Gilbern Chevy GT
Discussion
In 2019 I purchased a Gilbern GT that had been off the road for 40+ years and rebuilt it over the course of 12 months for circuit racing, I subsequently secured FIA papers and I have been racing this GT pretty regularly over the last couple of years.
I have just purchased another GT but with a difference, this one has a small block Chevy having been built at the factory as a one off in 1965. Apparently local racer, Ken Wilson, turned up at the factory one day with the V8 in his boot and set Gilbern the challenge of fitting it into a new GT. They rose to the challenge.
Wilson owned a number of cars including a BRM P48, a Lotus 30 and an ex Le Mans Lister/Jag. This put the Gilbern Chevy GT in pretty good company however the Gilbern "works" driver, Peter Cottrell, described Ken as an accident waiting to happen. Both Peter and Ken competed in the Gilbern Chevy GT, Ken doing mostly sprints/hill-climbs and Peter circuit racing.
Information on the Gilbern Chevy GT is reported in several books and indeed it is also reported that the Chevy engine may have been lost after Ken put it in his boat! The car was later used at Ace Motors as a garage hack, ownership then became blurred until it was tracked down and purchased by the Gilbern Owners Club chairman.
My plan is to get it back on the track, I am collecting it this week and I should have it race ready for the spring next year. With my previous GT I ran a thread to track the progress of restoration and my first few races, I will do the same with this GT.
A few pictures of Ken in period and the car as it stands now:
I have just purchased another GT but with a difference, this one has a small block Chevy having been built at the factory as a one off in 1965. Apparently local racer, Ken Wilson, turned up at the factory one day with the V8 in his boot and set Gilbern the challenge of fitting it into a new GT. They rose to the challenge.
Wilson owned a number of cars including a BRM P48, a Lotus 30 and an ex Le Mans Lister/Jag. This put the Gilbern Chevy GT in pretty good company however the Gilbern "works" driver, Peter Cottrell, described Ken as an accident waiting to happen. Both Peter and Ken competed in the Gilbern Chevy GT, Ken doing mostly sprints/hill-climbs and Peter circuit racing.
Information on the Gilbern Chevy GT is reported in several books and indeed it is also reported that the Chevy engine may have been lost after Ken put it in his boat! The car was later used at Ace Motors as a garage hack, ownership then became blurred until it was tracked down and purchased by the Gilbern Owners Club chairman.
My plan is to get it back on the track, I am collecting it this week and I should have it race ready for the spring next year. With my previous GT I ran a thread to track the progress of restoration and my first few races, I will do the same with this GT.
A few pictures of Ken in period and the car as it stands now:
That’s great news, I look forward to following progress.
The photos show the Gilbern at the Weston Super Mare sprint in the early 70’s - I was there that day so I reckon that makes me quite old….
Ken Wilson was a regular at Llandow in the late 60s/early 70’s and was a race winner in his strangely-bodied Lotus 30 and subsequently a McLaren M1C.
The photos show the Gilbern at the Weston Super Mare sprint in the early 70’s - I was there that day so I reckon that makes me quite old….
Ken Wilson was a regular at Llandow in the late 60s/early 70’s and was a race winner in his strangely-bodied Lotus 30 and subsequently a McLaren M1C.
Incidentally behind the Lotus in the above photo is the car of another Llandow regular - Charlie Sgonina’s Aston.
Jimmy Clark’s Border Reivers Aston Marin DBR1 - as raced at Le Mans in 1960. By the time Charlie owned it the Aston was just an anonymous and slightly tired old racing car. With a rudimentary roll bar and crudely extended rear wheel arches it battled with various mod sport Midgets, Spitfires etc around the one mile oval.
Akin to Elvis ending his days doing the summer season on Gt Yarmouth Pier. How things change…
Jimmy Clark’s Border Reivers Aston Marin DBR1 - as raced at Le Mans in 1960. By the time Charlie owned it the Aston was just an anonymous and slightly tired old racing car. With a rudimentary roll bar and crudely extended rear wheel arches it battled with various mod sport Midgets, Spitfires etc around the one mile oval.
Akin to Elvis ending his days doing the summer season on Gt Yarmouth Pier. How things change…
Edited by moffspeed on Monday 13th February 20:18
They updated the Chevy small block in the mid 80s. They changed the crank design and rear main cap/seal
If you want to keep the oil in the engine then I'd recommend going for a later design. The earlier ones had a counterbalance rearward of the RMS/rear cap and so the seal was in two horseshoe pieces. Getting them to seal is..... A challenge.
Other than the block, crank and rear cap/seal, all other parts are interchangeable. (Heads, Conrods, pistons etc).
If you want to keep the oil in the engine then I'd recommend going for a later design. The earlier ones had a counterbalance rearward of the RMS/rear cap and so the seal was in two horseshoe pieces. Getting them to seal is..... A challenge.
Other than the block, crank and rear cap/seal, all other parts are interchangeable. (Heads, Conrods, pistons etc).
Turbobanana said:
The track looks as wide as the wheelbase is long - I assume it's a little "twitchy"?
Good luck OP. We followed your other build with interest; keep up the good work with this one.
At the moment the car is sitting on 14's which look very odd in the extended arches. Apparently it ran with 15's originally on wheels taken from a BRM, I have not been able to find an archive photo showing the wheels stationary but I think they would have been like these:Good luck OP. We followed your other build with interest; keep up the good work with this one.
Hopefully the mods (or whoever) will see sense.
I was at school in Cardiff with GILes Smith’s son Paul and often had chats with him in our local pub during the later Uni years.
I think it’s fair to say that petrol didn’t course through his veins to the same extent as his dad. I lost contact many years ago but believe Paul went on to become a funeral director.
Maybe he pioneered lightweight grp coffins up there in Tredegar…..
I was at school in Cardiff with GILes Smith’s son Paul and often had chats with him in our local pub during the later Uni years.
I think it’s fair to say that petrol didn’t course through his veins to the same extent as his dad. I lost contact many years ago but believe Paul went on to become a funeral director.
Maybe he pioneered lightweight grp coffins up there in Tredegar…..
Edited by moffspeed on Thursday 16th February 08:48
Apart from GILes Smith there was another Welshman who gave his name to a car marque.
Jack Turner was born in Abergavenny and, a few years before Gilbern, developed a range of small GRP sports cars powered by BMC, Climax or 1500cc Ford engines.
Although the cars were produced in Wolverhampton Turner was proud of his Welsh heritage - hence the similarity of Gilbern & Turner badges :
Jack Turner was born in Abergavenny and, a few years before Gilbern, developed a range of small GRP sports cars powered by BMC, Climax or 1500cc Ford engines.
Although the cars were produced in Wolverhampton Turner was proud of his Welsh heritage - hence the similarity of Gilbern & Turner badges :
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