Ginetta E-Book

Trevor Pyman

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

Driven initially by Ivor Walklett's flair for design and desire to build his own car, the Ginetta marque quickly developed from a hobby into a business. The marque synonymous with the four Walklett brothers then grew from its humble roots to become a serious force in motor racing and a volume road car maker. Ginetta - Road and Track Cars traces the story of a marque born out of sheer enthusiasm for cars and racing. With over forty different models designed and built between 1958 and 2005 by Ginetta, this book examines every element of the design innovation, shrewd business management and model line-up that made Ginetta unique among its competitors, and includes the full development history and technical specifications of each major model. This comprehensive history of the Ginetta company from 1958 through to takeover in 2005 will be of great interest to all owners and enthusiasts of Ginetta cars and motoring history in general. Superbly illustrated with 209 colour and 87 black & white photographs.

Leseprobe

GINETTA

ROAD AND TRACK CARS

TREVOR PYMAN

THE CROWOOD PRESS

First published in 2018 by

The Crowood Press Ltd

Ramsbury, Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2018

© Trevor Pyman 2018

All rights reserved. This e-book is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of thistext may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 78500 416 2

CONTENTS

Dedication and Acknowledgements

Timeline

Introduction

CHAPTER 1 FAMILY MATTERS

CHAPTER 2 MAKING CARS

CHAPTER 3 ESTABLISHING THE MARQUE

CHAPTER 4 SERIOUS RACING

CHAPTER 5 VOLUME PRODUCTION

CHAPTER 6 TAKING ON THE ESTABLISHMENT

CHAPTER 7 SURVIVAL AND FIGHT BACK

CHAPTER 8 FRESH THINKING

CHAPTER 9 NEW CAR, NEW PREMISES, NEW MANAGEMENT

CHAPTER 10 TROUBLED TIMES

CHAPTER 11 THE LNT GROUP TAKES THE REINS

Index

DEDICATION

To my family

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

It is not possible to write a book such as this without a great deal of assistance from those who have been associated with the marque either past or present. I am so grateful to those who have given their valuable time to pass their memories and experiences on to me.

I set out to include as much period material as possible and to achieve this I have been hugely grateful to those who have been kind enough to assist in supplying old photographs, many of which are previously unpublished; these are individually acknowledged.

I would particularly like to thank Ivor Walklett, his son Tom and members of the extended Walklett family for their enthusiasm and support towards this book; my fellow committee members at the Ginetta Owners’ Club and to John Rose of Bookmarque Publishing, all of whom encouraged this venture and supported me in a wide variety of ways. Special thanks also to my wife, Hilary.

The following people have also assisted me and I would like to acknowledge their help: Don Armstrong, Scott Baillie, Clive Berry, Alex Brown, Geoff Butcher, Duncan Campbell, Mary Carden, Bill Cowing, Alison Davis, David and Caroline Doolan, Millie Farrance, Lester Goody, Joe Gowland, Stephen Greensword, Colin Hards, Per Gunnar Johansson, Dan Lekander, Ian Logan, Nick Luard, Bruce Lyon, Stephen Lyon, Luigino Maserati, Bruno Meier, Jurg Meier, Richard Petit, Dean Petley, Michael Pinner, David Pleasance, Richard Robarts, Neil Sayer, Mark Smith, Maurice Steel, Paul Summerville, Jim Swansborough, Leigh Trevail, David Wallace, Tim Wallace, Steve Wyatt and members of the Ginetta Owners’ Club past and present.

My thanks go out to all the above and to anyone I have inadvertently omitted from the list.

Trevor Pyman

TIMELINE

February 1958

The first production Ginetta, the G2, announced by Walklett Bros.

November 1958

Fairlite glass-fibre body announced

March 1960

Ginetta G3 offered as an improved version of the Fairlite with Ginetta chassis

September 1960

Series 1 G4 launched

January 1963

First Ginetta G5 built

March 1963

Series 2 G4 made available

April 1963

First DKW-powered Ginetta G6 built

September 1963

DKW-engined G7 project abandoned

June 1964

First Ginetta single-seater racing car, the G8, announced

September 1964

G4R, with independent rear suspension, is made available to customers

January 1965

G10 with Ford V8 engine is launched at the Racing Car Show

Autumn 1965

G9 Formula 2 car is not making progress and is abandoned

January 1966

G11 MGB-powered version of the G10 launched at the Racing Car Show

July 1966

Completion of the G12, with the first car delivered to a customer

January 1967

Series 3 G4 announced at Racing Car Show

Spring 1967

Prototype G14 chassis built but not progressed with

October 1967

Imp-powered G15 launched at the London Motor Show

May 1968

First G16 delivered to a customer

December 1968

G17 and G18 single-seater cars are announced

Summer 1969

G19 Formula 1 car abandoned

Autumn 1969

Possibility of building the Petit-designed version of the G12 to be branded as G20 abandoned

