Le Mans Mini Marcos found

[Jeroen Booij]

After a long and hard search I finally found the Mini Marcos that came 15th at Le Mans in 1966!
I've already started a series of reports on my own weblog, with more to follow:

http://maximummini.blogspot.com/2016/12 ... arcos.html
http://maximummini.blogspot.com/2016/12 ... cos-2.html
http://maximummini.blogspot.com/2016/12 ... cos-1.html

But... now the great hunt for parts should also be started.
As you can see I need just about everything mechanical.
All help would be much appreciated!

Jeroen

[mk1]

What a great find Jeroen!

If I can be of any help re parts, just give me a shout.

You will have your work cut out getting it finished in time for Blyton

[mini63]

Good luck with getting it on the track Jeroen!

[Pete]

Totally epic. Great when REAL historic survivors are discovered like this. Rachel's 129 LNP, Paul's GRX 309D, Jonny's Downton racer, the Arden in NZ, Chris's Broadspeed GTS, Trev's Vita racer, Paul's Ratcliffe racer, the list goes on and they do keep turning up! Fantastic! I really enjoyed doing all the forensic stuff on my Unipower, like peeling back the layers of history, bet you've not slept for a month Jeroen!

[Red Mist]

Fantastic find!

As a fellow owner of a Marcos, I'm looking forward to seeing more of this car

[Pete]

Yes bring it to Blyton, be great to see it alongside Gary's very similar early Marcos racer.

[Pete]

So we know it had a Special Tuning engine in it, I suggest you speak to Basil Wales Jeroen because when I wrote an article about this car a few years back he came back to me and commented on how he was involved and how he supplied the engine. Stuart Turner was non too keen on the idea at the time and didn't want it known about as a poor result would have reflected badly on BMC (little did he know eh?....). I'll send you his details Jeroen.

[surfblue63]

Great find Jeroen.

[steve1071]

What a fantastic find.

[Jeroen Booij]

So we know it had a Special Tuning engine in it, I suggest you speak to Basil Wales Jeroen because when I wrote an article about this car a few years back he came back to me and commented on how he was involved and how he supplied the engine. Stuart Turner was non too keen on the idea at the time and didn't want it known about as a poor result would have reflected badly on BMC (little did he know eh?....). I'll send you his details Jeroen.

It's not certain that it used a Special Tuning engine, Pete. When I interviewed Jean-Claude Hrubon a couple of years ago he told me:

"I bought one of the first Marcos bodies, took it home to Paris and started building it. By this time we'd found a sponsor, too: Hubert Giraud who ran a company in ceramics and raced an Austin Cooper 'S' at the time. We decided to use his car's 1275 engine to build up the Marcos. However, later we fitted another engine as he wanted his back! This was another 1275 which had the Weber carburettor rather than the twin SUs."

I believe it ran with the Giraud sourced (and Hrubon tuned) engine at Le Mans as it used SUs there.

Unfortunately Hrubon passed away just a couple of days before I picked up his old racer...

[Pete]

I believe it ran with the Giraud sourced (and Hrubon tuned) engine at Le Mans as it used SUs there.

Really? The plot thickens! Any underbonnet shots from Le Mans about Jeroen?

[Jeroen Booij]

I believe it ran with the Giraud sourced (and Hrubon tuned) engine at Le Mans as it used SUs there.

Really? The plot thickens! Any underbonnet shots from Le Mans about Jeroen?

Yes, I have a beautiful set of hi-res detail under bonnet shots, taken by an amateur photographer, who was a friend of Hrubon. I'll see if I can post them here.

[Jeroen Booij]

Voila.
These were taken when the car was build-up in early 1966 at Hrubon's workshop in Paris.
The car has not yet been painted blue.

[tintoptom]

Wow!

You couldn't hope for a better set of shots to help you put things back to the way they once were!

Congratulations on a superb find.

[Jeroen Booij]

Wow!

You couldn't hope for a better set of shots to help you put things back to the way they once were!

Congratulations on a superb find.

Thanks, it is indeed a great reference.
This picture was printed in l'Automobile magazine and was taken at the track.
It certainly looks to be the same engine.

[almondgreen]

Has the engine colour changed ?

[Jeroen Booij]

Has the engine colour changed ?

I don't know!

[rpb203]

Looks like it still has the side mounted radiator, was this changed to a front mounted radiator and header tank for Le Mans, would have made the cooling a bit better unless there was some serious surgery in the area of the wheel arch?
It's a shame that you can't make out the number on the chassis plate, it must be quite an early shell to have been prepped ready for racing mid '66.
Do you have any shots of the long range tank, if it's still there, would be really interesting to see where it was located.
Looks like a fantastic project and brilliant that it has been found, well done.
The aim is to get my Mk1 ready for Blyton, I've failed the previous 2 years!, that is if I'm not too late for an entry.
Gary

[rpb203]

Just noticed that there appears to be a number stamped on the ridge of the flywheel casing, can you make the number or what is stamped out from the photos?

[mk1]

that is if I'm not too late for an entry.

Sorry,

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