Marcos Mantis

The Marcos Mantis is the name of a run of sportscars introduced in 1968 by Marcos Engineering.

The first Mantis was the Mantis XP, a racing car designed for the Group 6 Prototype category. It was powered by a mid-mounted Repco V8 engine.^[1] Like earlier Marcos cars it used a plywood monocoque chassis, albeit different from that of the GT. Only one car was made, and its only race was the 1968 1,000 km event at Spa, where it retired with electrical problems in heavy rain. Originally Marcos intended to race it in the 1968 Le Mans, but that was postponed from June to September, and by then the car was in America, fitted with a Buick V8 engine (from which the Rover V8 engine was derived).

The road cars, which followed in 1970, were 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.^[2] 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.^[3][4]

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".^[5]

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.^[6]

En 1995, el piloto neerlandés Cor Euser se convirtió en piloto oficial de Marcos, y en 2000, la división de carreras de Marcos se vendió a Eurotech, un patrocinador de GT de larga trayectoria y empresa de ingeniería neerlandesa. Para entonces, todos los coches de carreras y chasis de calle de Marcos se fabricaban en los Países Bajos. Cor Euser compitió como Marcos Racing International, pilotando varios modelos derivados de Marcos, incluyendo un Mantis con especificaciones GT-3 y una evolución del Mantis, el Marcos Mantis Marcorelly. ^{[ 7 ]}

Anunciado oficialmente para su venta en el Reino Unido en octubre de 1970, el Mantis M70, un lujoso 2+2, alcanzaba una velocidad máxima de 190 km/h (120 mph ) . La suspensión constaba de muelles helicoidales en las cuatro ruedas, así como de un eje trasero rígido con brazos de arrastre y un soporte en forma de "A". Se esperaba que el Mantis se comercializara para el segmento de jóvenes ejecutivos ingleses. ^{[ 8 ] [ 9 ]}  

Con una longitud de 4,72 m ( 15 pies 6 pulgadas ) y una altura de 1,17 m ( 3 pies 10 pulgadas ) , estas dimensiones lo convertían en un automóvil largo, pero también en uno de los cupés más bajos del mercado en ese momento. ^{[ 8 ] : 13}      

El nombre Mantis /ˈmæn.tɪs/ se ha utilizado posteriormente para modelos que guardan poca semejanza con el modelo original. Presentado en 1997, el Mantis GT es una versión de mayor rendimiento del Mantis, debido a los avances tecnológicos. El nombre Mantis proviene del insecto mantis y pretende indicar el rendimiento del motor del Mantis, un Ford Modular V8 de 4,6 litros sobrealimentado , que produce 506 hp (377 kW) y 452 lb⋅ft (613 N⋅m) de par. Esto permite al Mantis acelerar de 0 a 60 mph (0 a 97 km/h) en 3,7 segundos y alcanzar una velocidad máxima de 179 mph (288 km/h) . El coche cuenta con dirección de cremallera y piñón asistida . Está equipado con frenos de disco ventilados AP con un diámetro de 284 mm (11,2 pulgadas) en la parte delantera y 240 mm (9,4 pulgadas) en la parte trasera.