Racing the Marcos at Goodwood 2003
Back in December we told the traumatic story of serial historic racer Rae Davis’
attempts to run a Hillman Imp in last September’s Goodwood Revival meeting,
a frustrating weekend of mechnical failures. But it was not all doom and gloom for Rae – just
before the Imp dramas, he raced in the Fordwater Trophy for pre-66 Le Mans-type cars, finished,
and while he did not win, he was cheered across the line as a hero...
 Salvation came from Bracknell-based Classic and Modern Engine Services, newly formed but with personnel boasting many years in the power business. “Classic and Modern Engines wanted to get involved with Goodwood and they built me a superb engine for nothing, which was extremely nice of them,” said Rae. The engine in question is a 1293cc race specification A-series unit, pumping 143bhp. It boasts a heavily modifed head, a one-off Piper cam, big valves, high ratio rockers, a lightened crankshaft and con-rods and an ultra-light steel flywheel. Special multilayer steel head gaskets are fitted, an American design aimed at curing a perennial A-series problem. They allow a compression ratio of 13.5:1, which Rae reckons you could never get away with on a normal A-series. The 45DCOE Weber comes courtesy of Southern Carburettors, while the stock twin radiator has been replaced by a single frontmounted item. The exhaust is conventional and currently unsilenced, as that’s the way Goodwood runs its races.  This correspondent can confirm, having been present when Rae extricated the car from its winter lock-up on a suburban London housing estate, that it makes a loud and lovely noise. Power passes through an AP racing clutch to a Jack Knight straight-cut close-ratio four-speed gearbox. “They built it for me with all the trick bits,” Rae told me, “a limitedslip diff and quick-shift, straight cut crown wheel and pinion, and straight-cut drop gears.” Cooper S driveshafts are fitted. Much of the chassis is to stock Mini race practice, using Cooper S components. But while the front suspension retains rubber cones, the usual rear subframe setup is replaced by a lightweight beam axle which Marcos homologated for racing but never used in 1966. Spax dampers are used all round, while the brakes are Cooper S with discs up front and alloy drums at the rear, using special pads made by Questmead to suit the lightweight car. Minilite rims are shod with Dunlop historic race tyres.  The fuel tank sits in the spare wheel well. Originally Marcos used a Mini van fuel tank that ran across the back of the car, with the filler on the rear valance. This would work fine until a racer backed into an armco barrier – cue a rather large bang. The original rear filler on Rae’s car is blocked off. Even with a specially built rollcage the car tips the scales at less than 500 kilos, so Rae was hopeful of surprising rivals at Goodwood. But having never driven the car in anger, he sought advice on gearing from the quicker Mini runners. “Norman Grimshaw’s mechanic, told me a 3.9, with one-to-one drop gears, would be just right. It was utterly wrong! After a few laps my rev counter broke but I had an adjustable rev limiter which we set to 7500rpm. Halfway down the straight I was hitting the limiter. I put it up to 8000, and then to 8500, to no avail. Even if we’d had the bits with us changing the ratios on a Mini is a major job, so we were stuck with it. I was really scared that the engine would explode – when a Mini engine goes the bits fall into the box, which cheerfully mashes them in its cogs…” Rae still qualified ninth; relieved to make the race; “Not only did I have many sponsors present, but you have to be invited to run at Goodwood and you are expected to make the race. If you blow up once in it, that’s fine, so long as the grids are full.” He was unsure what revs to pull off the start. “I’ve no idea what I let the clutch go at. It was that wonderful flag start and the car leapt forward like a frog, passing the next row up in one go – I bet some people thought I jumped the flag!” Having negotiated chaos at the first corner Rae set about chasing some expensive machinery, including the eventual race-winning Alfa Romeo TZ2, specially imported for the event and reputed to be worth £600,000, a pair of £300,000 2-litre Porsche 904/6s and a clutch of Alfa TZ1s each worth around £200,000. The TZ1s would pull away along the straight but into corners Rae could pull it all back and give them a hard time – “I could see them anxiously looking in their mirrors wondering which side my little car was. I could take virtually any line I wanted.” Rae ended up fourth, and as he crossed the line he was shocked by the reaction to his giant-killing effort. “The crowd went wild, cheering, waving things in the air – I was told later that the first three just got the usual ripple of applause, but the reaction to my little car was wonderful, a real emotional moment.” One more surprise awaited. When Rae returned to the paddock he found Jem Marsh, founder of Marcos, waiting to speak to him. “I hadn’t even known he was at Goodwood. He said it was the best race by a Mini Marcos he’d ever seen – quite something coming from the man himself.” Suitably encouraged, Rae now intends to use his highly competitive Mini Marcos in historic racing throughout 2004. If you want to see the little white and blue car worrying larger machinery, you need to check out the delightfully-named Cloth Cap series for ’50s and ’60s sports cars, run as part of the Top Hat Historic Series. Sadly, Rae will have to make one modification to the Marcos for the coming season – he will have to fit a silencer…  I was looking for a workshop but Rae’s directions led me to a housing estate. His base was obvious – a driveway filled with historic cars, most A-series connected but with an interloping Hillman Imp. As for the Marcos, that emerged from a lock-up in a side road – truly a street racer. Rae came from a competitive family – his uncle Cliff Davis was a sports car champion in the 1950s. Rae began racing karts in the 1960s, moving onto a plethora of MGs and others including a Triumph Dolomite Sprint and even a Sierra Cosworth, sometimes shared with his brothers Graeme and Darryl. The latter now runs Rover aftermarket specialist Moto-Build Racing. Rae competed in several one-make series including the Rover GTi and MG Metro Challenges, against the likes of Steve Soper and Patrick Watts, while he also starred in the Willhire 24 hours endurance race. He won the MG Owners Club Championship in 1990 driving a Maestro, and even a classic race in Macau; “all that way for a 10-lapper.” Recent times have seen Rae running historic cars for various people whilst racing in the Top Hat Championship and at such meetings as the Goodwood Revival. He’s also kept busy by his company GB Performance, which offers specialist tuning for A series engines. He reckons his speciality is “specialbodied odd A-series cars.” On The track  
The Marcos is not that easy to drive at speed. As with all Mini-type cars, especially with LSDs, there is a lot of torque steer, not helped by unequal length driveshafts. Jack Knight’s latest Mk6 differential helps, but the car still pulls left and right under acceleration until the diff locks up. The lightweight back end will easily slide, but unlike a typical Mini the car tends to oversteer, cornering being what Rae describes as “a bit of a threepenny bit experience.” He adds that the car also feels as if it wants to take off. “There’s a slight rise coming into Madgewick, the first corner at Goodwood, and the front goes light – you can easily run out of road. But it’s good fun.”  Rae’s Goodwood effort would not have happened without the help of several companies, in particular:
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