It's not often that an unusual car drives into the parking lot at my condominium complex, so when a Lotus Seven suddenly appeared last week I couldn't resist chatting with the driver. Turns out that John Carroll owns a stable of little-known British sports cars (if you can call three cars a stable, but what the heck, I was impressed) which he enjoys modifying for his own pleasure. John invited me to his home for a look, and after a brief but entertaining ride on scenic, twisty narrow roads that I didn't know existed around here I found myself pulling up behind a 1961 Mark 2 Jaguar sedan. Not a sports car, obviously, but an elegant ride that John's working on whenever he gets a moment.

Then he proudly pulled the wraps off his 1968 Marcos, which he bought in a thrashed state eight years ago. Amazingly, he'd tried to negotiate the purchase of a Marcos back in '68 but couldn't find enough cash for the deal. Nevertheless John kept a record of the chassis and build numbers and lo-and-behold, those on this one matched. So he finally had his dream car and along with it a need for extensive restoration and modifications. The Marcos GT, which had a wooden chassis and adjustable pedals is, as John unhesitatingly states, rather crude in some respects. Yet it is fast, corners like a snake on a leash, and is so low (the photo doesn't reveal this) that just crawling in must be a gymnastic feat. I'll have more on John Carroll's cars in upcoming blogs.

[Photo: Philip Powell]