Tuesday 26th January 2016

Ginetta G40R: Spotted

A pre-loved PHer's Ginetta with some tasty options and proven capacity for fun

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The Yorkshire stereotype of straight-talking, down-to-earth pragmatism is one locals will spare no opportunity to remind you of. But it also rings true of the products created there. Regulars in the Pedal Powered forum will be familiar with Orange Bikes, whose long-running Five is a mainstay of the British mountain biking scene. It's not the flashest bike you can buy but it is 'and welded in 'alifax and its simplicity, toughness, fun handling and fitness for purpose have endeared it to many.

Orange is also the house colour for Ginetta, based a short hop from the bike firm and offering a similar blend of proven, no-nonsense engineering for privateer racers across a range of motorsport series and disciplines. And it's a shade this G40R, up for sale by its PHer owner, wears particularly well.

As far as entry-level racing cars for the road go the G40 sits somewhere between the classic minimalism of the Caterham Seven and its derivatives and the more brutal and functional Radical-type cars popular with many. The appeal of the Ginetta's traditional looks but modern-day safety standards are easy to understand, the G40 combining a Caterham's back-to-basics rawness but with a small nod to practicality and usability. As in it has a roof and doors.

The Duratec motor and fundamental handling characteristics of the Ginetta will be familiar to Caterham drivers, the proper boot and protection from the elements giving it a wider range of abilities. Be under no illusions though - it's still a raw, noisy and track-focused car with the minimum of creature comforts. On-limit spikiness and a lack of driver aids make driving a G40 at pace something to challenge and reward in equal measure - it's the kind of car that'll teach you a lot about your driving on road and track. This former press car benefits from a number of tasty - and expensive - extras, including race seats, a Racelogic V-box and Ohlins dampers. Air conditioning sounds extravagant but that tiny cabin can get hot in warm weather and mist up when it's damp so isn't as decadent as it seems.

As a high days and holidays road car it'd be huge fun, ditto if you're a track day addict with an eye for taking it further with sprints, hillclimbs or even a bit of proper racing. Looking at the pictures supplied by its current PHer owner it's been used as intended, packed up for Euro road trips, used on track at home and abroad and generally driven as its makers intended. It's not cheap but then nor are the alternatives. And while it's not a car for straight-line heroes or those who obsess over on-paper performance rather than the real thing as a proper car for proper drivers it makes good on those Yorkshire values.

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GINETTA G40R
Engine: 1,999cc, in-line 4-cyl (Ford Duratec)
Transmission: 6-speed manual, rear-wheel drive
Power (hp): 177@5,000rpm
Torque (lb ft): 140@5,000rpm
MPG: 29mpg (Ginetta figure)
CO2: 181g/km
First registered: 2011
Recorded mileage: 33,000 miles
Price new: c. £40,000
Yours for: £20,000

See the original advert here.

[Bencolem]

Looks lovely. I appreciate they are light cars but I wonder how much wear 33,000 miles with a number of high load track days does?

[Hugh Jarse]

Very tempting.

[kambites]

Lovely thing. I'm quite surprised it's depreciated that much, though. I wonder if they've bottomed out yet or have further to fall?

[TREMAiNE]

One of my dream cars right there!

What I'd do to have one of those as a track we!

[TroubledSoul]

Would love one of these. I have a real hankering for one after the PH SS there and having a proper look at them. Seeing the passion the guys and girls working there have for the cars was really great too.

[ewenm]

I've always liked the look of the Ginetta products. The G40R seems a great compromise between road and track if a Caterham is too impractical.

[redroadster]

Similar to Tvr but with smaller engines hope this factory keeps rolling them out.

[TNH]

Love these. I live just around the corner from the factory and they regularly give some of the cars a bit of a shakedown on the local roads. Always being driven "enthusiastically" around the roundabouts...

[Piginapoke]

Beautiful. But whats the deal with that gear stick?

