Portugese Marcos with a difference

Reader Alex Coreira sent in some Mini Marcos shots from his native Portugal and supposedly taken at Vila Real in the 1980s where it was raced by a Antonio Batista. Like the famous TransXL Mini Marcos as well as Pete Crudgington's Granny Smith Racing Marcos, this one also has a much altered and streamlined body but still it's a racing car unlike any others. Who knows more about it?

Ultra low nose and ultra fat and integrated wheel arches. It's a Marcos unlike any other

Picture via Alex Coreira

Same car, different colour scheme. Supposedly raced by Antonio Batista at Vila Real

Picture via Alex Coreira

And in anger, too, or so it seems, giving the racing Minis a hard time

Picture via Alex Coreira

Update 13 July: Francisco Costa is very quick with a reaction, including the photograph below. He writes: "I have some more pictures, but I don't know much more about the car. I do know some old folk in Vila Real that may know, but only when I get back there can I ask (I used to study there and fell in love with the circuit and all it's story. This picture is Vila Real, early seventies I think. In your second picture I can't recognize as Vila Real, looks more like Vila do Conde (another portuguese circuit raced at the time). The third also looks more like Vila do Conde, but I may be wrong."

Picture courtesy Francisco Costa