1986 Ginetta G26.....My first "proper" car.
Discussion
It seems these days that between the Retro Kool roofrack and silly tyres scene tax and the RWD!!!! GR8 4 DRIFTIN !!!!!! lot; that a cheapo fun car from the decade that never finished (boasting about plasma screens is little different to boasting about Akais with graphic equalisers) was out of my reach.
Well not so.
RWD Escorts have become ludicrously expensive, as have Capris and old Corollas. Even Sierras are becoming pricy. I'm not a great fan of Vauxhalls and a Hillman Avenger seemed too much like scraping the barrel. Seriously, there are those who attempt to run them as rally cars, but that's another story.
Imagine, if you will, a RWD Ford. Easy peasy. Now, mentally, make it look better; go faster; be easier to fix; be more reliable; become lower, harder and handle better.
Finally imagine that it will never, ever go rusty. This car can't exist, can it? Well it does. So therefore, if it is so much better than the saloons it is based on the price must be astronomical. No, far cheaper.
Anyway, I present to the assembled audience exactly what £800 buys yoou nowadays.
The 1986 Ginetta G26! A strange car in both concept and design. I know, thought a bright spark, let's design a long distance tourer with comfortable seats and generous luggage space and then make it so sporty that driving anything over 30 miles becomes sheer agony. It doesn't make sense. The suspension is hard beyond belief. It makes an Atom look like a Citroen DS. Nothing is absorbed by it, meaning that running over a carelessly placed molecule causes the driver's spine to implode. I have tried leaning on the front wing, above the strut, and the car does not move at all.
The same goes for the steering, which is unpowered. This would usually be fine, but as the car is so long it becomes exhausting at low speeds. The engine is a raucous revvy old Pinto that happily sits at 7,000 RPM. This is great but does nothing for the eardrums when coupled to a straight through exhaust with a hole in it.
I love this car, as do a select few other owners. However the oxymoronic personality means that they'll never be popular enough to be expensive. Great! She is stunning to drive, possessing genuinely good handling rather than tail happy (which is more than possible still) oversteer. This car corners so well that slowing down becomes a thing of the past. I never knew that such high entry speeds are possible with only a live axle off a Cortina.
I suppose all this goodness comes from the fact that there is a separate chassis to keep everything taut. All the building blocks are humdrum Ford. The engine is a 2000 SOHC, in standard trim. There is nothing wrong with this engine; but mine is so decrepit that it has given up on producing power. I would place the level at the fly at between 80 and 90; giving very little at the wheels. The gearbox is a type 9, so it works, and the change is sweet; but it can't take much power and is as worn out as the engine. The axle is in much petter condition (though could do with new bushes) and is the coil sprung unit off a MkV Cortina.
As far as bodywork goes, the paint is very tatty and is peeling off, but that is not too much of a worry. The main strucutre is fibreglass, and the chassis fully galvanised, so there is literally nothing to go rusty. The quality of the bodywork, when compared to other kit cars is highly impressive. It all seems to fit together properly. The doors are off a Mk2 Fiesta and need a bit of repair work. This is all non-structural, so is not a great worry.
The main reason why these are so good is the fact that they carry almost no weight. Significantly less than a tonne, probably about 4 to 600 kilos lighter than the average modern car. This makes an enormous difference. Power becomes less important. Even with such a lame duck of an engine the car is accelerates better than most other moderns, the handling also is many classes above.
The eventual concept is to fix the brakes, carry out a full repaint in two tone blue and black and eventually fit a Scorpio Cosworth engine and MT75 box. With 200+ BHP this will fly.
This shows the generally tatty condition of the paint.
The fun part
Pop up lights are too cool for school
They are not electric. All you have to do is pull out that big stalk and lock it into place. A ridiculous system that was abandoned on the later cars.
Pinto Power. Not much of it...
Surprisingly roomy interior
Not a prestigious badge by any measure.
Where Porsche bot the design for the extending spoiler. Actually it's the bootlid.
What the car usually looks like!
What is lost in other areas is more than made up for by the sheer fun of driving the thing. Get one before they all die.
Well not so.
RWD Escorts have become ludicrously expensive, as have Capris and old Corollas. Even Sierras are becoming pricy. I'm not a great fan of Vauxhalls and a Hillman Avenger seemed too much like scraping the barrel. Seriously, there are those who attempt to run them as rally cars, but that's another story.
Imagine, if you will, a RWD Ford. Easy peasy. Now, mentally, make it look better; go faster; be easier to fix; be more reliable; become lower, harder and handle better.
Finally imagine that it will never, ever go rusty. This car can't exist, can it? Well it does. So therefore, if it is so much better than the saloons it is based on the price must be astronomical. No, far cheaper.
Anyway, I present to the assembled audience exactly what £800 buys yoou nowadays.
The 1986 Ginetta G26! A strange car in both concept and design. I know, thought a bright spark, let's design a long distance tourer with comfortable seats and generous luggage space and then make it so sporty that driving anything over 30 miles becomes sheer agony. It doesn't make sense. The suspension is hard beyond belief. It makes an Atom look like a Citroen DS. Nothing is absorbed by it, meaning that running over a carelessly placed molecule causes the driver's spine to implode. I have tried leaning on the front wing, above the strut, and the car does not move at all.
The same goes for the steering, which is unpowered. This would usually be fine, but as the car is so long it becomes exhausting at low speeds. The engine is a raucous revvy old Pinto that happily sits at 7,000 RPM. This is great but does nothing for the eardrums when coupled to a straight through exhaust with a hole in it.