October 1970

New G21 1600 and 3-litre cars launched at the Motor Show, together with a revised version of the G15 featuring larger side windows

March 1971

First G15R (Racing) delivered to a customer

October 1971

G21, now with Sunbeam Rapier engine, announced

August 1972

Further revisions to the G15, including recessed door handles, stand-forward front indicators and steel fuel tank, introduced

April 1973

Final factory-built Type 4 G15 version with Exaction road wheels and other refinements introduced

January 1978

G22 Sports 2000 car announced

March 1980

G23 and G24 models announced

February 1981

G4 Series 4 announced

October 1982

GRS Tora Mark 1 announced at the Motor Show

June 1983

First public showing of the G25

October 1983

GRS Pick Up announced

July 1984

G26 sports saloon announced at the Newark Kit Car Show

August 1984

First GRS Mark 2 delivered to a customer

March 1985

G27 introduced

March 1986

G29 Thundersports car announced and first raced

October 1986

Grand announcement of the G28, G30 and G31 sports saloons alongside the G32 mid-engine sports car at the Motor Show

July 1989

GRS Mark 3 announced at the Newark Kit Car Show

Autumn 1989

G4 Series 5 announced but the model not progressed and only one car made

November 1989

Ginetta Cars sold to Martin Phaff.

October 1990

G32 convertible and G33 announced at the Motor Show

October 1992

G33 SC launched at the Motor Show but the model not proceeded with

January 1993

G27 relaunch commenced with the Series 2, also known as the G27 GRS

Autumn 1994

G27 Series 3 gradually introduced

Autumn 1994

G34 announced although full production will not commence for some time

Winter 1995

G27 race series car introduced for the 1996 race season

January 1998

G27 Series 4 introduced

October 2000

G20 introduced

Winter 2001

G20 Cup cars announced for the 2002 race season

Winter 2002

G20 Junior car introduced for the 2003 season with closed coupé bodywork

December 2005

Ginetta Cars purchased by Lawrence Tomlinson of LNT Group.

INTRODUCTION

Rather surprisingly I can remember exactly where I was when I first heard of Ginetta cars: I was ten years old and we were on a family holiday in Austria. Friends of my parents holidaying with us lived in Witham and, knowing my interest in unusual sports cars, mentioned that a little company were making cars at the end of the High Street. A trip to the Racing Car Show with my father when I was seven had awakened my interest in this ‘underworld’ of car makers. Today I would define these makes as those that did not appear in my 1961 edition of The Observer’s Book of Automobiles, which, until my trip to the Car Show, I naively thought contained every make of car in the world.

The author with his G21, which has been owned and enjoyed for the past thirty-eight years.AUTHOR

But, there at the show, I found makers like Rochdale, Falcon, Ashley and others I’d never heard of, and saw other makes like Tornado, Turner and TVR that I knew of from my book, but had never seen on the road. From that point on it was the British makes that you rarely, if ever, saw on the road that held my attention; the Morris, Austins and Triumphs of this world no longer had the same appeal. Adding Ginetta to my list of rare makes was particularly exciting as they were made just a few miles from my home.

A couple of years later I bravely ventured out on my bicycle over to Witham to see what interesting cars I could see and I wasn’t disappointed! This very ordinary-looking building at the bottom end of Witham High Street had slightly grimy glass and the odd cobweb, but peering into the showroom revealed a G12 and a G4. Parked down the side of the building was another G4, and when I saw the stark interior, sports controls, tiny leather-rimmed steering wheel, I was completely hooked.

It wasn’t just about Ginettas for me, though; the more I got around the more I became aware there were interesting cars all over the place. In my own small village I came to realize there were several of these unusual cars living close by. I was able to see regularly an Elva Courier (an extremely rare Mark 4 T Type), a Falcon Caribbean and an AC Aceca.

