Discussion
Chad speed said:
As a potential buyer my view on G33 values is bound to be at odds with that of an owner. However, looking at TVR values its plain to see they have risen over the last few year across the range, from Wedge to Sagaris. Ginetta values seem to have been more or less static over the same period so its hard to see why the G33 would be an exception to the rest of the range?
Not bothered whether they have risen or not, so long as I can move any purchase on when the time comes for roughly the same as the purchase price then I'm fine.
Happy to be proved wrong
Problem with Ginetta is the thin line between classic car and kit car, and there are some horrible disintegrating examples of the mark floating around so when Joe Public see them is just another badly put together kit car with low resale value. I must admit though Im surprised the current motor racing success of the mark has not made more of an impact on prices, but in the case of the G33- what else will give you the same performance per pound, and even better you can maintain it yourself? Im sure any resale value is down to condition and how sorted the car is, just as it is in the TVR world.Not bothered whether they have risen or not, so long as I can move any purchase on when the time comes for roughly the same as the purchase price then I'm fine.
Happy to be proved wrong
I cant believe I never updated this thread. I did indeed find a G33 nearly 6 years ago and it lived up to the expectations I had, mainly from the Tiff Needell Top Gear Test when the car was new https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAlyEhdyDzA
Due to some rather unforeseen events I must now say good bye to her but I have to say she has won us over. We toured in her, went for Sunday blasts and generally had a good time. Its a mystery why they never sold more, a direct competitor to the TVR Griffith I guess but having had both, the Ginetta wins every time.
Thanks to all (many on this thread) who have helped me along the way with the G33.
Chad
Due to some rather unforeseen events I must now say good bye to her but I have to say she has won us over. We toured in her, went for Sunday blasts and generally had a good time. Its a mystery why they never sold more, a direct competitor to the TVR Griffith I guess but having had both, the Ginetta wins every time.
Thanks to all (many on this thread) who have helped me along the way with the G33.
Chad
SimonTheSailor said:
Did they do an 'SC' version ? Never heard of that ?
blueg33 said:
Interesting. It has a different dash and a different windscreen to most G33's as well as the different lights. Its a late car as show by the front indicators which are the Lotus ones rather than the Alfa ones.
Its not supercharged that I can see
Difficult to tell without rear view pictures, but that appears to be a 'semi-SC'... the SC was re-styled to use Mazda MX5 fixed headlights and a different screen (to allow a more useable hood arrangement), with interior updates, but also had a new rear light treatment that reduced the 'wasp tail' effect, which that car doesn't seem to have.Its not supercharged that I can see
The 'SC' was in tribute to David Sewell and Jerry Clarke, the two Ginetta guys who did the updates, rather than indicating a supercharger.
All info from Trevor Pyman's book.
They did a Cosworth Turbo version for European market, though obviously the much more common G27 was also 4 cylinder (Pinto, some Cosworth) and didn't look a million miles different.
blueg33 said:
The cut off screen on the G33 was very annoying if you are over 5ft 8in and the weather protection roof on was minimal!
Which is a pity, 'cos it looked great!I'm toying with the idea of a G33 myself, at the moment. I've got an ex-hillclimb G15 with a highly-tuned Imp engine in my current collection (hence my lurking around this bit of the forum), but something a bit more long-legged would be nice. I've been burned in the past by Rover V8-engined sportscars, though (I had a Griffith 500 that I never got along with - the chassis was way too crude). The owner of the one recently for sale in PistonHeads' classifieds (the OP?) reckoned that he'd owned both and the G33 was much better though - half way between a TVR and a Caterham?
What are your thoughts? You had problems with bump steer on yours, if I remember correctly? Did you get it sorted in the end?
Equus said:
blueg33 said:
The cut off screen on the G33 was very annoying if you are over 5ft 8in and the weather protection roof on was minimal!
Which is a pity, 'cos it looked great!I'm toying with the idea of a G33 myself, at the moment. I've got an ex-hillclimb G15 with a highly-tuned Imp engine in my current collection (hence my lurking around this bit of the forum), but something a bit more long-legged would be nice. I've been burned in the past by Rover V8-engined sportscars, though (I had a Griffith 500 that I never got along with - the chassis was way too crude). The owner of the one recently for sale in PistonHeads' classifieds reckoned that he'd owned both and the G33 was much better though - half way between a TVR and a Caterham?
