Maximum Mini: Dutch Mini Marcos history unravelled (1)

When Mini Marcos-aficionado Joost van Diën suffered from Corona a month ago and had to go in quarantine for some time, he decided to see if he could find out a little more on the background of his yellow Mk2 Marcos. After all he knew the car had probably spent all of its life in The Netherlands, but its history was still mostly unknown to him. Well, he got more than he bargained for after asking around. In fact he got in touch with the family of the car's original owner, Kim Koopman, who were equally surprised to find out the Marcos survived as Joost was to hear from them!

The man himself had passed away, but his relatives were eager to arrange a meeting and so Joost went over to catch up with the family and the man who'd helped Kim to build it: Thys Pollé. Thys remembered the car particularly well and was happy to be interviewed. He told Joost that he and his mate Kim went to the London Motor Show in 1967. Together they ordered a new shell in early '68 through the newly appointed Dutch concessionaire Sportscar Import in Haarlem, not far from where they lived. In fact they ordered two shells, one for another friend too, both in yellow. They were told there was a delivery time of 6 to 8 weeks, but when the duo hadn't heard a thing after 13 weeks of waiting, they decided to write to Jem Marsh. A neat answer was typed out on Marcos Car Ltd. paper but still the two men had to wait until mid-1968 for the body to arrive in their hometown of Halfweg. But then the build started using Kim's 1965 Mini Cooper as a donor vehicle. There are some pictures of the build, as there are some of Kim driving the just-finished Mini Marcos on the Zandvoort track in order to get his racing license in early '69!

It takes the Dutchmen another two years to get the car fully ready for racing, but then it's looking mean with flared arches, metallic blue / matt black paint applied by their mate Piet Walraven and the 12" rose petals taken over from Tonio Hildebrand's Broadspeed GTS! (here). What's more: the Marcos is by that time equipped with a Don Moore tuned 1295cc 'S' engine, which came through the ART (Algemeen Racing Team) and it was believed to be very quick, too. The Marcos made it to a number of races throughout the '71 racing season, all at Zandvoort, and finished second in class in May while coming home 6th overall in August that year. The Koopman's turned out to have plenty more pictures of the Marcos being raced and in the pit at Zandvoort. One shows it on the track with the white/green ART Mk1 Mini Marcos also. Kim Koopman sells the car in 1972 never to see it again. But its history does not end there. More to follow!

That's how the shell arrived from the UK to The Netherlands. It remains unclear if this is the Koopman car or the second one sold through Sportscar Import of Haarlem at the same time

Picture Koopman family archive