The local estate agent was of particular interest. He seemed to change cars regularly and drove Marcoses and Jensens, but it was his brief spell with a Jensen C-V8 that had me spellbound: this brute had a road presence like nothing else I’d ever seen, and the rumble from its exhausts was music to my ears. From then on I noticed that rare cars were collectively all over the place: there was the Gilbern GT that overtook the school bus some evenings and the Rochdale Olympic that often parked over the road from my grandmother’s house; the Berkeley seemingly abandoned in the shopping complex car park and the Lagonda Rapide for sale at the garage in the next village.

During the summer of 1967 a red Ginetta G4 was regularly flashing past our front gate. I soon traced it to a house in a nearby lane; later I found out it was the first Series 3 G4 delivered. I started making notes of these cars, and although I didn’t know it at the time, this was really the start of what years later would become the Ginetta Owners’ Club Register. During the late sixties in the hinterland around Chelmsford in Essex there were at least four G4s in regular use and they looked amazing as they moved among the traffic. My trips over to the Ginetta factory were now regular. The new G15 was under test and racing cars were everywhere in the yard at the back of the factory, as were the occasional G11 and then, much later, the new G21.

Together with friends I cycled all over the place always looking out for rare cars and visiting a few other specialist car factories, although none measured up to the range of cars you could regularly see at Ginetta.

Soon after leaving school I was in a position to buy my first Ginetta, and BTW10G, the sixth G15 built, came into my possession. Now I could discover what it was all about. Probably the biggest revelation was the road-holding. You could corner at great speed without any body roll: it literally felt like you were driving a racing car on the road – but then of course, in a sense, you were doing just that.

That first G15 began what has become a forty-five-year run of almost unbroken Ginetta ownership, during which time I’ve driven over half a million miles in these cars. Most were purchased as daily drivers, used for both business and pleasure; a couple of G15s in the early days were joined by a G21 and then, with small children to transport, a G26 kit was built. Along the way I found time to buy and rebuild a G2 that was in a dilapidated condition, but which was and indeed still is, the oldest known surviving Ginetta.

I’ve owned other specialist cars too. For a long time in the seventies and early eighties I ran a Gilbern Invader; a Rochdale Olympic proved a practical alternative for a while, as did a Reliant Scimitar GTE; then there is the Jensen C-V8 that I still have, but it’s Ginettas that have dominated. Buying a G32 for my business travel in the nineties proved an inspired purchase and it mopped up a couple of hundred thousand miles; it’s such a usable little car and so much fun to drive, yet another Ginetta design that is largely forgotten today outside the dedicated circle of Ginetta enthusiasts.

Closely following the Ginetta company over more than fifty years, coupled with holding the post of Ginetta Owners’ Club Registrar since 1980, has given me a vast pool of knowledge, so when Crowood offered the opportunity to write this book it was, though daunting, an opportunity not to be missed. I’d written the history of the G4 model, which was published in 1990 with a second enlarged edition in 2004, but this was a wholly different experience. Detailing so many different models, describing their design and development, recounting the story behind them and the successes in racing – how could I do justice to this great marque?

My efforts will be judged by others, but if nothing else I hope this book will highlight just what Ginetta have achieved as a company, what the leading players had to go through to establish the marque and keep the name alive and why it is still a force sixty years later.

Trevor Pyman,

Maldon, Essex, October 2017

CHAPTER ONE

FAMILY MATTERS

On 18 October 1967, the fifty-second annual Motor Show opened at Earls Court in London, and for four brothers, directors of the Essex-based car maker Ginetta, this was a very proud day. In less than ten years since marketing their first special, they had grown a car-manufacturing business that was now rubbing shoulders with established makers to a worldwide audience on the grand exhibition floor of Britain’s premier motor showcase.

By contrast to the many corporate makers surrounding them at the show, Ginetta was a family-run business that had developed out of sheer enthusiasm and the desire to succeed against all the odds.

The four Walklett brothers, Douglas, Trevers, Bob and Ivor, who together founded Ginetta cars, were born and grew up during the inter-war years. Typically of that period the family was large: parents John and Eva Walklett had seven children: five boys and two girls. John, a military man in the First World War, later moved around with his work before settling into farming after the Second World War. The young Walklett family lived a somewhat nomadic existence moving around the south of England, where the eldest four sons, Douglas, Trevers, Kenneth (known to all as Bob) and Brian arrived before they all moved to the London area, where the youngest three siblings were born at locations all around the capital, the last being Ivor.

