in 1998, and to celebrate twenty years of the Marlin name, the factory embarked on its most audacious project yet, the Makaira. A benchmark car for Marlin, embodying everything the company had learnt in developing the turnkey Hunter, in order to produce a highly exclusive, all aluminium bodied traditional roadster. With a price tag of over £40,000, this beautiful car will always remain a rare sight on our roads, but it took Marlin into yet more unchartered waters and continued the company's heritage of pushing the boundaries... Something the company would once again

remind us of when it relaunched the Sportster in 2002 with a brand new suspension and engine package. Taking a leap of faith that other manufacturers seem unable to grasp, the company ditched the ailing Ford components in favour of parts sourced from BMW's acclaimed 3-series. It was a stroke of genius. With the upmarket, yet extremely affordable new donor came the promise of ever more exciting engine options (over 320bhp with the M3 Evo unit) allied to more refined and capable suspension and braking components. What's more, the new BMW package allowed the builder to assemble a Sportster using just one donor, thus making the build both easier and more affordable.