Grantura Mk1 at Silverstone

[Roy C]

Spotted at Silverstone this weekend (20/4/2013) - Grantura Mk1 (1960), recently revived after many years and running (badly).

Originally fitted with a Climax engine. Possibly for sale - it was in the autojumble area.

Edited by Roy C on Monday 22 April 08:44

[pridaux]

Wow I love the wobble wheels a real time warp scary thing is if you get it running it can go on the road without an MOT I presume it arrived on a trailer a great piece of history
Andrew

[Roy C]

A few more pictures.

Perhaps the photo stuck to the roof suggests this car had some race history.

[pirateTVR]

Quick DVLA search revealed it`s not on the computer,although if it surfaced as for sale I imagine there would be a considerable queue.

[pridaux]

Yes will be interesting to see what happens to her a candidate for classic racing they are advertised for sale at over 30k prepared but a massive cost to bring up to race standard and even as a road car although looks like all the important bits are there to start with far better than a shell and boxes of bits that are often offered for sale hope it goes to someone who will do her justice and the skill to do it properly.
Andrew

[davepen]

Roy C said:

Perhaps the photo stuck to the roof suggests this car had some race history.

I'm sure on Saturday there was a note was saying it was one of 4 lightweights and a reference to AUD 10 which has been sold by http://historique.co.uk/

The colour was similar to my brothers old 2a.

[oliverb205]

A couple of questions, is it a Mk1 which has been bumped and repaired with a Mk2/3 rear end, or one of several Mk1s which seem to have been built with rear fins from new, or really a Mk2?

And the "A" suffix registration plate is for cars registered in 1963, so was it originally a racer and registered later, been abroad, took 3 years to build or crahed, rebuilt and re-registered?

Oliver.

[quattrophenia]

Either way, given the market at the moment for early Tivs, if it went up for sale I can imagine it would attract a good price and sell quickly. Looks complete and the body looks intact under the that flaky stuff. Amazing that such rareties can still turn up like this.

Edited by quattrophenia on Monday 22 April 17:09

[Roy C]

oliverb205 said:

A couple of questions, is it a Mk1 which has been bumped and repaired with a Mk2/3 rear end, or one of several Mk1s which seem to have been built with rear fins from new, or really a Mk2?

And the "A" suffix registration plate is for cars registered in 1963, so was it originally a racer and registered later, been abroad, took 3 years to build or crashed, rebuilt and re-registered?

Oliver.

Hi Oliver,

All I know is that the GRP is very thin and the engine runs poorly, although it has only recently been disinterred from a very long sleep (40+ years).

If it was a racer, I suppose it's highly likely that it has been "modified" (crashed/repaired).

Roy

[pirateTVR]

Interesting the Kurtis ? Midget in the background. I wonder if the Grantura transverse torsion bar was in any way influenced by the Frank Kurtis Indy Roadsters of the early 50`s and of course the 500s ?

[dryden]

It appears to have perspex side windows with no winding mechanisms slide up/down with little perspex handles. So definitely lightweight. It also has some revealing chips to the front end signifying coloured stripes?.............The plot thickens!

[dryden]

Did we see this at TAG11? On a trailer......

[Astacus]

dryden said:

It also has some revealing chips to the front end signifying coloured stripes?.............The plot thickens!

Interesting indeed. I wonder whether that is stripes/numbers under the paint or just another layer of paint....

[luckycarter]

I think its a Mk2 as its ch/no is 7/C/238, its been for sale at Historique for many years, for upto £40+ 000, it was for sale there in 2002 for £14,950, gone up a bit has'nt it !!!

[luckycarter]

It isnt the one that was at Tag 11, that was 7/C/209

[alphaone]

http://people.zeelandnet.nl/serel/mk2.htm

[Fiscracer]

Looks like the Mk2 Jim Lowry has up for sale for the last year or so. Interesting but not very competitive even with a climax engine re-installed rather than the anaemic MGA engine.
I'm not sure what events Mk2s did in period but I'm sure part of the deal with Jim will have been a helpful hand on FIA papers.

[android]

oliverb205 said:

And the "A" suffix registration plate is for cars registered in 1963, so was it originally a racer and registered later, been abroad, took 3 years to build or crahed, rebuilt and re-registered?

Oliver.

The A suffix was issued by DVLA to some cars that had been 'plate-raped' in the '80's.
I used to own a Sunbeam Harrington (62) and now own a 997 Cooper (62) that have had their nice plates knicked by some hooray Henry to slap on his 911 Turbo in the 80's.