The outbreak of the Second World War had a major impact on most families and the Walkletts were no exception, the three eldest boys all becoming eligible to join the forces at various stages during the war years. Douglas joined the Territorial Army just before the outbreak of war and his unit was deployed onto war duty at the start of hostilities. He was selected for training as a mechanical engineer and, following this intensive training, became a qualified artificer, serving in the Middle East at El Alamein and later in Italy. The knowledge gained from his training and experiences proved invaluable in later establishing a business with his brothers.

Trevers joined the Royal Armoured Corps at the age of eighteen but later transferred to the Parachute Regiment where he joined the 6th Airborne Division. He took part in the Normandy D-day landings on 5/6 June 1944, where he experienced hand-to-hand fighting with German forces. By 1945 Trevers was taking part in the battle for the Rhine Valley in the final stages of the war when, parachuting into action, he was hit in the right leg. Losing a lot of blood, he lay wounded for many hours before being picked up and hospitalized. Surgeons fought to save his gangrenous leg, which mercifully they managed to do, following which he spent many months in recovery. He had endured and witnessed some horrific moments during the war, experiences that would stay with him for the rest of his life. Above all, though, his training and experiences had left him with an attitude that everything was possible with determination and a focused mind.

Trevers Walklett in his military uniform, his beret clearly showing the winged cap badge of the Parachute Regiment.WALKLETT FAMILY

Bob Walklett smiles for the camera in uniform; a tough time lay ahead for him during the final days of the Second World War.WALKLETT FAMILY

In 1943 Bob Walklett turned eighteen and, like his brothers before him, volunteered for service. He followed Trevers into the Royal Armoured Corps, qualifying as a wireless operator and tank driver. He narrowly missed the D-Day landings, but having volunteered for the 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment and been accepted, he trained on light tanks that could be dropped into action from the air. In the event he first saw action in the Ardennes in a Cromwell tank, before moving on to the Battle for the Rhine. Here, in a fierce clash with German forces, his tank was hit by anti-tank fire and, with burned hands and face and with shrapnel fragments close to his spine, he was picked up by German forces and hospitalized as a POW. However, with few medical supplies available, he received little or no treatment and was fortunate to be released by advancing Allied forces a few days later and to be treated by Royal Army Medical Corps personnel before being shipped back to England. In England, his brother Trevers was being treated for his severe wounds in Lichfield, Staffordshire, where through the good offices of the British Red Cross, Bob later came to be placed in the bed next to his brother. Their war was over. Both were very lucky to have survived and required a great deal of convalescence to make them fit and ready to return to civilian life.

When the war was over, siblings would typically go their separate ways due to employment or marriage but for the Walklett brothers the draw of family was strong. Immediately after the war, their father had taken on Little Napchester Farm in the Kent countryside just north of Dover and he set up J. F. Walklett & Sons, Dairy Farmers. This was the focus for the elder boys returning home, whilst some of the younger siblings were still attending school. The brothers busied themselves with duties on the farm and quickly discovered elements of the work they enjoyed and those they did not. Trevers, for one, was not keen on the animals but found he enjoyed the engineering side of farming, whilst on the personal side, during his time in Kent he met local girl Sherry, who he would later marry.

Their time in Kent was limited, however, as their father had plans for expansion and arranged to purchase a much larger farm at Bures in Suffolk. This move turned, through no fault of his own, into a nightmare, when the intended purchaser of the Kent farm died before the contracts were completed and the whole matter became part of his estate, meaning the farm could not be sold for a full year. With two farms on his hands, John Walklett was overstretched, and when the Kent farm was finally sold at a knockdown price the damage was done. The strain left him in bad health both mentally and physically, and he was forced to sell the Suffolk farm as well. During this period it was Bob, still only in his early twenties, who dealt with much of the fallout, both legal and financial, supporting his mother and siblings, and there can be little doubt that this experience shaped his future thinking on prudent business management.

Enjoying the summer sunshine on the family farm in Kent in 1946.GINETTA: THE INSIDE STORY – BOOKMARQUE PUBLISHING

It had been a tough lesson on just how easily things can go wrong in even the best-organized affairs, but by 1950 most of the family, once again, were under one roof and living in the Old Rectory at Chillesford, a large and imposing building in its own grounds. Chillesford is a small hamlet nestling on the edge of the Tunstall forest and 6 miles (10km) east of Woodbridge; in the 1950s this was a remote location and sparsely populated. The area was totally dominated by agriculture and Doug, Trevers and Bob identified a business opportunity supplying engineering services to the agricultural community. In need of a source of income after the demise of the family farm, they launched into this business venture, setting up a new company known as Walklett Bros. Agricultural & Constructional Engineers.

