Marcos Diary - Trials and tribulations of living with a 25 year old car!

Subj: 1989 First Impressions.

Well, my first weekend of Marcos ownership was distinctly mixed.

I succeeded in putting right all the minor problems I intended to sort out (Speedo not working, steering wheel crooked, etc) and then took the beast for a spin. All was going well except that the noise from the blowing exhaust manifold seemed to be getting worse.

I decided to give the car a quick blast down a local dual carriageway, just to see what the acceleration was like. Well it is good but I've no idea since the exhaust pipe has a definite policy not to exceed 70 mph. As soon as I reached that speed and a tiny fraction more (honest officer!) the exhaust fell off! So a very slow, noisy and embarrasing journey home ensued to check out what had happened.

At home I discovered that the bracket holding the exhaust on at the back had perished and broken so a trip to Les Smiths was next on the agenda. A part for a Scirroco solved that problem but once I'd refitted the exhaust I found that somehow the silencer was at an angle and bottomed out on every little raise in the road. So tonight is going to be taken up loosening off the front bracket and twisting the whole system a bit so that the silencer is level (like the one on the other side) so that I can make the trip to my parents' house (just outside Bournemouth) next weekend. Fingers firmly crossed, I will then be able to bring you a road test!

One thing which did transpire from the weekend was the fact that the car is pretty easy to work on (what I've worked on so far anyway) with various panels just unbolting from the chassis to make access better.

Mark

PS The engine has tons of torque. The Renault (At the time I owned a Renault 5 GT Turbo) feels quicker but doesn't have anything like the instant pulling power of the 3 litre engine (not surprisingly).

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