hi , as I intend to achieve a gts spyder 2.O I 'm looking forward to some reactions from owners.I'm familiar with the #!+'s (S3C) but not with the
marcos range. why should I buy or shouldn't I? As a marcos admirer for quitte a long time time has come to get one.But what about the engine, the
chassis,handling etc.. looking forward to your advice... cheers
GTS spyder 2.O
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 rollie |
GTS spyder 2.O |
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Posts: 1 Fri, 5-Jun-2009 20:34 |
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Jack |
#1 | |||
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Posts: 1451 Fri, 5-Jun-2009 20:59 Guru mechanic |
Never driven one but have read that the 2.0 turbo is a fantastic power plant for the GTS: fast, responsive, fuel economic... just doesn't have the growl.
Think they may be lighter too and it is a great looking car. You might find that there is an owner on here who would talk about their car... a lot.
If buying one the most important thing to look at is the chassis, there will always be other things to fix but the chassis is the most expensive to repair. |
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The Quiffster |
#2 | |||
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Posts: 3434 Sat, 6-Jun-2009 13:18 Administrator |
Welcome to the Forum Rollie! Good luck getting the car.
Jack wrote:Good advice Jack!
The Quiffster
Unregistered user?, Why not come in out of the cold? It's painless, free and opens other options up to you. Spare less than a minute of your time and register here, go on, you know it makes sense! |
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goldriver |
#3 | |||
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Posts: 135 Tue, 9-Jun-2009 15:28 |
I have had my 2L GTS turbo for about 5 years - a few modifications have been to change the ecu to an emerald and moved the cold air intake to a forward
postion. The car is great to drive, well balanced and turns so many heads. I would not swap my Mantaray with anything else. However, it does not have the growl
of a V8, but who need growl?
I am in Bexley Kent and would be happy to come over with my car and give you a spin - I wont drive 100's of miles but a trip within 100 mile swould not be a problem. I am away from 14th June - 1st July so if you want to take this offer up let me know asap. regards Vic |
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goldriver |
#4 | |||
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Posts: 136 Tue, 9-Jun-2009 15:33 |
I have just looked up where you live - ooopppppppps Belgium is not possible this week
Vic |
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The Keed |
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Posts: 23 Tue, 9-Jun-2009 17:04 |
Hi rollie,
I own a GTS turbo which I am currently rebuilding on a galvanised chassis so I definitely second the advice on checking out the chassis rails thoroughly! I'm getting pretty familiar with the internals of mine now but only vaguely remember what it was like to drive 
I thought mine was a bit overgeared with the standard diff so swapped it for a higher ratio which was much better suited to the engine. There was a quite bit of turbo lag with my car which left a fairly narrow rev band with the turbo on full boost. It did also seem a bit prone to understeering. Not sure whether other owners would agree? Having said all that, I loved driving it and think the engine is fantastic and much underrated. It's cheap to tune and repair and can be very economical to run in such a light car. It had a real Jekyll and Hyde character - very easy going for covering lots of miles but the power was there when needed  I still
think the benefits of the 2.0l turbo outweigh the drawbacks.
I'll be able to give a full review of what it's like to drive after the rebuild (by 2010?). I'm happy to talk about it (a lot) in the meantime though!
Andy B
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rollie |
GTS spyder 2.O | #6 | ||
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Posts: 2 Tue, 9-Jun-2009 21:09 |
hi guys, very pleased with the good advice and comments untill so far!As I understand the chassis can cause some problems after 10 years, if not regular
treated.I'm familiar with this problem as I own already one of blackpool finest(S3C) :) as the chassis was corroded after 12 years,we did a body off rest.
and swapped engine to a Cosworth 24V(Scorpio). Having finished this just 1 year,I'm not looking forward to another rebuilding job.Anyway the car I want to
buy has some surface chassis corrosion,but that's it,according the seller. I didn't have any comment about cooling problems yet,so this seems not an
issue,I guess. No one has had a HGF?(rover engines may be effected with this...) Vic,what an offer you made!!! thanks a lot!I will take this offer up but we
have to wait untill july( busy preparing my car for next trackday in Zolder on 19/6 of !%$ continental meeting) Why buying a Marcos? I lived up not far from
the belgian importer(retired now-)),so I was immedially lost when I saw the shape of the mantula he drove. A testdrive as a passenger convinced me,but as I was
already in this other marque, I had to delay my dreams. Untill now. every one agrees on the driving of the car.I like to hear that. The choice for a 2.O engine
is not the running cost, but the enormous tax rates in Belgium of heavy engined cars.(A 3.9 is taxed about 1500 pounds a year, money I'd rather like to
spend on the car!! Anyway, I'm looking forward to any other reaction of owners. cheers Roland
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The Keed |
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Posts: 24 Wed, 10-Jun-2009 14:26 |
I think all GTS's should be fitted with the later design of head gasket from the factory so should be fairly reliable in this respect. They still seem
prone to weeping a bit from an oilway at the back corner of the head though. Obviously this isn't a serious problem and at least you know there's oil
in it
From what I've heard, HGF is nowhere near as common as it is on the K-series engines but the reputation of the T-series still seems to have suffered anyway. Most T-series owners I know (not in Marcos' I hasten to add) have damaged their engines as a result of melting pistons by turning up the boost too high without making any other adjustments to e.g. fueling. In stock guise they seem pretty reliable. The engine does run quite hot and engine bay temperatures are high. Mine didn't ever overheat despite some testing conditions over the summer. Power does suffer with the high intake temperatures as I'm sure Vic will testify. The air intake move should have sorted this out though!
Andy B
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goldriver |
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Posts: 137 Wed, 10-Jun-2009 18:41 |
I moved the intercooler in my Mantaray GTS 2L Turbo from behind the radiator to a position in front of the radiator. I also moved the air intake nearer to the
front from its original position at the back of the engine.
I have also changed the ECU and now have an Emerald ECU. Prior to the modifications I had a very poor BHP of: 153BHP/5736 1/min (122 mph) 152.4 lbft/3209 1/min Post the Modification the reading were as follows: 193.2BHP/5490 1/min (117 mph) 210.3 lbft/4359 1/min Increase in BHP of 40.2 Am thinking of fitting a bigger Intercooler and bigger air intake. Would aim to get near 240BHP, but at the moment am happy with the improvement already made. |
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rollie |
mantara spyder GTS 2.0 | #9 | ||
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Posts: 3 Wed, 29-Jul-2009 20:45 |
hi guys, the arden electric blue GTS spyder of Redline is definitely coming to Belgium ! Of course it is no mantaray but as I started asking for advice here, I
would you all let known... The car will be collected next sunday. Vic, we will meet you at Brands Hatch... thanks to all of you for the advice you gave! Rollie
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goldriver |
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Posts: 145 Fri, 31-Jul-2009 07:09 |
let me know what time at Brands Hatch - I will meet you by the main gate - we can drive in and grab a coffee and I will show you the mods that I have done -
Call me on my mobile with an estimated time or post a time here
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