The Oily Rag - British Saloon Car Club

A Mini Marvel
by Bob DeShane
It was a warm, sunny, beautiful morning in August of 1991 and I was motoring westbound on the 401, on my way to
London. The last few hundred yards of runway at Pearson slipped by on my right and the skyline of Toronto was
fading in the mirror and traffic was thinning. I could now concentrate on the business meeting ahead.
Hey, there's a nice Mini – so much for concentrating.
Ever since I first saw a Sprite at age ten, I had been
crazy about British cars, about international racing,
about great British racing drivers, Moss, Hawthorn, Hill
and Clark. I'd read British motoring magazines cover to
cover for years. I relished the stories of the small
cottage industries that produced such fantastic cars but
lamented that we rarely, if ever saw many them on our
shores. I'd had my share of cars too, nothing exotic
mind you, but beginning with a Morris Minor and
progressing through a seemingly never ending list of
Minis, MGAs, MGBs, TR6s, 1100s, 1300s and a Marina. I
had delved into racing and rallying and thoroughly
enjoyed, lived and breathed it all. However, I had given
it all up to have more time for family and my primary
business concerns.
As far as my small sports car business, Little Britain Motor Company, apart from keeping the performance parts side
of it going, I had put it on the shelf as well. That was over a year ago. Little did I know at that moment how it would
all change very soon.
The cell phone rang. It was long time friend, British car guru and best ever British car mechanic, Dave Jackson. I
hadn't seen Dave much in the past year. It was one of the things that I'd sacrificed along with my addiction to British
cars. Dave said “Bob, I've just got this magazine called Mini World and you've got to see it! I've got a copy for you.”
He wouldn't tell me what it was about this new magazine that was so incredibly wonderful or important that I needed
to see it, considering that I was no longer a British car nutcase or Mini nutcase. But, Dave was a good friend and it
had been a long time since we had talked and I really kind of missed his shop seeing as how it was sort of my second
home for the last twenty-four years and maybe it wouldn't hurt to see what he was working on now. So, I agreed
that I would stop by for a brief visit the next day on my way back from London.
The drive back from London to Oshawa seemed to take forever even though traffic was light and moving well. As I
pulled up to the front doors of Commonwealth Motors, everything was warmly familiar. MGs Triumphs, Minis. The oil
spots, the scents. Heaven.
Inside, Dave greeted me in his ever-friendly way and after a few minutes of pleasantries and catching up, he revealed
my copy of the new magazine. I couldn't believe my eyes. There on the front cover was a man that I had come to
know through reading the British Motoring books as a true genius and a maverick in the same fashion as Colin
Chapman. In fact the two of them were friends and competitors, having had similar paths of development in post-war
sports car racing in Britain. The man was Jem Marsh, founder of Marcos Cars and Speedex Performance Parts. Just
as importantly, he was standing next to one of his creations – a car that as a teenager, I had read about in all of
those British motoring books – a car that had literally conquered the world of small-bore racers on tracks like Brands
Hatch, Oulton Park, Silverstone, Spa Francorchamps, Kylami and the biggest of all Le Mans. Jem was re-introducing
the Mini Marcos!! I couldn't wait to get home and settle into reading all about it.
That evening, I wasn't much company for the family. I poured over the magazine. The new cars would use Mini
Mayfair running gear complete with 12-inch alloy wheels, Corbeau seats and custom burled walnut dash panels with a
complete set of instruments. After three very thorough, poured over, intensive readings of the article and a very
enthusiastic, mostly one-way conversation with my long-suffering wife, Marilyn, I decided that I really did miss British
Cars and that I needed a Mini Marcos! I couldn't sleep that night thinking about the telephone call that I would place
in the morning to Jem.
In late October I found myself over the North Atlantic on a British Airways flight to London and the Earl's Court
Automobile Show as a guest of Marcos Cars for the re-introduction of the Mini Marcos.
Earl's Court is a truly impressive exhibition hall in its own right, but for a car enthusiast – a British Car enthusiast – it
was heaven! Every kind and shape and colour of British and European car imaginable was on display! I followed
Jem's directions until I could see a large Marcos sign visible above a throng of several hundred people gathered in the
aisle directly across from the Lotus and Mercedes stands, just past TVR. Wait, they were all facing the Marcos sign.