Gordon-Keeble
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Gordon-Keeble was a British car marque, conceived in
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, then constructed in
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, and finally in
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(all in
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), between 1964 and 1967. The marque's badge was unusual in featuring a tortoise — a pet tortoise walked into the frame of an inaugural photo-shoot, taken in the grounds of the makers. Because of the irony (the slowness of tortoises) the animal was chosen as the emblem.


Design

The Gordon-Keeble came about when John Gordon (formerly of the struggling Peerless company) and Jim Keeble got together in 1959 to make the Gordon GT car – initially by fitting a Chevrolet Corvette
V8 engine A V8 engine is an eight- cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. Origins The first known V8 was the Antoinette, designed by Léon Levavasseur, a ...
into a chassis by Peerless – for a USAF pilot named Nielsen. The concept proved impressive, and subsequently a 4.6 litre
Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ) is an American automobile division of the manufacturer General Motors (GM). In North America, Chevrolet produces and sells a wide range of vehicles, from subcompact automobiles to medium-duty commercial trucks. Due to the promi ...
(283 c.i.) V8 was fitted into a specially designed square-tube steel spaceframe chassis, with independent front suspension and all-round disc brakes. The complete chassis was then taken to
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, Italy, where Bertone built a body made of steel panels, designed by
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. The car's four five-inch headlights featured the rare, slightly angled "slanted" arrangement also used for a few other European marques, generally for high-speed cars such as
Lagonda Rapide The Lagonda Rapide is a hand built full-sized luxury four-door grand tourer which was produced by Aston Martin from 1961 until 1964. Description Based on the Aston Martin DB4, it was David Brown's attempt to revive the Lagonda marque which ...
, Lancia Flaminia and Triumphs, as well as for Rolls-Royce. The interior had an old luxury-jet feel, with white-on-black gauges, toggle switches, and quilted aircraft PVC. The car appeared on the Bertone stand at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1960, branded simply as a Gordon. At that time problems with component deliveries had delayed construction of the prototype, which had accordingly been built at breakneck speed by Gruppo Bertone in precisely 27 days. After extensive road-testing the car was shipped to
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and shown to Chevrolet management, who agreed to supply Corvette engines and gearboxes for a production run of the car.


Production

The car was readied for production with some alterations, principally a larger 5.4-litre (327 c.i.) Chevrolet V8 engine and a change from steel to a
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body initially made by Williams & Pritchard Limited and later in-house. Problems with suppliers occurred, and before many cars were made the money ran out and the original Gordon-Keeble Automobile Company Ltd went into liquidation. About 90 cars had been sold at what turned out to be an unrealistic low price of £2798, £1400 lower than an Aston Martin or half the price of the cheapest Ferrari. Each car had two petrol tanks. In 1965 Harold Smith and Geoffrey West bought the company and re-registered it as Keeble Cars Ltd. Production resumed, but only for a short time, the last car of the main manufacturing run being made in 1966. A final example was actually produced in 1967 from spares, bringing the total made to exactly 100. The Gordon-Keeble Owners' Club claim that over 90 examples still exist. An attempt was made to restart production in 1968 when an American, John de Bruyne, bought the rights to the car, but this came to nothing, although two cars badged "De Bruyne" were shown at that year's New York Motor Show along with a new mid-engined
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.


See also

*
List of car manufacturers of the United Kingdom :''This list is incomplete. You can help by adding correctly sourced information about other manufacturers.'' Major current marques Current manufacturers ;A *AC Cars, AC (1908–present) *Action Automotive (2004–present) *Aeon Spo ...


References


External links


Gordon-Keeble Club website
{{British Car Industry Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of England Cars introduced in 1963 Bertone vehicles Grand tourers Sports car manufacturers Cars discontinued in 1967