What are your thoughts? You had problems with bump steer on yours, if I remember correctly? Did you get it sorted in the end?
The bump steer was due to a poor set up after a rebuild (crashed it - more on that in a minute). I took it to Neil Garner who with some string and some magic completely cured the bump steer and the handling was generally very good.
I say generally because they could suffer from snap oversteer due to an over high rear rollcentre. I experienced this on the hairpin at Prescott and exiting a roundabout on the A46 near Alcester. The former spat me into the gravel trap the latter meant I hit the barrier and had to have extensive front end repairs.
The car was great fun, on the French autoroute I manage to go from stationary at a toll both to 152mph in one gear due to the torque and light weight. The car was flat out at 152mph I think due to gearing. It was quite eventful roof off at that speed.
My car broke down in Spain, a common electrical fault where the relay mounts in the fusebox burn out. It was easily fixed.
The chassis is OK, its easier to see the rust than on a TVR, but you will need to check for cracked diff mounts. The Rover V8 came with the usual RV8 stepper motor issues but was generally pretty reliable.
blueg33 said:
I say generally because they could suffer from snap oversteer due to an over high rear rollcentre.
That's slightly worrying - the Grimaera has a problem with rear geometry, too: there is a lot of lateral movement in the rear roll centre, and under certain combinations of pitch and roll it will suddenly leap from one side to the other, moving several inches vertically in the process, which has much the same effect on weight transfer as an over-centre latch going over-centre... snap oversteer and (since it sometimes happened when cresting the crown of the road under hard acceleration, when you were overtaking) instant brown trousers.I worked all this out by doing a computer analysis of the rear suspension on my car, and was tarred and feathered by the TVR fanbois on here for suggesting the problem existed, but Sportomotive later came to the same conclusion and now offers an 'evolution' chassis that claims to solve it!
Having said all which, I'm nowhere near as quick a driver as I used to be, so I'm even entertaining the idea of another TVR, on the basis that it would be a tourer that's not driven hard enough to show the problem up.
Equus said:
That's slightly worrying - the Grimaera has a problem with rear geometry, too: there is a lot of lateral movement in the rear roll centre, and under certain combinations of pitch and roll it will suddenly leap from one side to the other, moving several inches vertically in the process, which has much the same effect on weight transfer as an over-centre latch going over-centre... snap oversteer and (since it sometimes happened when cresting the crown of the road under hard acceleration, when you were overtaking) instant brown trousers.
I worked all this out by doing a computer analysis of the rear suspension on my car, and was tarred and feathered by the TVR fanbois on here for suggesting the problem existed, but Sportomotive later came to the same conclusion and now offers an 'evolution' chassis that claims to solve it!
Having said all which, I'm nowhere near as quick a driver as I used to be, so I'm even entertaining the idea of another TVR, on the basis that it would be a tourer that's not driven hard enough to show the problem up.
I believe many have fixed the issue with a small tweak to the mounts. Also I was trying rather hard on both occasions when it bit me. Its no worse than a mid engine car IMOI worked all this out by doing a computer analysis of the rear suspension on my car, and was tarred and feathered by the TVR fanbois on here for suggesting the problem existed, but Sportomotive later came to the same conclusion and now offers an 'evolution' chassis that claims to solve it!
Having said all which, I'm nowhere near as quick a driver as I used to be, so I'm even entertaining the idea of another TVR, on the basis that it would be a tourer that's not driven hard enough to show the problem up.
At the same time I owned my G33 I also owned a Chimera 500.
They were chalk and cheese really.
When I took the G33 out for the first time after winter it would scare the sh*t out of me for a bit (I had a 4.6 JEDevelopment engine in it with updated this and that).
The Chim was more of a tourer for sure, but in a very good way - very competent , doors made a nice solid 'clunk' instead of a crash/rattle.
Boot would slam shut, I stead of crash/wobble.
Nice to have electric windows instead of er.....nothing.
Just a far more complete car.
The G33 was a glorified kit car but I still loved it.
They were chalk and cheese really.
When I took the G33 out for the first time after winter it would scare the sh*t out of me for a bit (I had a 4.6 JEDevelopment engine in it with updated this and that).
The Chim was more of a tourer for sure, but in a very good way - very competent , doors made a nice solid 'clunk' instead of a crash/rattle.
Boot would slam shut, I stead of crash/wobble.
