Obituary – Jem Marsh

Marcos founder Jeremy George Weston ‘Jem’ Marsh died on March 2. He was 84. The Westcountryman first ventured trackside in 1954 in an Austin Seven special, having only recently left the Royal Navy. He joined Dante Engineering a year later before leaving to set up rival tuning firm Speedex.

A chance meeting with Frank Costin led to what became the first Marcos.

In early 1959, the duo conjured a lightweight Clubmans car; one that featured a plywood monocoque. The first car was sold in May 1960 to Bill Moss, the former ERA man winning nine races from 10 starts in it. Costin left early in 1961, however, following disagreements over the marque’s future direction.

Marcos moved further away from racing during that decade, the 1800 model relaunching the marque as a manufacturer of aspirational GTs. Several models followed, not least the Mini Marcos.

Following the demise of Marcos in 1971, Marsh continued to offer spares. He relaunched the marque in 1981 and it returned to Le Mans the following decade with the LM600. Factory driver Chris Hodgetts also savoured success in the ’95 BRDC GT Championship aboard the Team Marcos GT2 entry. Marsh, meanwhile, was a regular historic racer from 1971 to the early ’90s and claimed three HSCC titles aboard the ex-Jackie Stewart ‘Ugly Duckling’ Marcos GT. Richard Heseltine