In a trend that seems to be rising in the British auto industry niche sports car manufacturer Marcos Engineering has announced it will be entering administration and plans to wind down its operations as soon as possible. Marcos is probably most widely recognized for its TSO GTC, a V8 powered coupe developed with help from Prodrive. The company claims it will complete any existing work in progress but then sell its assets and distribute whatever is left to shareholders and creditors.
Marcos was founded in 1959 and previously went into receivership back in 2000. The company was restarted in 2002, manufacturing a range of high performance hand built lightweight sports cars. There was some hope for the brand when a deal to secure the supply of 420hp versions of the Corvette V8 engine went though. Unfortunately, this wasn’t enough to generate substantial profits and a continuing rise in the cost of capital has led to its downfall.
“Regrettably, despite the extraordinary efforts of our employees, suppliers and dealers, we simply could not attain a profit point, reduce our cost base or raise the necessary capital to sustain the business”, said Tony Stelliga, Managing Director in a statement.
At this rate a future without any British carmakers bar a handful appears entirely possibly. If you think this is only a concern for the niche brands like Marcos you only have to look at the state of Jaguar to see how serious the problem really is.