Marcos Mantis
The original Marcos Mantis is a sports car produced by the British car company Marcos Engineering. It was formally introduced in 1968 although production appears to have been slow to start. In February 1971 Marcos announced that the car could also be purchased in component form, at a domestic market price of £2,425, compared to the recommended retail price of £3,185 for the built version.[1] This compare at the time with a UK sticker price, including sales taxes, of £2,150 for the V8 Rover 3500. 32 examples were produced, with production ending in 1971.[2]
The Mantis name has been used subsequently for models bearing little obvious similarity to the original model. Introduced in 1997, the Mantis GT is a higher performance version of the Mantis. The name Mantis is taken from the mantis insect and is intended to signify the performance of the Mantis' engine, a supercharged 4.6 litre V8 producing 506 bhp (377 kW) and 452 lb·ft (613 N·m) of torque. This allows the Mantis to accelerate from 0-60 mph in 3.7 seconds and to reach a top speed of 179 mph (288 km/h). The car features power-assisted rack and pinion steering as well as AP Vented disc brakes with a diameter of 284 mm (front) and 240 mm (rear).
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