Glamorgan Lovelucks

Capt. D.M. K. Marendaz, a well-known art collector and writer- now settled in South Africa but formerly of Norwich.

His notes describe some of his considerable accomplishments, including:

* Pilot with the Royal Flying Corps in the First World War "at a time when the life of a pilot was 50 hours and 900 machines a month were being lost".
  Attached to 35 Squadron in the Battle of Cambrai of 1917 he served with the Cavalry, on patrol operations. On the first day of the battle, he was the only pilot to take off from the aerodrome of Mons-en-Chausée. He was able to observe that a bridge at Masnieres was down, and was able to relay a message to this effect, saving the Cavalry from slaughter. Sixty years later he was the guest of the French people at the Anniversary of the Battle of Cambrai.
* He designed and built Marendaz Special cars and light aircraft. Took innumerable world records in racing, including three times the world 24 hour record at the Monthlery track 18 miles outside Paris.
  There is a picture and brief description of a 1935 Marendaz Special car on the Carlover Web site.

From Wikipedia: Marendaz From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Marendaz Special cars were made in Brixton Road, London SW9, England from 1926 to 1932 and in Maidenhead, Berkshire, England from 1932 to 1936.

DMK (Donald Marcus Kelway) Marendaz served as an apprentice at Siddeley-Deasy before the first World War. He left to join the Royal Flying Corps in 1916 training as a pilot and serving in France until invalided out in 1918 with the rank of Captain. After 1918 he joined with others including TG John to form Alvis, but shortly afterwards moved to start Marseel with a Mr Seelhart, a company making gearboxes for the Emscote car. Emscote didn't take all the gearboxes they made so the surplus were used with Coventry-Simplex engines to make complete cars. This changed its name to Marseal in 1923 when Seelhart retired. Between 1920 and 1925 when Marseal failed as many as 1200 cars might have been made in the Coventry factory.

After a brief period in the City of London the Captain in 1926 started DMK Marendaz Ltd in the premises of the London Cab Company in Brixton where the London agents for Bugatti and Graham-Paige were also based. The cars were attractive looking with a Bentley like radiator and mainly used Anzani engines. Model names were often confusingly complex with the 11/55, 14/55 and 14/125 also being called the 1 1/2 litre. A strange departure was the 1495 cc straight eight which used a special Anzani crank and Marendaz designed block. Although catalogued in normal and supercharged form it is thought not to have got past the prototype stage. Although supporting an ambitious racing programe very few cars were made and it seems that the companies main income derived from tuning and servicing work and the sales of used sporting cars. Somewhere between 20 and 50 cars were made between 1926 and 1932. Captain Marendaz had an aversion to journalists and so exactly what happened in the factory is often a mystery. He was also famous for threatening legal action against anyone who made remarks about his cars he did not agree about.

In 1932 the company was re-organised as Marendaz Special Cars Ltd and moved to Cornwallis Works, Maidenhead where GWK and Burney cars had also been made. The cars at first used American Continental engines with Marendaz cylinder heads and manifolding but later were probably completely built by Marendaz as he redesigned the block. The gearboxes might also have been Marendaz designed but some by Moss were used. Sales were again supported by a considerable racing programme including entries by Captain Marendaz himself up to 1931 and his secretary Miss Dorothy Summers up to 1936. They were also raced by Mr and Mrs AE Moss, the parents of Sir Stirling Moss.

Production seems to have ceased in 1936 but possibly a few cars were made in 1937. About 120 cars were made in total including those from Brixton. Survivors from the Brixton days are rare but several 13/70 and 15/80 range still exist.

The Captain went on set up Marendaz Aircraft Ltd in 1936 to build biplanes but these never reached production. He was also a supporter of Oswald Moseley leader Of the British Union of Fascists and this led in 1940 to him being jailed on security charges but he was released after a few days. After the war he emigrated to South Africa where he built small diesel engines. He returned to England in 1972 and died in 1988 at the age of 91.

(followed by a list of specifications of Marendaz cars)