New Zealand Montage (Mararn)

[Gollum]

A set of moulds were made in New Zealand from a Montage body. The car was called the Mararn. Here is my VW based project from 20+ years ago. I never finished it as the money was needed for University. [URL=http://s633.photobucket.com/user/prw007/media/Mararn/Mararn9.jpg.html][ /URL]

[Gollum]

[Gollum]

[Gollum]

Another Mararn (not mine!)

[Sulley]

That is really interesting to see. It looks like a copyright infringement if Manta had a copyright. Is the top one your car and the bottom one of a finished car? What was the configuration for the engine?

[Gollum]

I don't think Manta would have had copyright. Interestingly the original M6BGT story starts with Bruce McLaren here in NZ! The Mararn story is that apparently a local race car driver/designer Graham MacRae bought a Montage body off Bill Jongbloed (Jongbloed were wheel suppliers for Manta, I wonder if the body was a contra-type payment?) and brought it to New Zealand where he made a few changes and made a set of moulds. They went through a series of owners over the years before being sold off-shore some years ago. There are a couple of finished cars that keep coming up for sale, next time they do, I'll post them on the board. My car was set up for a mid-mounted Ford 2-litre turbo but I was building it for a rotary engine. The other, finished car had Mitsubishi Evo power and was very fast. I believe it was spontaneously disassembled in a racing accident.