At the time the three brothers were setting up their business, the youngest brother, Ivor, was still at grammar school, but at every opportunity he would be down with his brothers assisting in whatever way he could and absorbing engineering knowledge. As was the requirement for young men in the immediate post-war period, Ivor was called up to carry out a statutory two years’ national service in one of the armed forces and Ivor chose the RAF. Cars were his passion, and in particular he enjoyed the challenge of car design: he sketched his own designs in great detail, including theories on the latest suspension layouts he had learnt from reading up on the subject.

WALKLETT BROS. AGRICULTURAL & CONSTRUCTIONAL ENGINEERS LTD

With some experience in farming and with a wartime service that gave them a grounding in engineering, it was perhaps inevitable that Doug, Trevers and Bob Walklett would combine the two. Doug’s war experiences and training in particular were key in providing the knowledge required for such a venture.

The business was up and running by around 1950, with Bob looking after day-to-day management, administration and sales whilst Doug and Trevers dedicated their efforts to the incoming work and products offered by the business. In the early days in order to establish themselves they took on awkward work other businesses had turned away. With Suffolk’s rural farming community offering a ready clientele, the business took off. Early on they operated from a tiny workshop premises in Orford down on a remote part of the east coast. As the business expanded during the early to mid-fifties they sought a larger site and settled at Hill Bridge Works, Campsea Ashe, near Wickham Market.

The Walklett Bros. Agricultural Engineers’ first workshop in Orford, Suffolk.MILLIE FARRANCE

A Walklett Bros. barn built for the Campsea Ashe cattle auction business. Note the strong, slender framework supporting the roof and lightweight, strengthened purlins allowing increased length between steel support stanchions.AUTHOR

This garage building, still standing by the side of the A12 at Stratford St Andrew in Suffolk, was constructed by Walklett Bros. and features a huge 60ft (18m) clear span, one of the largest available in period.AUTHOR

Not only did the Campsea Ashe site offer additional space for fabrication and storage, but crucially it was next to the railway station and therefore ideal for receipt of raw materials and despatch of finished goods at a time when road transport played a lesser role in movement of materials than today.

The business grew to a significant size, employing up to ten full-time staff with younger brother Ivor joining them after completion of his national service. Offering an increasingly large range of products, they started manufacturing a range of agricultural barns and enclosures. The brothers were able to develop and offer for sale one of the largest clear-span steel agricultural structures available at that time, drawing on customers from across Suffolk and further afield.

By the late 1950s, they were sufficiently established to exhibit their buildings at the Suffolk Show, offering farmers a one-stop shop of design, fabrication and erection of buildings. It had become a very successful business. To assist in the erecting of buildings, Trevers built a crane on the back of an old six-wheeler Dodge truck, the raising and lowering of which was taken care of by an old aircraft jack; such things were available as war surplus in those days, and it shows the ingenuity that the brothers brought to their work even in those early days.

The powerful V8 Allard P1 saloon. This example is similar to the one driven by Bob Walklett in the mid-fifties.AUTHOR

Cars were important to all the brothers. Doug ran a Ford V8 and they also owned at different times classic Triumphs, including a Dolomite and Gloria. In particular, their attention was drawn by Sydney Allard, who had not only started manufacturing his own Allard cars, but had proved their ability by winning the 1952 Monte Carlo Rally, an unparalleled achievement. These cars were not for the faint-hearted: fitted with the flat-head Ford V8, the performance was more than impressive. Bob Walklett was keen to own an Allard and eventually purchased a used P1 Saloon, similar to the Monte Carlo-winning car, from Performance Cars in West London, a well-known supplier of used sports cars at the time. Bob recalls when picking the car up that the friendly salesman suggested to him that he take it easy at first and get to know the car. On the long run back through London and up to Suffolk, Bob quickly realized the wisdom of these words; it was extremely quick but could also be unpredictable, and was certainly a car for experienced hands.

Eventually, though, it was not the cars they drove but Ivor’s passion for car engineering and design that would change everything.

