grand Sport was built directly on the advances made for the 1963 Z06 Corvette, with small number of changes, the most significant of which was the addition of the aluminum block 377 cubic inch V8 capable over 550 bhp.

Sadly the executives at Chevrolet would axe the Grand Sport program due to the AMA racing ban, much to Zora Arkus-Duntov’s disgust, but the five completed cars would still find their way into the hands of some of the most important racing drivers of the day including Roger Penske, A.J. Foyt, Jim Hall, and Dick Thompson.

The car is powered by a rear-mounted VW engine, the final V8 engine sound was dubbed over the top in the film during the jump scene.

The Grand Sports would prove their mettle racing against the Shelby Cobras in the 1963 Nassau Trophy Race, beating all of them and finishing third behind the prototypes. They returned a year later with Roger Penske in the driver’s seat and won the 1964 Nassau Trophy Race – it would be Grand Sport’s final showing at a major race.

The Fast Five Jump Car Shown Here

Although it looks somewhat close to a Corvette Grand Sport this car is actually only approximately 10 years old. It was built by the team over at Mongoose Motorsports run by Gary Krause out of their facilities in Ravenna, Ohio.

This car was built specifically for jumping, and so a heavy front-mounted V8 was a no-go. Instead of this, the team at Mongoose developed a tubular steel chassis that accommodates an air-cooled VW engine mounted in the rear – this shifts the weight back and helps ensure the car isn’t nose heavy.

Power is sent to the rear wheels via a 4-speed manual transmission, and it rides on suitably heavy duty coilover suspension, with disc brakes on all four corners. As one of just three surviving cars from Fast Five it’ll be interesting to see what it sells for when it rolls across the auction block.

This car is now due to be auctioned by Mecum in January, if you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing.

The car’s interior is equipped specifically for the stunt driver, with a single seat, all the essential gauges and switches at hand, and full roll over protection.

Images courtesy of Mecum

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