I love this car, as do a select few other owners. However the oxymoronic personality means that they'll never be popular enough to be expensive. Great! She is stunning to drive, possessing genuinely good handling rather than tail happy (which is more than possible still) oversteer. This car corners so well that slowing down becomes a thing of the past. I never knew that such high entry speeds are possible with only a live axle off a Cortina.
I suppose all this goodness comes from the fact that there is a separate chassis to keep everything taut. All the building blocks are humdrum Ford. The engine is a 2000 SOHC, in standard trim. There is nothing wrong with this engine; but mine is so decrepit that it has given up on producing power. I would place the level at the fly at between 80 and 90; giving very little at the wheels. The gearbox is a type 9, so it works, and the change is sweet; but it can't take much power and is as worn out as the engine. The axle is in much petter condition (though could do with new bushes) and is the coil sprung unit off a MkV Cortina.
As far as bodywork goes, the paint is very tatty and is peeling off, but that is not too much of a worry. The main strucutre is fibreglass, and the chassis fully galvanised, so there is literally nothing to go rusty. The quality of the bodywork, when compared to other kit cars is highly impressive. It all seems to fit together properly. The doors are off a Mk2 Fiesta and need a bit of repair work. This is all non-structural, so is not a great worry.
The main reason why these are so good is the fact that they carry almost no weight. Significantly less than a tonne, probably about 4 to 600 kilos lighter than the average modern car. This makes an enormous difference. Power becomes less important. Even with such a lame duck of an engine the car is accelerates better than most other moderns, the handling also is many classes above.
The eventual concept is to fix the brakes, carry out a full repaint in two tone blue and black and eventually fit a Scorpio Cosworth engine and MT75 box. With 200+ BHP this will fly.
This shows the generally tatty condition of the paint.
The fun part
Pop up lights are too cool for school
They are not electric. All you have to do is pull out that big stalk and lock it into place. A ridiculous system that was abandoned on the later cars.
Pinto Power. Not much of it...
Surprisingly roomy interior
Not a prestigious badge by any measure.
Where Porsche bot the design for the extending spoiler. Actually it's the bootlid.
What the car usually looks like!
What is lost in other areas is more than made up for by the sheer fun of driving the thing. Get one before they all die.
Mine is definitely not the same car. I've owned it for several months now and bought it in Norfolk - as far as I know it has never been to Wales.
The car was built and kept in North Essex, by the first owner. He died and left it to his son; who left it sitting outside for years as he had no interest.
The son sold it to a kit car collector in Norfolk. He put some petrol in, fitted new tyres and drove it to an MOT station. As a testament to the quality of the car it passed easily, having not turned a wheel in half a decade. The paint may be tatty but the chassis is entirely rust free.
The man in Norfolk sold it to me, I brought it back to Colchester; the town of its birth, and shall keep it here for as long as I live in the area. So this is a genuine Essex car that has returned home.
The Welsh one will be a different example that is the same colour, they were all Q-Plated so that's no coincidence.
Mine lives indoors (ish, it's a breezeblock building), moves around quite a lot and does not look that well cared for; so totally different circumstances.
Ginetta made about 300 G26s. It is unknown how many are still on the road. Tragically many have fallen casualty to the OMG!!! RETRO FORD RWD brigade. A lot were fitted with heavily tuned Pintos as they were custom built, it has become quite common to buy one in order to rip out the running gear. If you look around on the classifieds there are always a few hanging about with no engines. Stupidly those who buy them for cannibalising ignore the fact that the car the engine is destined for will be a massive step down from the light weight and handling of the Ginetta. A Cortina would need many thousands spending before it even comes close.
I've even seen one example, years ago, where the tuned Pinto was ripped out, the shell sold on, and a 1.3 put in. So we might see them re-emerge running all sorts of weird and wonderful engines.
The body and chassis unit are so strong that they can survive indefinitely. The chassis is fully galvanised, so does not rust and the mechanical side is rugged.
Like I've said, when there are none left they'll become highly collectable.
The car was built and kept in North Essex, by the first owner. He died and left it to his son; who left it sitting outside for years as he had no interest.
The son sold it to a kit car collector in Norfolk. He put some petrol in, fitted new tyres and drove it to an MOT station. As a testament to the quality of the car it passed easily, having not turned a wheel in half a decade. The paint may be tatty but the chassis is entirely rust free.
The man in Norfolk sold it to me, I brought it back to Colchester; the town of its birth, and shall keep it here for as long as I live in the area. So this is a genuine Essex car that has returned home.
The Welsh one will be a different example that is the same colour, they were all Q-Plated so that's no coincidence.
Mine lives indoors (ish, it's a breezeblock building), moves around quite a lot and does not look that well cared for; so totally different circumstances.
Ginetta made about 300 G26s. It is unknown how many are still on the road. Tragically many have fallen casualty to the OMG!!! RETRO FORD RWD brigade. A lot were fitted with heavily tuned Pintos as they were custom built, it has become quite common to buy one in order to rip out the running gear. If you look around on the classifieds there are always a few hanging about with no engines. Stupidly those who buy them for cannibalising ignore the fact that the car the engine is destined for will be a massive step down from the light weight and handling of the Ginetta. A Cortina would need many thousands spending before it even comes close.
I've even seen one example, years ago, where the tuned Pinto was ripped out, the shell sold on, and a 1.3 put in. So we might see them re-emerge running all sorts of weird and wonderful engines.
The body and chassis unit are so strong that they can survive indefinitely. The chassis is fully galvanised, so does not rust and the mechanical side is rugged.
Like I've said, when there are none left they'll become highly collectable.
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