Glorious and seldom seen Ginetta G20 for sale
Stripped-out sports cars are great, but they don't tend to come cheap. Apart from this one...
There isn’t much left to do, on these dark and dank days that just keep coming, than to dream of sunnier weather. It has to be back at some point. And what are sunny days for? Driving a sports car, exactly.
You know exactly the kind of thing, too. Light, small, stripped-out, British-made and rear-wheel drive. We do it better than anywhere else, with screaming engines and manual gearboxes to make every single balmy mile a delight. There really is no joy quite like a great British sports car on a great British road, and those drives will feel extra special this summer after such a sodden winter.
But most of them aren’t cheap, and it’s hard to justify significant outlay on a car that can only enjoy occasional use (even if residuals tend to be strong). While Caterhams, Lotuses, TVRs, Westfields and the like do crop up at less than £15k every now and then, the wealth of better examples at slightly more means that a hypothetical budget doesn’t last long. Soon it’s £17k, £18k, £20k, and it can’t really be called a bargain sports car any more.
So how about this? It’s a Ginetta G20, one of around 200 or so made in the early '00s as a replacement for the G27 and the ultimate cheap and cheerful road racer. If parts could be done without for the G20, they were: it didn’t come with a roof, doors or windscreen. The spaceframe was tubular, the body was fibreglass, the mechanical configuration as simple as could be. Using a lot of Ford running gear, including 1.8 Zetec plus some suspension and brake components, kept both initial and repair costs low. Many went racing, but plenty - like this one, with MOTs back to 2010 - have lived their lives on the road.
Weighing comfortably less than 700kg and producing 125hp, power-to-weight for the G20 was 190hp per tonne; more than enough for a lot of fun when this exposed to the elements and with so little rubber on the road. The Ginetta was actually reviewed all the way back in ‘02 on PistonHeads, where it was praised pretty effusively: ‘Driving the G20 along twisting roads at speed proved to be not only enormous fun in the sun, it also conferred a level of sensory involvement few modern cars can match.’ So imagine how it feels now…
Obviously something as extreme as a Ginetta is going to require more compromise than even a Seven or similar, but there’s plenty in its favour as well: it’s a pretty little car, something different to the norm, and it’s not like a 1.8 Zetec is going to require the maintenance of some more specialised engines. Which isn’t even the best bit. The best bit is that this 7,500-mile car, with plenty of history and seemingly very smart condition for such a track-focused car, is £9,950. Ten grand! Nothing, surely, is going to offer so much fun for so little. And it’s hardly going to be any cheaper five or 10 years down the line. For those who value sheer entertainment over badge appeal and pose value in their sports car, look no further.
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