[Krikkit]

Piginapoke said:

Beautiful. But whats the deal with that gear stick?

Making it front-mid engined means the gearbox is pushed quite a long way back into the tunnel. Rather than make some elaborate linkage you can't see, just bend the stick into a nice shape.

[dlockhart]

Bencolem said:

Looks lovely. I appreciate they are light cars but I wonder how much wear 33,000 miles with a number of high load track days does?

how much to drop a new engine in there if the existing one is up the spout?

[seefarr]

dlockhart said:

Bencolem said:

Looks lovely. I appreciate they are light cars but I wonder how much wear 33,000 miles with a number of high load track days does?

how much to drop a new engine in there if the existing one is up the spout?

If it's just the engine out of the ST170(?): second hand ones are approximately nothing. I'm going to go ahead and guess that they'll take an enormous amount of thrashing though - 170hp out of 2 litres isn't really highly strung and if they went pop all the time second hand ones would be expensive.

Lovely car by the way!

[Mark Benson]

seefarr said:

dlockhart said:

Bencolem said:

Looks lovely. I appreciate they are light cars but I wonder how much wear 33,000 miles with a number of high load track days does?

how much to drop a new engine in there if the existing one is up the spout?

If it's just the engine out of the ST170(?): second hand ones are approximately nothing. I'm going to go ahead and guess that they'll take an enormous amount of thrashing though - 170hp out of 2 litres isn't really highly strung and if they went pop all the time second hand ones would be expensive.

Lovely car by the way!

It's a Duratec, so it's the more modern one. Mk3 MX5 and most 2.0 Fords from the last few years though, so not hard to come by.

[braddo]

£20k? Looks like a bargain to me.

[RoverP6B]

Always liked the look of these. If they could do a slightly bigger one that 6ft+ drivers could fit into, with a six-cylinder engine, that'd be seriously tempting...

[ceebmoj]

Very tempting.

[Hugh Jarse]

ceebmoj said:

Very tempting.

• hurumph*

[85Carrera]

Krikkit said:

Piginapoke said:

Beautiful. But whats the deal with that gear stick?

Making it front-mid engined means the gearbox is pushed quite a long way back into the tunnel. Rather than make some elaborate linkage you can't see, just bend the stick into a nice shape.

What utter nonsense.

A car with an engine at the front is not mid engined.

They fudged the gear stick because it's a low volume manufacturer and that's what worked. Not necessarily anything wrong with that but don't give me the "front mid engined 😀" bullst

[Krikkit]

85Carrera said:

Krikkit said:

Piginapoke said:

Beautiful. But whats the deal with that gear stick?

Making it front-mid engined means the gearbox is pushed quite a long way back into the tunnel. Rather than make some elaborate linkage you can't see, just bend the stick into a nice shape.

What utter nonsense.

A car with an engine at the front is not mid engined.

They fudged the gear stick because it's a low volume manufacturer and that's what worked. Not necessarily anything wrong with that but don't give me the "front mid engined ??" bullst

I didn't say mid-engined c.f. Ferrari 360 etc, I said front-mid, i.e. push the whole engine behind the front axle. Technically that is "mid-engined" by having the engine between the axles.

Using a gearbox off the shelf as Ginetta have done in place of the Quaife sequential in the normal G40 means that some bits aren't quite as easy. I didn't say it wasn't a bodge, just that I'd rather have a simple (and nicely) bent rod rather than frig about with an unobtainium gearbox or a complex linkage.

[sandys]

That is tempting, I am in the market for a new motor, will my fat arse fit though....looks like it might be local to me, it'd be rude not to try.

The MX5 Mk3 I have is often referred to as front Mid also as engine is far back in the engine bay. Helps weight distribution, a lot of it is between the axles rather than beyond them

https://integrityexports.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/...

If the MX5 engines are anything to go by they seem to take quite a spanking.

Edited by sandys on Wednesday 27th January 10:13