Tadeusz “Tadek” Marek (1908-1982) was a Polish car engineer known for his Aston Martin engines.
He studied engineering at the Technical University of Berlin and worked for Fiat in Poland and General Motors. Despite a serious racing accident in 1928, he entered the Monte Carlo Rally in 1937 with a Fiat 1100, followed by a Lancia Aprilia in 1938 and an Opel Olimpia in 1939. Driving a Chevrolet Master saloon car, he won the XII Polish Rally (1939) before moving to Britain in 1940 to join the Polish Army.
In 1954 he joined Aston Martin from Austin. The highlight of his work at Aston Martin was the inline six-cylinder alloy used in the Aston Martin DBR2, the inline six-cylinder used by Lagonda and the famous V8 used for over 30 years.
The Marek V8, designed in 1968, was used in many of the Vantage, Volante and Virage models.
In 1998, the V8 was used in a custom DB7 (which was usually either an inline-six or a 5.9-litre V12 engine). This was the 6.3 V8 used in the Virage, not the traditional 5.3.
The last production car to use the V8 was the Aston Martin Vantage Le Mans V600 in 1999. This car was designed to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Aston Martin’s Le Mans victory.
From 2005, a version of Jaguar’s AJ-V8 engine (AJ37) was used as the V8 Vantage engine. The engine was available in 4.3 or 4.7 litre versions. This new engine replaced Tadek Marek’s V8 after powering various Aston Martins for over 30 years. This newer engine layout is flexible and uses the same block design as the V6 with empty cylinders.
Marek moved to Italy with his wife in 1968 and lived there until 1982.