Ginetta

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Ginetta Cars

logo
legal form Limited
founding 1957
Seat Leeds , UK
management Lawrence Tomlinson
Branch Automobile manufacturer
Website www.ginettacars.co.uk

Ginetta Cars is a British company founded in Witham , Essex in 1957 by brothers Bob, Ivor, Trevers and Douglas Walklett . Since then, Ginetta has been producing sports cars in very small numbers, some in kit form, some fully assembled. Some models were purely competition vehicles, others were also approved for road traffic. The vehicles from Ginetta usually have a tubular steel frame, have a fiberglass body and are designed to accommodate various four, six or eight-cylinder engines. The brand name Ginetta, which was introduced with the G2, refers to the Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida.

Company history

The Ginetta Cars company has its roots in agricultural machinery production . In 1957, the owners began to design individual sports cars that were initially intended for personal use. In 1962, the Walklett brothers sold agricultural machinery and concentrated on the production of sports cars. A year earlier they had presented the Ginetta G4 , which was produced until 1969 and, with more than 500 copies, is one of the brand's most successful vehicles. The Ginetta G15 , presented in 1968, was even more successful and more than 800 vehicles were built by 1974. Apart from the sporting performance of the cars, the widespread use of the models was mainly due to the fact that they were usually sold as tax-privileged kits, so that the sales price was far below that of competing models - such as the MGB . That changed in April 1973 when the UK introduced VAT . Since it was also collected on kit vehicles, the price advantage of the Ginetta models was significantly lower in the future. Ginetta therefore switched production to fully assembled vehicles from 1974 onwards. Sales dropped significantly in the following years.

In the 1980s, the company focused on complete vehicles using engineering components and body panels from Ford's UK subsidiary. The original model was called Ginetta G26 ; further versions were derived from it.

In 1989 the Walklett brothers sold Ginetta Cars to a group of investors. Ivor Walklett initially worked as a consultant for the company, but withdrew after just one year after disagreements about future planning. In 1992, together with his brother Trevers, he founded the company Dare (Design and Research Engineering), which, on behalf of a Japanese importer who had meanwhile acquired the production rights, produces Ginetta G4 and G12 models according to old construction plans as new vehicles. After another change of ownership in the mid-1990s, Ginetta Cars was taken over by British entrepreneur Lawrence Tomlinson in 2005 . From 2007, under his leadership, a number of sports and racing cars were built that competed in higher classes or market niches than the earlier Ginetta models.

Current models

For the 2012 model year, Ginetta offered several types of road and racing vehicles.

Ginetta G40

Ginetta G40

The Ginetta G40 is offered in a street version (G40R) and in differently revised racing versions. It is a two-seater hatchback coupe based on a tubular steel frame. The body is made of plastic. In the street version, the car is powered by a 140 hp Duratec HE four-cylinder engine from Ford, which has a displacement of 1.8 liters. The G40 weighs 850 kilograms when ready to drive. The top speed is specified at the factory as 140 miles per hour (approx. 225 km / h); the car accelerates from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 5.8 seconds.

Ginetta G60

The Ginetta G60 is a mid-engined sports car with a 3.7 liter six-cylinder engine. The car is the further development of a sports car that was initially known as the Farboud GTS . Its manufacturer, the Bath- based company Farbio, was taken over by Ginetta in 2010. The top speed of the G60 is given as 165 miles per hour (approx. 265 km / h).

Ginetta Akula

Ginetta Akula

At the Geneva Motor Show 2019, a new model was presented with the Ginetta Akula.

Racing car

Ginetta G50 racing in the 2011 Swedish GT series

Ginetta also offers the G50 and G55 models for racing applications. They are further developments of the G40, which are equipped with larger motors. In the case of the G50, it is a 3.5 liter six-cylinder engine with an output of 300 hp, while the G55 is a 3.7 liter six-cylinder engine with 370 hp.

