Getting a G50 road legal

Getting a G50 road legal

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Discussion

Terror Factor

Original Poster:

127 posts

171 months

Monday 21st August 2023
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Hi all,

I have a bad habit of browsing race car ads, and am always amazed at how much car you can get for your money. The main caveat being that they are not road legal, so not very useable. Ginetta G50's in GT4 spec often pop up for not too much money, and I am wondering how realistic it is to get it road legal. I have 2 Sylva kit cars, and just based on that I can't see many issues for a G50 to pass an IVA. I also remember the Formula Ford with a 1.0 EcoBoost that was converted for "street" use as a promotion and that Chris Harris drove.

I am based in Europe, and a road legal G50 would look like a great car for the Touristenfahrten at the Ring smile

LennyM1984

639 posts

69 months

Tuesday 22nd August 2023
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Anything is possible but they are very much a race car (I race a G40 and know people with G50s/55s/56s).

Even out of the factory, there will be no provision for a handbrake, no reverse lights, very little chance of passing emissions etc etc. Even if you got all of that sorted, it would still be a pretty awful road car. Ventilation will be poor, it won't ride well on broken surfaces, it'll probably leak etc. Finally, if it's been a race car, it'll be full of bodges that will make converting it to a road car even harder.

They're great on a track but I wouldn't bother. There's a reason Porsche GT3s are so popular. They allow you to pretend that you are driving a race car without actually having to drive a race car on the road 😀

CKY

1,377 posts

16 months

Tuesday 5th September 2023
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LennyM1984 said:
Anything is possible but they are very much a race car (I race a G40 and know people with G50s/55s/56s).

Even out of the factory, there will be no provision for a handbrake, no reverse lights, very little chance of passing emissions etc etc. Even if you got all of that sorted, it would still be a pretty awful road car. Ventilation will be poor, it won't ride well on broken surfaces, it'll probably leak etc. Finally, if it's been a race car, it'll be full of bodges that will make converting it to a road car even harder.

They're great on a track but I wouldn't bother. There's a reason Porsche GT3s are so popular. They allow you to pretend that you are driving a race car without actually having to drive a race car on the road ??
All good points, however given Ginetta have started offering the V8-variants as road cars (apologies no idea what the model number is) then there must be parts out there to make it possible. Granted even Ginetta's own road car will probably be a horrible thing to drive on the roads nowadays, but the sight and sound of seeing that low, grey beast rumbling down the road (reg: B15 incase anyone else has seen it) was an awesome sight - even made a preceding GT3 Touring look a bit 'boring'!