A 'period' classics pictures thread (Mk II)
Discussion
ghostly and heavenly body pic from the early 1980s in a quiet English residential street. 
dryden said:
It was more than likely stuffed with Ginetta gubbins.....
Agree, Ginetta G12 surely. If it’s lucky it will find a Lotus Twin Cam to marry.As a student in London in the 1970s I had a weekend delivery job that took me all over London. Amazing how many of these type of grp shells you would find scattered about in suburban front gardens along with the surviving colonies of A7 Specials.
The guy with a part built Davrian in Dulwich repeatedly turned down my offers but I managed to buy a half restored A7 special. 10 years later it was approximately one third restored so I sold it.
moffspeed said:
dryden said:
It was more than likely stuffed with Ginetta gubbins.....
Agree, Ginetta G12 surely. If it’s lucky it will find a Lotus Twin Cam to marry.As a student in London in the 1970s I had a weekend delivery job that took me all over London. Amazing how many of these type of grp shells you would find scattered about in suburban front gardens along with the surviving colonies of A7 Specials.
The guy with a part built Davrian in Dulwich repeatedly turned down my offers but I managed to buy a half restored A7 special. 10 years later it was approximately one third restored so I sold it.
Inside the owner's garage at that time was a Ted Martin V8 he was rebuilding to go in the G12 (I helped him assemble the grp body panels on his drive to take that pic). John Burton shoehorned a Martin V8 into his G12 in the 60s but never had much success.
If I recall the body panels were the last genuine G12 ever produced by GInetta (I know there have been G12 reincarnations - I hate that word - since).
As for the Loti twin-cams, they did indeed find their way into the G12s. However, the screamer engine was the first fitted to the car, the Cosworth SCA 1-litre. It was what was in WIllie Green's car and was what started his career. There are even today those who think he's just 'historics' famous. His career started and took off because of his drives in the SCA powered G12. He switched later to a Loti twin cam but never had the success he did with the SCA. He said later that the G12, when fitted with the Lotus twin-cam engine, that the additional power exposed the G12 chassis’ weaknesses. You have to remember too that Green's first race was in September 1966 at Silverstone - he and his SCA G12 wiped the floor clean with everything in the 1150cc class. He went on to have 23 races in that G12 and won 21 outright. Green recalled one race at Snetterton when Bob Bernard was out in his 7-litre AC Cobra: Bernard simply couldn’t believe that Green could stay with him on the straights!
It was a period of great motor racing, and imo had one of the most spectacular racing car accidents (ie: nobody was hurt) that was ever caught on camera. I'm not alone in saying this. Derek Buckett took an amazing shot during the Motoring News Championship (the motoring newspaper even entered it's own G12 driven by its then editor Mike Twite and co-driver, Ian Tee of Motor Sport magazine).
Buckett's photo even caught well known motorsport cameraman Gerry Stream scrambling to safety up the embankment! There are a couple of other shots too that make a wonderful trio of framed photos, from the 'slide' to a AC Cobra taking the top of one G12's roof off, narrowly missing the driver's head! - sorry, can't post it up, although it used to be here on PH's many years ago.
There was only one thing that ended the G12 domination, and that was more powerful engines and Chevron's B6.
dandarez said:
As for the Loti twin-cams, they did indeed find their way into the G12s. However, the screamer engine was the first fitted to the car, the Cosworth SCA 1-litre. It was what was in WIllie Green's car and was what started his career. There are even today those who think he's just 'historics' famous. His career started and took off because of his drives in the SCA powered G12. He switched later to a Loti twin cam but never had the success he did with the SCA. He said later that the G12, when fitted with the Lotus twin-cam engine, that the additional power exposed the G12 chassis’ weaknesses. You have to remember too that Green's first race was in September 1966 at Silverstone - he and his SCA G12 wiped the floor clean with everything in the 1150cc class. He went on to have 23 races in that G12 and won 21 outright. Green recalled one race at Snetterton when Bob Bernard was out in his 7-litre AC Cobra: Bernard simply couldn’t believe that Green could stay with him on the straights!
I remember reading about this in Classic & Sportscar about 3 decades ago. Didn't Green have a six speed gearbox in the car? If so, must have been one of the earliest applications, although I seem to recall the Screamer's ability to rev meant he didn't get into sixth very often.
My 1965 S2 Elan had pull up/push down windows. You moved a locking lever and then manually moved them up or down using a small piece of perspex (from memory - it's a long time ago) attached near the top of the window. Basic but highly effective and so much lighter than the electric powered windows that came later and which I'm guessing, is what brought about the fixed window frames.
Top of my lengthy list of cars I wish I'd never sold!
Top of my lengthy list of cars I wish I'd never sold!
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