Nice to have electric windows instead of er.....nothing.
Just a far more complete car.
The G33 was a glorified kit car but I still loved it.
Yes, I know what you mean about the TVR being much more of a 'production' car in terms of body and interior quality.
I don't mind kit car level of fit and finish, though - I have a long history of 60's Lotuses and Westfield/Caterham/Sylvas, and I have a Sylva J15 and a Ginetta G15 at present - so long as I feel that I can trust them. Thing is, all the kit cars (and Lotuses) I've owned have handled well, faithfully and predictably, whereas the TVR chassis was dangerously unresolved, in my opinion.
I don't mind kit car level of fit and finish, though - I have a long history of 60's Lotuses and Westfield/Caterham/Sylvas, and I have a Sylva J15 and a Ginetta G15 at present - so long as I feel that I can trust them. Thing is, all the kit cars (and Lotuses) I've owned have handled well, faithfully and predictably, whereas the TVR chassis was dangerously unresolved, in my opinion.
blueg33 said:
Yes. It’s documented somewhere
OK, thanks - that's useful and positive information... always good when there's a known fix for something!The Sportomotive 'evolution' chassis for the TVR claims to fix the rear roll centre problem on that the Grimaera, but some of their approach to other stuff is questionable (for example, to improve the woeful torsional stiffness, they've changed to a higher spec. of steel, which will have a marginal difference compared to addressing the root of the problem - which is that the bottom of the tunnel is open and unbraced, so you've got a kind of inverted U-section instead of a proper backbone chassis), and I wouldn't fancy gambling the cost of a chassis replacement withough more evidence that they've got it right!
A bit of a search turns up THIS page on the G33, which suggests that the issue can be corrected simply by machining the rear uprights, which is nice, 'cos it means you're not into body-off alterations to the chassis itself.
The same website's pages on improving the torsional stiffness are a bit less confidence-inspiring, mind you!
Equus said:
blueg33 said:
Yes. It’s documented somewhere
OK, thanks - that's useful and positive information... always good when there's a known fix for something!The Sportomotive 'evolution' chassis for the TVR claims to fix the rear roll centre problem on that the Grimaera, but some of their approach to other stuff is questionable (for example, to improve the woeful torsional stiffness, they've changed to a higher spec. of steel, which will have a marginal difference compared to addressing the root of the problem - which is that the bottom of the tunnel is open and unbraced, so you've got a kind of inverted U-section instead of a proper backbone chassis), and I wouldn't fancy gambling the cost of a chassis replacement withough more evidence that they've got it right!
A bit of a search turns up THIS page on the G33, which suggests that the issue can be corrected simply by machining the rear uprights, which is nice, 'cos it means you're not into body-off alterations to the chassis itself.
The same website's pages on improving the torsional stiffness are a bit less confidence-inspiring, mind you!
blueg33 said:
Torsional stiffness never really troubled me, the handling as pretty good and it was stiff enough to regularly lift a wheel on the hairpin at Prescott.
Oddly enough the only car I've ever owned where torsional stiffness bothered me was the Mk.1 MX5... it shuddered and creaked like anything, but it didn't stop it handling well. Bloody annoying on a hairdresser's touring car, though!The G15 I have at the moment has an even more rudimentary chassis - a very simple ladder frame, allegedly stiffened by the bodyshell - but barring the odd quirk associated with its past as a hillclimb car (it's still set to toe out at the front at the moment - a typical hillclimb mod to enhance turn in, but which makes it very 'darty' in a straight line) it handles really nicely.
i remember the times when i owned a G27 and a G4S4.
i was viewing an early G33 (might be even one of the first 3 cars) and it was , to be honest, a slightly improved G27, bodged together from the factory , qualitywise somewere in a stage of a badly-assembeld kitcar.
and really not so far away from the G27.
several of those early G33´s went abroad,manly for their (already during those times "illegal") donor-registration or they were re-homologized outside UK using V5´s from scrapped G26 or G30 cars.
i was viewing an early G33 (might be even one of the first 3 cars) and it was , to be honest, a slightly improved G27, bodged together from the factory , qualitywise somewere in a stage of a badly-assembeld kitcar.
and really not so far away from the G27.
several of those early G33´s went abroad,manly for their (already during those times "illegal") donor-registration or they were re-homologized outside UK using V5´s from scrapped G26 or G30 cars.
Gassing Station | Ginetta | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff