The original Marcos Mantis is a sports car produced by the British car company Marcos Engineering. It was formally introduced in 1968 although production appears to have been slow to start.
Announced as being officially released for sale in England during October 1970 as a luxurious 2+2 with a top speed of 120 mph (190 km/h) - powered by a Triumph 2.5 PI engine / transmission and built using a fiberglass body placed on a square tube chassis – with coil springs all round and live axle rear suspension with trailing links and a “A” bracket – the Mantis was expected to be priced into the English “young executive market” at AU$6500.
Although a larger car at 15 ft 6 in (4.72 m) long – its low height of 3 ft 10 in (1.17 m) made it one of the lowest coupes on the English market at that point.
No production is known to have happened in Australia – but a few early examples were reported to have been privately imported into that country.
In February 1971 Marcos announced that the car could also be purchased in component form, at a domestic market price of £2,425, compared to the recommended retail price of £3,185 for the built version. This compare at the time with a UK sticker price, including sales taxes, of £2,150 for the V8 Rover 3500. 32 examples were produced, with production ending in 1971.
The Mantis name has been used subsequently for models bearing little obvious similarity to the original model. Introduced in 1997, the Mantis GT is a higher performance version of the Mantis. The name Mantis is taken from the mantis insect and is intended to signify the performance of the Mantis' engine, a supercharged 4.6 litre V8 producing 506 bhp (377 kW; 513 PS) and 452 lb⋅ft (613 N⋅m) of torque. This allows the Mantis to accelerate from 0–60 mph (0–97 km/h) in 3.7 seconds and to reach a top speed of 179 mph (288 km/h). The car features power-assisted rack and pinion steering as well as AP Vented disc brakes with a diameter of 284 mm (11.2 in) (front) and 240 mm (9.4 in) (rear).
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