The Marcos LM600 is a

grand tourer A grand tourer (GT) is a type of car that is designed for high speed and long-distance driving with performance and luxury. The most common format is a Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout, front-engine, rear-wheel-drive two-door coupé with ...

-style race car designed and built by

Marcos Engineering Marcos Engineering was a British sports car automaker, manufacturer. The name derives from the surnames of founders Jem ''Mar''sh and Frank ''Cos''tin. History Marcos was founded in Dolgellau, North Wales, in 1959, by Speedex cars' Jem Marsh wi ...

. Built to GT1 and GT2 regulations, it competed in the

BPR Global GT Series The BPR Global GT Series (sometimes referred to as the BPR Global GT Endurance Series or simply abbreviated as BPR) was a grand tourer-based sports car racing series which ran from 1994 to 1996 before becoming the FIA GT Championship in 1997. The ...

, the

FIA GT Championship The FIA GT Championship was a sports car racing series organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO) at the behest of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The championship was mostly concentrated in Europe, but throughout ...

, and the

British GT Championship The British GT Championship is a sports car racing series based predominantly in the United Kingdom. The series was originally created by the British Racing Drivers' Club in 1993 and, for its first two seasons, was known as the National Sports G ...

from 1995 to 2000. The LM600 also contested the

24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans () is an endurance-focused Sports car racing, sports car race held annually near the city of Le Mans, France. It is widely considered to be one of the world's most prestigious races, and is one of the races—along with ...

from 1995 to 1997.

History

The LM600 made its competitive debut at the opening round of the 1995 British GT Championship with driver

Chris Hodgetts Christopher Leonard Hodgetts (born 6 December 1950 in Tanworth-in-Arden, Warwickshire) is a British former racing driver. He began his racing career in 1979, driving in the Clubman Class A championship. BTCC career Hodgetts debuted in the ...

. Conceived as a more powerful iteration of the proceeding Marcos LM400 and LM500 models, the car was also entered into the

1995 BPR Global GT Series The 1995 BPR Kärcher Global Endurance GT was the second season of BPR Global GT Series. It was a series for Grand Touring A grand tourer (GT) is a type of car that is designed for high speed and long-distance driving with performance and l ...

and the

1995 24 Hours of Le Mans The 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 63rd Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 17 and 18 June 1995 in one of the wettest races in the event's history with about 17 hours of steady rain. The race was won by the #59 McLaren F1 GTR driven by ...

with support from

Cor Euser Cornelius "Cor" Euser (born April 25, 1957) is a Dutch racing driver from Oss. Career After winning several Formula Ford titles in 1980 and 1981, Euser went to the FIA European Formula Three Championship part-time in 1982 and 1983. He expanded ...

. Hodgetts quickly delivered the car's first win, taking overall victory in the car's third race appearance in British GT at Donnington Park. Despite failing to finish at Le Mans, Hodgetts successfully won the GT2 class championship in British GT at the car's first attempt. Notably, a GT1 specification of the car named the LM600S was entered for driver

Thomas Erdos Thomas "Tommy" Erdos (born 30 October 1963) is a Brazilian auto racing driver. A two-time Le Mans Series champion and 24 Hours of Le Mans winner in LMP2, he has raced for most of his career in Great Britain and Europe, where he currently reside ...

at the final British GT round at

Silverstone Silverstone is a village and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority area of Northamptonshire, England. The village is about south-southwest of Towcester and northeast of Brackley, both accessed via the A43 road, A43 main ...

. After finishing fourth overall, the GT1 LM600 never appeared in competition again. With increasing support from Euser, who led the factory race team from 1995 onwards, the LM600 began appearing at select BPR Global fly-away races in 1996. The car took its first international class win at the 4 Hours of Jarama and won again in class at the next race at

. Despite failing to finish two years in a row at Le Mans, the LM600 won a second consecutive championship in 1996, again winning the GT2 class in British GT with three class wins including one overall win at Thruxton.

Mantara LM600EVO

During the 1999 season, the Marcos Engineering company was sold to a Dutch consortium led by Euser. Now in full control of the company in addition to the race team, final assembly was moved to

Venlo Venlo () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in southeastern Netherlands, close to the border with Germany. It is situated in the province of Limburg (Netherlands), ...

in the Netherlands and Dutch car designer Wiet Huidekpoer was commissioned to design a new version of the LM600. Named the Mantara LM600EVO, four chassis were built with heavily modified bodywork. Calum Lockie drove the upgraded Mantara LM600EVO to the GT class title in the

2000 British GT Championship The 2000 Privilege Insurance British GT Championship was the eighth season of the British GT Championship, an auto racing series organised by the British Racing Drivers Club (BRDC) and sponsored by Privilege. The races featured grand touring ...

, achieving the car's third and final championship.

References

{{reflist Grand tourer racing cars Marcos vehicles