British sports car maker Marcos dates back to 1959 and has been dead since 2007, though its legacy lives on with some incredibly important racing and sports driving machines in history. On Wednesday it was announced that the brand would be mounting a comeback after nearly twenty years of silence. Through a post on LinkedIn, another name you probably forgot, William Storey, the CEO of spurious energy drink company and disgraced former Haas F1 title sponsor Rich Energy, announced his involvement as the company's new CEO. That LinkedIn post also confirmed that Marcos will be kicking off its reinvigoration with the launch of a "new F1 inspired supercar in November." In a post on Twitter, Storey bragged that Ferrari and Lamborghini are "in our sights" at Marcos. Jalopnik has spent significant efforts discussing Storey's grandiose F1 antics, and two of our former staff even joined forces to write a book about it.
We. Are. Marcos.
Officially.
Reborn in the original and authentic spirit of Jem Marsh and Frank Costin. Website launching soon, with the full Marcos story. #WeAreMarcos #Marcos #MarcosReborn #MarcosMotorCompany #MarcosOfficial #MarcosHeritage #MarcosEngineering #MarcosSales pic.twitter.com/YLh53waLUK
— Marcos Motor Company (@marcos_motor) June 25, 2025
There are a few things here that give me pause, even without the Rich Energy guy being involved. Marcos was once known for its lightweight and inexpensively-built fiberglass sports cars. The company found success on the race track and rally course by re-bodying Minis with somewhat unsightly fiberglass panels to create the Marcos Mini (above). Marcos was a giant killer at its core, a tiny company fighting with the big boys. The closest Marcos ever got to an "F1 inspired supercar" was the one-off XP Prototype that never raced, and I'm not sure the brand's legacy warrants such a vehicle made in its name. A small, lightweight, driver-focused B-road kind of car, absolutely, but this? Something smells fishy.
Having worked on bombers in WWII, Marcos co-founder and aerodynamicist Frank Costin developed a small and lightweight kit-built vehicle with a plywood chassis and partnered with Jem Marsh to build the first Marcos cars, called Xylon in an old mill in Bradford on Avon. The company lasted until 1971 when it saw its first liquidation sale. Marsh bought the rights to his company back in 1976 and re-launched Marcos in 1981, and pushed the company to build its own non-kit vehicles in 1992, before going bankrupt again in 2000. With a cash injection from a new co-founder, Marsh once again spun the company up in 2002, and hired most of the people fleeing then-insolvent TVR to produce new designs, though this time it only lasted until 2007. Perhaps the fourth time will be the charm?
With more or less twenty years of rumored return, a TVR revival has never meaningfully mounted. Is it possible for a lesser-known British manufacturer with a worse reputation for failure and nowhere near as much legacy to succeed with a smooth-talking energy drink guy as its CEO? Call me a skeptic.