Another North-American Marcos coming over soon

Colleague writer and Mini derivatives fan Iain Ayre will be moving soon from Vancouver, Canada to Scotland and will be doing a European tour, too. He wrote to me: "Hi Jeroen, hope all is well with you. I'm moving from Vancouver to Scotland fairly soon, and bringing my fleet of projects including the Mini Marcos. It's the NOS unbuilt 1974 complete kit with original seats, carpets, etc, with a fresh rebuilt 65bhp 1098cc engine on a Webber 40 DCOE, fresh gearbox too."

"I have a few quite valuable Mini bits collected over the years, such as original Cooper S brakes, Japanese racing wheels that weigh about 4lbs each, cranks, dashboards and so on. The car is left hand drive, currently registered in Canada in my name as a 1974 Marcos, and it will have a UK 1974 registration. I'll finish it and ship it, and then plan to visit you when I'm on a European tour with it. Part of my plan for it is slalom racing, cheap, safe and non-destructive. Usually a Mini Moke is unbeatable, but we'll see how a Marcos will perform. Cheers Iain."

Iain Ayre is moving from Canada to Scotland and will bring his unbuilt 1974 Marcos along

Picture Iain Ayre

Iain's friends Richard and Pete help to get on to a borrowed trailer for the first part of the move

Picture Iain Ayre

"It's a NOS unbuilt 1974 complete kit painted in a nice rich Mercedes SLK yellow"

Picture Iain Ayre

"I've decided to build it absolutely stock as designed. Even the carpet is brand new 1974" 

Picture Iain Ayre

Engine uses bottom end of an 1100cc Austin America with added Cooper head and cheerful colours

Picture Iain Ayre

The Mk4 car is now on Vancouver Island in a friend's workshop but will be shipped to the UK soon

Picture Iain Ayre