GTM (car brand)

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GTM Coupé
GTM Rossa without hardtop
GTM Libra
GTM Spyder

GTM was a British car brand.

Company history

The company Cox & Co. , led by Bernard Cox began in late 1966 in Hazel Grove in Borough Stockport with the production of automobiles . The brand name was GTM . The designer was Jack Hosker. Cox & Co had to give up in 1971 after 55 vehicles had been sold. Howard Heerey Engineering Ltd. took over the brand name and the only model and continued production for a year. 155 copies were made by 1972. HE Glass-Fiber of Hartlewood took over the project, but did not manufacture any vehicles for the four years up to 1976. Likewise, no vehicles were built between 1976 and 1980 under GTM Cars as part of KMB Autosports in Wellingborough . Peter Beck, Paddy Fitch and Douglas Cowper took over the project in 1980 and founded GTM Cars . Cowper left the company shortly thereafter. By 1995 they produced around 600 vehicles. In 1986 a second model was added to the range that GTM Cars offered until 2003. In 1995 Peter Leslie of Primo Designs in Stoulton took over the production of the original model and continued it until 2001. In 2007 the company was taken over by Potenza Sports Cars , who have owned Westfield Sportscars since 2006 . In 2010, the marketing of vehicles under this brand name ended.

vehicles

Manufactured kit cars . The bodies are made of fiberglass . The initially mounted four-cylinder engines with 998 cc displacement and 36 hp and 1275 cc and 53 hp came from the Mini . Later engines from Rover and VW were used.

The main model was the GTM Coupé . Production took place between 1967 and 2001 by various manufacturers. A total of about 700 copies were made.

The next model was the GTM Rossa . GTM Cars produced three versions between 1986 and 2003. The coupe designed by Richard Oakes with 2 + 2 seats was initially powered by a mini-engine. About 200 kits were produced from the first version by 1990, and about 150 kits from the second, called Mk 2, by 1993. The third version, the K 3 , had a Rover engine. In 2003 the production of this model ended after about 400 kits. Justin Gudgeon of Northlight Sportscars took over the project, but made only one Northlight K 4 vehicle until 2004 .

The GTM Libra was in production at GTM Cars from 1998 to 2007 and at Westfield until 2010. This was a mid-engined coupe. Motors from Rover and Honda provided the drive. A total of around 200 vehicles were built.

The GTM Spyder was the open version of the GTM Libra. GTM Cars from 2000 to 2003, RDM Automotive until 2007 and Westfield Sports Cars together produced around 65 kits until 2010.

The GTM Ballista from GTM Cars (RDM Automotive) corresponded to the Larini from Sculptural Engineering . After the presentation at an exhibition in January 2007, this project ended.

The GTM 40 TR from the same manufacturer also remained a prototype . It was presented at two exhibitions in 2007 and 2008.

literature

  • George Nick Georgano: Cars. Encyclopédie complète. 1885 à nos jours. Courtille, Paris 1975. (French)
  • Steve Hole: AZ of Kit Cars. The definitive encyclopaedia of the UK's kit-car industry since 1949 . Haynes Publishing, Sparkford 2012, ISBN 978-1-84425-677-8 , pp. 114-115 (English).

Web links

Commons : GTM  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ GTM joins Potenza Sport Cars ( Memento from July 25, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (English, accessed on September 16, 2012)
  2. ↑ D'Auto (Dutch, accessed October 25, 2014)
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Steve Hole: AZ of Kit Cars. The definitive encyclopaedia of the UK's kit-car industry since 1949 . Haynes Publishing, Sparkford 2012, ISBN 978-1-84425-677-8 , pp. 114-115 (English).