Marcos Diary - Trials and tribulations of living with a 30 year old car!

Subj: 1998 - The year continued.

Thanks to Ian Armstrong, a fellow Marcos owner who lives nearby, I got my DIY exhaust welded together and producing a semi acceptable volume (off throttle at least!). He also pointed me in the direction of a couple of companies who can build Stainless Steel exhausts, as I was by now considering going that route as a permanent fix to the broken exhaust problem.

The car, rather noisily, next visited Breamore House on the August Bank Holiday weekend for the classic car show there. Last year (in poor weather) I hadn't really enjoyed this show, but I vowed to give it another go and spend some looking around the house.

I spent the night with my parents, who live nearby, and after my mum helped wash the car I drove down in glorious sunshine. The event opened at 10 and it was around 10:45 by the time I arrived, having to queue for some time before I could get in. Turn-out of classics was much up on the previous two visits I'd made and as the day continued in great weather the public also turned out in great numbers.

Perhaps the most amazing thing about Breamore was the presence of two other Marcii. Both were H registered (indicating 1969 or 1970), one being another V6 and the other a 2 litre V4. Both sets of owners greeted me on arrival and we spent some time comparing cars and finding the normal gammet of differences.

I never did get to look around the house, as the weather held, and the Belgian GP reaped a great win for Damon Hill, which I watched on my pocket TV. Next year I'll make the effort to go and look...

The trip home was also highly enjoyable as I decided to take the route across the New Forest to Cadnam on the M3, although the total silence from the straight-through exhaust as I lifted off was unsettling - Definitely time to think of getting a stainless exhaust...

The CMI skipped the Wokingham & Reading show this year and I had plenty to do at home, so didn't get to it or the Shoreham Airshow that the rest of the local club regulars attended. The next run, therefore, was to the London Classic Car Show at the Ascot racecourse on the 20th of September.

This year, as last, the Mini Marcos Owners Club had booked a stand, but this year it was big enough for all the cars present. I arrived at around 8.30 and joined the 9 Mini Marcii and one other coupe (being the Volvo engined car I'd first seen at Wokingham the previous year). Despite poor weather for weeks, this one weekend was warm and sunny and, if anything, too warm for comfort, but again it was an enjoyable show and the cars attracted much attention and, mainly complimentary, comment.

The show featured a large number of club and individual entries, including those evergreen classics, the Escort Cabriolets. Impressing all with the deepness of the bass of their ICE (That's car radio to you and me!), I marvel that the organisers asked this lot back and wonder if they will next year.

On the other hand there were some lovely cars, and a large amount of autojumble available. From the visitors point of view, the organisers insistence on all the cars staying until 5:15 was probably good, but caused some resentment amongst exhibitors. Fortunately, we were close to the exit and they allowed us to leave a little early and avoid the inevitable rush.