During leave from his national service, Ivor planned to do more than just draw cars – he wanted to build one of his own design. All the brothers had been to Snetterton and witnessed motor racing first-hand and could not help but notice that small sports cars and specials made for exciting racing and offered the prospect of driving the cars to and from races. Inspired to make his drawings a reality, he turned to an old pre-war Wolseley Hornet that the family had at the house and decided that this would make the ideal basis for a special. The Hornet had a small 6-cylinder engine with an overhead camshaft and was advanced for its time. Brother Trevers was also interested in Ivor’s ideas and offered some assistance, and so it was that the first Walklett brothers-engineered car started to take shape.

CHAPTER TWO

MAKING CARS

The 1950s was an exciting time for those interested in cars. There were many new models from major car makers who were determined to offer bright new products to help the public put the years of wartime austerity behind them. In motor racing, after a slow start immediately post-war, the grids were now full and the public flocked to circuits to spectate. Venues were often disused airfields with little or no safety measures for public or drivers.

On the road, cars were frequently patched up pre-war models; the latest new cars stood out, suggesting a certain level of affluence had been attained by their owners. Many young men wanted to join the car-owning fraternity but nice cars – and sports cars in particular – were expensive relative to wages, and this gave the hobby of special building a lot of momentum as the decade progressed. Fuelled by this interest, companies sprang up selling parts to assist in the building of specials, as they became known. The chassis frames from the Austin 7, and later Ford 10, were a particularly popular basis on which to build a special, but any chassis frame was fair game to the enthusiasts of the time. In the early years of this revolution, bodywork was usually created using aluminium in simple curves and chassis were modified or not depending on the skills and ambitions of the builder. For those looking to build an advanced special, companies like Buckler produced a tubular space-frame chassis to which components from standard models could be attached, whilst firms offering tuning equipment for Austin and Ford engines abounded.

It was however, Lotus, and the brilliance of its founder, Colin Chapman, that revolutionized the whole alternative sports car market, with a succession of models that simply blew away opposition from any source, leaving others to follow in his wake.

THE GINETTA G1

Having stripped off the body, Ivor found the chassis frame of his Wolseley lacking in some areas, so his first job was to improve this; after cutting and suitably modifying the chassis, he then tested his theories on the gravel drive of the Chillesford home. Satisfied with his improvements, he set about making the two-seater aluminium bodywork to clothe his new car. The finished product had more than a passing resemblance to the post-war Maserati 4CLT grand prix car and was a very competent effort for a first attempt at special building. Ivor was learning fast and he quickly developed the skill of making use of parts from the donor Wolseley in imaginative ways – a talent that would serve him very well in the years to follow.

Ivor Walklett’s sketch of the Ginetta G1. Sadly no known photographs survive of this car.IVOR WALKLETT

It was now the mid-fifties. Happy with his completed special, Ivor took to the Suffolk roads with enthusiasm. He made full use of the car’s potential, which, due to its lightweight body and modified chassis, was significantly quicker than the original Wolseley. The Walklett home at Chillesford had a long, winding driveway from the road through the trees and shrubs up to the house. It was here that Ivor pushed the special a little too hard, lost control and crashed through the bushes, coming to a very sudden stop on a large tree stump. The special was badly damaged and irreparable. Sadly no pictures of this car survive; only a sketch by Ivor gives us a feel for what he created. Although this was a one-off, this car was the spark that ignited the fire that would become Ginetta, and retrospectively this car would become known as the Ginetta G1. For now, however, Ivor was left without one of his own creations to drive but his mind and sketchbook full of ideas.

In fact Ivor and Trevers had already started work on a new project. As engineers, the brothers subscribed to several magazines targeted at the profession, and it was in one such publication that Ivor read about a new material pioneered in America that was now being traded in the United Kingdom by the Bakelite Company. Bakelite had made a big name for having developed resins that could be moulded to form many diverse objects. Due to its lack of conductivity, it had been widely adopted within the electrical industry for lamp holders, switches and sockets as well as by the motor industry for dash panels, switches and many other applications.

EXPERIMENTS WITH GRP

With this kind of track record, the new resin being marketed by Bakelite was of great interest. When the resin was mixed with a catalyst and impregnated into a glass-fibre matting, the resulting resin-bonded glass fibre would set hard into whatever shape it overlay and was both strong and very lightweight. Ivor immediately saw the potential for making car bodies: if a mould could be made, then replica bodies could be produced with relative ease. He wasn’t the only one to take note of this material. In America, glass-reinforced plastic (GRP), as it became known, was used by Chevrolet for their new Corvette, while in the UK Jensen had just produced their 541 sports saloon with GRP bodywork. Simultaneously, other budding special makers were having similar ideas and quickly little companies sprung up selling GRP bodies for fitting to Ford 8 and 10hp or Austin 7 chassis.

