Gordon-Keeble

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Gordon-Keeble GT
Gordon-Keeble
Gordon-Keeble cockpit view
Side view
Rear view
emblem

Gordon-Keeble was a British automobile manufacturer, first in Slough, then in Eastleigh and finally in Southampton (all in England) made between 1963 and 1967. The trademark was a turtle.

description

The Gordon Keeble was born when John Gordon - formerly employed by the Peerless automaker - and Jim Keeble came together in 1959 to manufacture the Gordon GT by assembling a Buick 3.5 liter V8 engine into a Peerless chassis. The car - still in the development stage - was then tested. It had a Chevrolet - V8 engine in an electrically welded chassis out of square tubes with independent front suspension to two unequal length wishbones with coil springs and a Marles- worm and sector . Disc brakes were installed all around. At the rear, the Gordon Keeble received a De-Dion axle with four trailing arms , a Watt linkage for lateral guidance and coil springs. The rolling chassis was then sent to Turin, where Bertone built a sheet steel body drawn by Giugiaro . The four 5 "headlights of the car were arranged so that the car had a" Mongolian look ", an arrangement that was only used by a few other manufacturers, such as Rolls-Royce and Triumph .

The completed car was exhibited on the Bertone stand at the 1960 Geneva Motor Show . The vehicle was called the Gordon GT when it was presented . After extensive road testing, the car was sent to Detroit and shown to the Chevrolet management, which then agreed to deliver 4.6 liter V8 engines and transmissions for the Chevrolet Corvette for production.

The construction was then prepared for production. It received the larger 5.4 liter engine from the Chevrolet Corvette and a body made of glass fiber reinforced plastic (GRP). There were problems with suppliers; Even before the official start of production, the money ran out and the company had to declare its insolvency. A pilot series of around 90 cars was sold at a price of GBP 2,798 (approx. 52,200 euros today).

In 1965, Harold Smith and Geoffrey West bought the company and left it as Keeble Cars Ltd. enter. Production started, but only for a short time. The last vehicle of this period was made in 1966. Another car was built from spare parts in 1967, bringing the total number of all Gordon Keebles produced to exactly 100.

Another attempt by De Bruyne Motor to restart production in 1968 failed.

Others

In one episode of the English crime film series " Waking the Dead ", a Gordon Keeble is an important lead.

Web links

Commons : Gordon-Keeble  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Roger Gloor: Post-War Cars, Passenger Cars 1945-1960, Cologne, 1994, ISBN 3-8228-8994-X , p. 175.
  2. http://www.gordonkeeble.org.uk/Technical-/GK-specification/gk-specification.html
  3. http://www.gordonkeeble.org.uk/Technical-/GK-specification/chassis2.JPG
  4. Michael Sedwick: The most beautiful cars of the 50s and 60s, Düsseldorf, 1983, ISBN 3-430-18264-6 , p. 176.
  5. http://radical-mag.com/2019/05/25/gordon-keeble/
  6. George Nick Georgano (Editor-in-Chief): The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile. Volume 2: G – O. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Chicago 2001, ISBN 1-57958-293-1 , p. 638. (English)