Earlier models

Ginetta G4

Ginetta G4 in racing

The best-known model is the G4 presented in 1961, which was reissued as the G27 in the 1980s. The Ginetta G4 also became known in Germany, once through the racing driver and tuner for DKW engines, Wolf-Dieter Mantzel, who, commissioned by the Whitham plant, fitted a G4 delivered to him with one of his prepared DKW two-stroke engines and on the 1000th km race at the Nürburgring in 1963, another time by Wim Thoelke , who was known as the ZDF sports studio presenter at the time and who planned the distribution of the coupé in Germany together with the newly founded motorsport magazine Rallye Racing , a project that was also carried out by Stern magazine was followed with interest (a Ginetta G4 was assembled step by step for this purpose, the process was photographed and published). As a further development, a G4 IRS (independent rear suspension) with rear independent wheel suspension and Lotus twin cam engine was also offered from the mid-1960s.

Later models of the brand took up the technical concept of the G4 and its design. They included the Ginetta G27 and G33.

Ginetta G12

The G12 model was a bold design from 1966, emerging from the great success with the G4 Coupé. The intention was to continue the flourishing sales with a new, technically state-of - the-art mid-engine sports car . Ginetta was planning a series production in this direction before Lotus (Lotus Europa) and Matra (Matra Djet), which both made their debut in 1967. Initially the Cosworth SCA engine with 1 liter displacement, later the 1.6 liter Lotus-Twin-Cam engine, which was interlocked with a Hewland gearbox based on a Volkswagen Type 1, was installed later. The sales figures were not as expected, however, because the uncompromising racing technology was only partially suitable for road use, the vast majority of all copies (approx. 40) were used in racing.

Ginetta G10 and G11

Formally based on the MG B, the G 10 / G11 model, a lush front-engined sports car, was developed at the same time as the G12. Either the 1.8-liter unit of the MGB (G11) or, in analogy to the Sunbeam Tiger or TVR Griffith , the American 4.7-liter Ford eight-cylinder (G10) were used as the engine. In contrast to the competition, the product had little success - only six of the G10 were produced - as a result of which the Walklett company, which had grown in the meantime, ran into financial difficulties. The low production was mainly due to the delayed supply of parts by British Leyland, who saw the G11 as a competitor to the MGB.

Ginetta G16

The Ginetta G16 was the first and, at the same time, the last attempt to participate in motorsport in the larger displacement class. For the 2-liter class, engines from Cosworth , BMW and BRM were used, for the larger displacement class (over 3 liters) the 3.5-liter V8 Oldsmobile . A maximum of ten G16s were probably built.

Ginetta G15

Ginetta G15

The brand's most successful model was the G15, presented in 1968, a small two-seater rear-engined coupé that was equipped with the 875 cc engine from the Hillman Imp . The complete drive technology also came from the Imp. By 1974 a little more than 800 copies were sold as kitcars and as finished vehicles. A special feature of the G15 is a completely foldable rear, which completely exposes the subframe including the unit motor-gearbox-rear axle and enables expansion with very little effort. About 10% of the production was sold as "S" version with the IMP 998 engine. The Ginetta G21 presented in 1973 was similar in design and looked like a hatchback version of the G15, but had a front engine. Around 180 copies were produced until 1978.

Other models

  • Ginetta G2
  • Ginetta G3
  • Ginetta G22
  • Ginetta G23
  • Ginetta GRS
  • Ginetta G25
  • Ginetta G28
  • Ginetta G31
  • Ginetta G32

Brand name Fairlite

Between 1959 and 1963, Ginetta sold 40 body kits under the Fairlite brand . The model largely corresponded to the Ginetta G3 . Four-cylinder engines from the Ford Eight and Ford Ten powered the vehicles.

gallery

literature

  • Michael Schäfer: Kit for Fun . History of the company in: Oldtimer Markt, issue 6/2010, p. 12 ff.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ginettacars.co.uk - Lawrence Tomlinson ( Memento of the original from March 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English) accessed on May 15, 2015 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ginettacars.co.uk
  2. The vehicles of the Ginetta brand are usually female in German-speaking countries.
  3. Oldtimer Markt, issue 6/2010, p. 21.
  4. Uli Baumann: Ginetta Akula: carbon fiber racer with over 600 hp. In: auto-motor-und-sport.de. March 5, 2019, accessed March 16, 2019 .
  5. Michael Behrndt / Jörg-Thomas Födisch / Matthias Behrndt: ADAC 1000 km race. Heel Verlag, Königswinter 2008, ISBN 978-3-89880-903-0 .
  6. 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. 91 (English).