After discussions with Bakelite, Ivor and Trevers set about putting together a full-size mock-up of the body they wished to make, from which a mould could be taken. The body was an open two-seater, all-enveloping in a modern style with a wheelbase to suit the Ford 8 and 10hp chassis. They chose to sculpt the ‘plug’ in the greenhouse at their Chillesford home, where the space was just large enough to work around the creation. They used various materials to form this structure, including wood, chicken wire and cement, and estimated the finished item weighed nearly two tons.

With the completed body plug looking just how they wanted it, the surface was made smooth and polished ready to take off moulds. The moulds were cast in GRP, and here their learning curve reached almost to the vertical. Neither Ivor nor Trevers had any experience of working with this material and they struggled to cope with it. To make matters worse, they had purchased the wrong type of glass-fibre matting, which was springy and kept pulling out of the resin during the lay-up process. The resin itself was unforgiving and it took time and much experimentation for them to find just the right amount of catalyst for it to stay workable for just long enough to wet out the glass fibre. They continued to struggle on, but when the Bakelite representative called by he was horrified to see them using the wrong matting and, worse still, the environmental conditions in which they were working. He deemed the extremes of temperature in the greenhouse to be totally unsuitable for any work with his resins. With the plug weighing two tons, however, it wasn’t going anywhere so the Walkletts carried on anyway. Eventually, after a great deal of time and an equal amount of perseverance, they at last had moulds from which they could make glass-reinforced plastic bodyshells.

During this long process, Ivor had grown impatient and was keen to progress other ideas. His design sketches had many influences, and one particular idea drew on lines and details seen on the Jaguar D Type and the Lotus Eleven. Together with Trevers, he carried out initial work on the chassis and bespoke suspension before the complexity of the whole thing got the better of him and it was set aside. Later this development would be revived but for now he wanted a special he could drive, so decided to go back to first principles and make something relatively simple.

THE GINETTA G2

As 1957 dawned, Ivor began work on yet another idea. The Lotus 6 had impressed Ivor and he set off to design a special similar in appearance to the successful Lotus but with a chassis designed in such a way that most parts from a Ford 10 would bolt straight on without modification.

With the experience of the Wolseley special to draw on, he felt his latest idea could quickly become a reality. At the Campsea Ashe factory he fabricated a simple multi-tube space-frame with mounting points to accept the standard Ford front and rear axle assemblies complete with their transverse springs, steering components and wheels. To this he added mountings for the 1172cc sidevalve Ford engine and three-speed gearbox, whilst the Ford radiator and fuel tank could also be bolted straight in.

The only modifications needed were the lengthening of the steering column, the shortening of the torque tube-type propshaft and a realignment of the stabilizing arms of the front suspension. Ivor did, however, tweak the suspension in the interests of better handling by substituting the Ford lever-arm damper units for telescopic shock absorbers and removing some leaves from the springs due to the lighter weight of the car. With a fabricated remote gear linkage and cable brakes operated by a built-in pedal pivoted from the chassis, together with matching clutch pedal, the chassis could be driven.

The Campsea Ashe factory in 1993. It had changed very little since Walklett Bros. built the first Ginettas here.AUTHOR

The first G2 built, used extensively by the Walklett family.WALKLETT FAMILY

The simple but effective G2 chassis frame.AUTHOR

As part of the design, the chassis frame acted as a former for the aluminium bodywork. Flat sheets could be dressed and riveted over the tubing to clothe the car, complete with bulkheads, transmission tunnel, lift-off bonnet and riveted steel floor. The whole package was beautifully simple but the structure was very stiff and effective, and, importantly, it was easy to make. Cycle-type wings protected the wheels but there was one area of the body that needed special attention. The deep Ford radiator was angled back to reduce its effective height but in order to enclose this and give the front of the car an identity, they decided to call on their new skills in GRP moulding and produced a one-piece cowl in this material. To finish the car off, a flat aluminium-framed windscreen and fabric hood were fitted.

