Category: Marcos Modifications

Finally all the parts have arrived. In the end I bought the Vitesse 1600 caliper mounting ring along with an up-rated front alloy hubs from Canley Classics. Amazingly the items fit together without too many major issues. The biggest problem so far is the alloy caliper bracket fowls the vented disk, however a couple of minutes with a junior hacksaw and a file I have managed to remove a small section of the bracket and now every thing fits together without any problems. I have also discovered a couple of other issue with the hubs that isn’t mention with the instructions that accompany the hubs. The first thing is you ideally need to use longer bolts to attach the brake discs to the hub. If this is done there will be less chance of you stripping/damaging the threads in the alloy hub. The other issues is the bolts that hold the steering arm in place have to be in a certain position or they will also catch the outside of the ally hub causing damage. There are still some outstanding issues that I need to complete such as modifying the dust shields so they can be used with the new calipers (I could leave them off but I want the car to look as original as possible). Once this is done I just need to paint all the parts and reassemble the front suspensions.

The overdrive and gearbox rebuild is complete. I have also managed to swap the rebuilt gearbox with the one originally fitted to the Marcos car. This turned out to be easier than I expected as it’s actually possible to swap the gearbox without having to remove the engine. To do this you will need access to a ramp or pit and the help from another person. If you want to do this step 1 is to remove the prop shaft. Step 2 remove the 5 bolts that attach the cross member to the car and gearbox and also remove the speedo cable. Step 3 remove the gear lever, Step 4 undo the 6 bolts that hold the gearbox to the bell housing. Finally step 5 with the help from someone else carefully lift the gearbox from the car tacking care to disconnect the wires from the overdrive inhibitor switch. Till you manage to refit the gearbox don’t let anyone press the clutch pedal or you will never get the replacement gearbox to fit. I still need to take the car for a test drive to check the operation of the gearbox/overdrive but this will have to wait till I have finished the upgrade on my front brakes.
Since first completing the Marcos and taking it out for a drive this summer I have never been very happy with the brakes, I find it almost impossible to lock the brakes up no matter how hard I press on the pedal. Due to this I have been researching what brake upgrades are available for the Marcos. There are a lot of kits available but one of the main criteria I had was that I still wanted to be able to keep the original Marcos alloys(13″ Rim). In the end I chose the following kit from Caterham cars. This kit is designed for a Caterham car and is made by AP Racing so it should be the best money can buy. It should also fit the Marcos as the Caterham front suspension is based on the original Triumph Spitfire upright. This means that so long as you swap the caliper mounting ring for the one from a Triumph Vitesse 1600 everything should bolt together straight out of the box.
The only parts to arrive so far is the kit from Caterham and I’m still waiting for caliper mounting ring to arrive from Canley Classics. Till I get this part I won’t know for certain that everything will fit together. I have tried fitting the vented brake disc to the GT6 hub and this is a perfect fit so now I just need the caliper mounting ring to see if the caliper fit.