Mini-Marcos GT

[BJoe76]

Has anybody ever made a Mini-Marcos GT body for the FWD M-Chassis cars?

[Hrimfaxi]

Afraid I can't help you with the answer, all I know is that I'd want one! 

[BJoe76]

3 hours ago, Hrimfaxi said:

Afraid I can't help you with the answer, all I know is that I'd want one! 

That’s OK, got to thinking that this would be a great body to have and still keep the Mini flair to the FWD M Chassis cars!

[Hrimfaxi]

Likewise would love to see a Mini Moke shell over an M chassis!  

[yogi-bear]

I have thought about making the very similar Mini Jem, as my father made about 7 actual ones in the 70s. I would love to see one of these bodies brought to a m-chassis. I've only gotten as far as getting a lot of reference photos though.

[BJoe76]

I will say I am a bit weird, but I’d love to see a couple of the Carroll Shelby Tuned Chrysler L-Body hatchbacks too😁

 

 

[Superluminal]

Top one looks like the love child of some old Talbot thing and an MG Maestro

[Mad Ax]

38 minutes ago, Superluminal said:

Top one looks like the love child of some old Talbot thing and an MG Maestro

Yep, it was sold over here as the Talbot Horizon.  My parents had one when I was born.  The main thing I remember was it had beige cloth seats with a dogtooth pattern.

I seem to remember it broke down almost as often as the Morris Ital Estate that they (for some incredibly bizarre reason) replaced it with.

[Superluminal]

28 minutes ago, Mad Ax said:

Yep, it was sold over here as the Talbot Horizon.  My parents had one when I was born.  The main thing I remember was it had beige cloth seats with a dogtooth pattern.

I seem to remember it broke down almost as often as the Morris Ital Estate that they (for some incredibly bizarre reason) replaced it with.

The golden days of motoring 

[Mad Ax]

1 minute ago, Superluminal said:

The golden days of motoring 

Yes, the days when you could go outside with your bags and your plans without ever being totally sure you'd even get off the driveway 

[BJoe76]

As Mad Ax said, these were related, we had the Dodge Omni, which is what the top two are as well as the Plymouth Horizon, which was identical except for the badging, though they didn’t get these performance models. The 3dr cars were the same platform, just different body work and like with the 4dr, Plymouth didn’t get any of the hot rods, they tried to make their own, but it sounds like Shelby shot that down. There was even a mini truck/Ute version called the Rampage for a couple years!

[Willy iine]

Yeah, I've only seen the Euro El Camino..  aka Lotus Europa..   

[El Gecko]

8 hours ago, BJoe76 said:

As Mad Ax said, these were related, we had the Dodge Omni, which is what the top two are as well as the Plymouth Horizon, which was identical except for the badging, though they didn’t get these performance models. The 3dr cars were the same platform, just different body work and like with the 4dr, Plymouth didn’t get any of the hot rods, they tried to make their own, but it sounds like Shelby shot that down. There was even a mini truck/Ute version called the Rampage for a couple years!

Love the Rampage, I always wanted to do a turbo swap in one of these! In my past life I was a major 1:1 gearhead and TurboDodge geek. Had a turbo Caravan with a 5 speed briefly, and drove a Spirit R/T for a few years. Dad picked up another Spirit R/T from the guy who used to test it at the Chrysler Proving Grounds (test mule for Viper ABS systems), and at one point we had 4 Spirits between the two of us (2 ES, 2 R/T)

Sorry for the derail, all the TD memories just came flooding back!

Also we can't forget the baddest TD of them all

[Badcrumble]

Give me enough time and plasticard and I'd have a go at a Mini Scamp (distant cousin of a Moke)

A Marcos is a way out of my league though. 

[BJoe76]

16 hours ago, El Gecko said:

Love the Rampage, I always wanted to do a turbo swap in one of these! In my past life I was a major 1:1 gearhead and TurboDodge geek. Had a turbo Caravan with a 5 speed briefly, and drove a Spirit R/T for a few years. Dad picked up another Spirit R/T from the guy who used to test it at the Chrysler Proving Grounds (test mule for Viper ABS systems), and at one point we had 4 Spirits between the two of us (2 ES, 2 R/T)

Sorry for the derail, all the TD memories just came flooding back!

Also we can't forget the baddest TD of them all

Not a problem, used to have an ’85 Lebaron GTS with the early T1 and an ‘88 Shadow ES 2dr with the late T1 in it and my current daily is a ‘12 Chrysler 200 Touring with the 3.6l, all of which were built at the same factory!

[OnTheTrail]

On 2/13/2023 at 9:39 PM, BJoe76 said:

 

While these were cool cars back in their day, it broke my heart to see Carroll Shelby team up to work on a front wheel drive car.  I know it's wrong of me but that just doesn't sit right with his history of performance cars.    

Oh, and for what it's worth, the "GLH" supposedly stood for "Goes Like badword"

[BJoe76]

3 minutes ago, OnTheTrail said:

While these were cool cars back in their day, it broke my heart to see Carroll Shelby team up to work on a front wheel drive car.  I know it's wrong of me but that just doesn't sit right with his history of performance cars.    

Oh, and for what it's worth, the "GLH" supposedly stood for "Goes Like badword"

I think his using a GLHS Omni and running off from a GT350-R replica during Shelby Club of America back in the day really turned the Ford guys at the time off to the Mopars with his name on them. Probably didn’t like a better that stock clone getting embarrassed by an Omni, which was probably making more than the 175hp those were advertised at🤔

[El Gecko]

1 hour ago, OnTheTrail said:

While these were cool cars back in their day, it broke my heart to see Carroll Shelby team up to work on a front wheel drive car.

Agreed, that was my one gripe with pretty much all turbo Dodges. Apparently Mopar offered a RWD conversion kit for the Daytona, which IMHO would have been a massive improvement. I always wanted to drift a Daytona properly.

[BJoe76]

9 hours ago, El Gecko said:

Agreed, that was my one gripe with pretty much all turbo Dodges. Apparently Mopar offered a RWD conversion kit for the Daytona, which IMHO would have been a massive improvement. I always wanted to drift a Daytona properly.

I think that should have fit any of the K-Cars, but was primarily for the G and J Bodies (Daytona/Lazer and Lebaron).

[El Gecko]

20 hours ago, BJoe76 said:

I think that should have fit any of the K-Cars, but was primarily for the G and J Bodies (Daytona/Lazer and Lebaron).

I always envisioned an AWD system out of a Caravan in a k-car like the Spirit. The R/T version could have been the American Mistubishi Lancer Evo!