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Invader Mk III
(note estate in background) |
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Ford V6 |
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Think of British car companies and on the whole you'd be pretty
accurate in thinking of English car companies. That's not the complete
story though, as Gilbern demonstrate. The marque is truly Welsh with all
the cars manufactured for the fifteen years or so that Gilbern survived.
Butcher Giles Smith was living in Pontypridd and took a fancy to having
a unique glass fibre bodied sports car that were becoming fashionable at
the time. After a chance encounter with German Bernard Friese, a plan was
hatched to build such a car. Work began on the Gilbern (Giles/Bernard) GT
in 1959 behind Smith's butchers shop. Rather than rebody an existing car,
they took the bold step of designing it from the ground up.
A local racing driver - Peter Cottrell - happened to inspect the car
when it neared completion and was impressed. The one off sportscar soon
became the basis for a production car and motor shows beckoned.
Initially the customer cars were supplied in ready-to-assemble
component form, with the customers required to fit the engine, gearbox and
a few bits of trim. The first cars were base around the Austin-Healey
Sprite's 948cc, MGA 1600cc or Coventry Climax engines.
As production increased to a car a month, bigger premises were needed
for the five employees. Gilbern moved to the site of a disused colliery
not far from the original location. Production increased gradually and by
the mid 60's they were up to a car a week with twenty staff. The market
was predominantly the UK, with only three or four left hand drive cars
making it to the USA.
1966 saw the introduction of the Genie. Ford had offered Gilbern their
new V6 engine which proved more fruitful than some of Gilbern's previous
experiments with Ford units. The Genie was a different design, with the
company now moving into the territory of 2+2 sports cars.
As with all British car companies, there came a time when money became
tight and external investment was sought. For Gilbern this came in
1968 when the company was sold to the ACE group. Giles Smith left soon
after whilst Bernard Friese stayed on for a year to supervise the
development of the new Mk I Invader which would replace the Genie.
Under ACE, staff numbers increased to around 60, but production
remained at about 100 cars a year. Production varied in the following few
years with the introduction of variants of the Invader including the Mk II
and the Mark II Estate version in the early 70's.
The early 70's also saw Gilbern's most ambitious project hatched. An
attempt to build a mid (rear) engined 2 seater never made it past the
prototype stage. Despite swooping lines, a transverse Maxi engine would
never have captured the enthusiasts' hearts!
In 1972 the Mk III was released. Changes in taxation no longer made it
worthwhile providing the cars in component form so fully finished cars
were being sold as the norm for the first time. Until then, 90% of
production has still been in component form. The fully built cars were
competing in the same price bracket as sports cars from Jaguar and BMW and
prospects didn't look good. Expansion into Europe only produced a handful
of left hand drive cars, not enough to avert the impending financial
crisis.
The company changed hands once again, this time for a solitary pound in
1972. By 1973 the new owner Michael Leather had failed to halt the slide
and the receivers were called in. A new investor was found and the company
was revived for a year before folding once again in 1974.
Many attempts were made to restart production over the next five years
as the factory lay almost idle with all the pieces still in place if only
the money was there. Despite numerous changes in ownership it never
happened and Gilbern is now another name in the annals of British (Welsh)
motoring history.
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