With this second special completed and ready for the road, the brothers wasted no time in getting out and about in it. Several locals and an ex-RAF acquaintance asked Ivor to build them a copy. After discussion with his brothers, it was decided to purchase some steel tube and aluminium sheet, then Ivor and Trevers set about building another car. With the new chassis completed they were surprised to find it was an inch larger than the original – clearly if more cars were to be made, it was going to be necessary to make a jig to ensure uniformity.

The first advert for a Ginetta car appeared in Autosport in February 1958.GINETTA OWNERS’ CLUB

With the first production body/chassis unit completed and ready for dispatch, the question of how much to charge arose. The material had cost relatively little to buy – the real cost was in the fabrication time. The bare chassis unit had been weighed on an old set of pig scales, and at just 156lb (71kg) it was commendably light. Eventually they decided to charge £156 in money for the body/chassis unit, including modifying the necessary Ford parts to be supplied by the customer. This was hardly a cutting-edge costing method, but at this price it was decided a good profit would result. Bob Walklett, always with an eye to new business opportunities, was sceptical, asking his brothers, ‘Will people buy these?’ Ivor and Trevers were confident that they would and so it was decided to test the market.

In January 1958 the motoring press were circulated details of the new car, together with a selection of photographs included in the hope of gaining useful publicity. The car now had a name, too – the Ginetta. The origin of the name was always kept secret. In his book Ginetta: The Inside Story, Bob Walklett stated it was taken from the name of a small, catlike creature called a genetta (or genet); but there are still many who feel Bob was creating a smokescreen to maintain the brothers’ agreement not to reveal the true reason for their choice.

Autosport magazine was first to break the news of this new car early in February in a short column accompanied by three photographs, and over the following weeks the brothers started to place small advertisements in magazines including Autosport, The Motor and Practical Motorist.

The works G2 with an unknown driver pictured close to the Campsea Ashe factory.GINETTA OWNERS’ CLUB

Ginetta’s First Production Model

The G2 engine bay with sidevalve engine, here mildly tuned with an Aquaplane twin SU carburettor set-up.AUTHOR

The G2 interior, showing simple controls and instrumentation mostly derived from the Ford E93A.AUTHOR

As a result, a few enquiries and some orders were received, and before long an area down one side of the workshop had been set aside for car production. Suddenly Walklett Brothers were no longer just agricultural and constructional engineers but Britain’s newest car manufacturer as well. Their pricing structure was simple. Included within the £156 price was everything necessary to build a car using salvaged parts from the Ford 8 or 10hp from the period 1938 to 1953. The hood, windscreen and front and rear lights were all provided.

With the simple hood erected, the G2 was cosy but practical for everyday use.GINETTA OWNERS’ CLUB

A typical G2 as driven by young enthusiasts in the 1950s and 60s – sports motoring on a budget.JIM SWANSBOROUGH

That the Ginetta was fun to drive was in no doubt. Bob recalled how his sisters also loved driving the car, often taking it down to the golf club at nearby Aldeburgh, while Trevers recalled how he and Ivor raced a local farmer across Tunstall common. This particular gentleman drove a big Wolseley and was known never to be overtaken. One day, crossing the common, the Ginetta came up behind the farmer and pulled out to overtake. Immediately the Wolseley accelerated. The Ginetta came alongside and they remained side by side for half a mile or more on the empty Suffolk roads until, finally, the Ginetta pulled ahead – mission accomplished!

Most of the body/chassis kits were dispatched to their new owners boxed in returnable crates on the train from the adjoining station.

Even in 1970, when this photograph was taken, the occasional G2 could still be seen on the road.GINETTA OWNERS’ CLUB

Michael Pinner presses on in his G2 in the 1960 Felixstowe Rally.EASTERN COUNTIES MOTOR CLUB

By mid-1958 some of the first cars supplied had been built up and were now on the road, but with such a sporting car it wasn’t long before some owners used them in competitive events. One of the first sold was raced in Autocross events and used in Autotests by Mary Thompstone; the car built for her by her father was also driven at meetings by David Lomas and competed throughout Cheshire and Derbyshire. In York, Dr Stevenson entered similar events in his car, while local Suffolk-based Michael Pinner used his car in the 1960 Felixstowe Rally. Michael’s car was also driven by Carl Giles, the famous cartoonist, after he had seen it parked one day in the Ipswich railway station car park and expressed an interest.

Mary Thompstone with racing friends. She competed in her G2 in many Autocross and driving tests across northwest England in the late 1950s.MARY CARDEN