Cars on the Racing Scene

Within weeks of the prototype being finished and road tested by Autosport magazine in May 1960 it was the intention to race a GT at an MG meeting at Llandow airfield. Peter was to continue racing a variety of GTs in various forms throughout the 1960s. Quite a few of the cars were sold through Peters various racing acquaintances, notably to Lyndon Simms who had won the 1956 RAC rally in a Aston Martin DB2, Simms had also taken a 1st in class on the Tulip Rally in the same year. In 1963 it was intended to run a team of 3 Gilberns, those of Peter Cottrell, Lyndon Simms and Jack Lewis. Peter was the most consistent entrant, gradually up-rating his GT with a variety of engines, the original A35, A35 Supercharged, Coventry Climax, 1600 MGA and 1800 MGB. He raced 3 different Gilbern GTs of his own and then became involved with a special GT built by the factory in 1965.

This car was made for Ken Wilson, who had won the sprint championship in that period. Wilson was constantly being beaten by Peter in his GT and had adopted the attitude of if you can't beat them, join them, and preferably with something bigger! This resulted in a racing 4.5 litre V8 Chevrolet engine being squeezed into a GT chassis. The rear end was also replaced with a Jaguar independent rear axle. Various spares that Wilson had from BRM such as wheels and radiator were used on the car! Initial overheating problems, due to a cracked head, were cured but Ken Wilson seems to have found the car rather to much to handle and passed it over to Peter to fully sort. As can be imagined it was quite reasonable in the dry but required some delicate handling in the wet! Peter took many class wins in his various outing with the GTs at venues such as Llandow, Castell, Prescott and Shelsley Walsh. It was also at Prescott that Rivers Fletcher demonstrated a car in 1964. A Gilbern GT was also to appear at the 1st AMOC Wiscombe Park hill-climb, with a few exceptions there has been a Gilbern there ever year to the present day.

Ken Wilson with V8 GT 1966 Weston Super Mare Sprint

A GT1800 was also rallied in the mid-late 60s in the Motoring News championship, apparently taking some class wins, details unfortunately are not known.

Martin Ingle in the ex works Weslake Genie (at Wiscombe 15/4/73)

The factory itself did not actively participate in racing, leaving it to others to compete. After the factory was sold to ACE in 1968 there was some interest by the then owners in doing some semi official competition entries. One of the family members, Roger Collins had been heavily into collecting cars and had an active role, as he still does in the VSCC. The car that was built became known as the Westlake car. This was a Genie which was partially stripped out and fitted with a tuned Westlake Essex V6. That the car was very fast was in no doubt, but it was felt that the handling left something to be desired. Not wishing to publicly have an accident, and thereby reduce customer confidence, plans to race it were shelved, although it would later appear at Wiscombe in the hands of subsequent members of the owners club. It was used for a time as a works hack for collecting spares, and although abused and rarely running on 6 cylinders would apparently see off most things on the road.

Paul Scott with GT1800 at A.H.Club Sprint, Snetterton Oct 79

Martin Ingle leaving the start - AMOC members day Wiscombe 1971

The owners club had been founded in 1969 and it would be from this basis that a steadily increasing number of cars would appear at sprint and hill climb venues during the 1970s. The owner of the London Gilbern dealership, Emil Rosner would appear on the track in his Genie/Invader MkII. The Bristol dealership of G S Cars had also been racing a lightweight GT1800 during the 1960s. By the time that the Invader MkIII was due for release the factory were again thinking of competition and were planning to offer the Owners Club a lightweight MkIII to race, they were also anxious to see the T11 prototype finished as the original plan had been that a second car would be built for competition. Nothing ever came of these plans.

One of the prototype MkIIIs, which was a works car was converted in early 1973 by Donald Snows garage in Cardiff to take part in rallying. It did compete in a number of events and was crashed into a tree on at least one occasion. It also took part in a competitive caravan rally! Again details of actual events are at present unknown.
With the final demise of the factory in its proper form in 1974 it was left to the GOC to uphold the Gilbern honours on the race track. Throughout the 70s the numbers graduallyincreased with all models taking part. Two GT1800s were very highly tuned and were outright race cars although they were still used on the road. By the 80s things were really hotting up and members were starting to take things seriously with some very highly tuned cars. During this period up to 10 cars would appear at a meeting, 6 to 8 entrants was not uncommon. Most notable amongst these entrants was Bev Fawkes. His concours rebuilt Genie would be gradually up-rated until eventually it acquired a racing version of the V6 Essex and slick tyres. This proved to much for it and it was written off at Wiscombe in a horrendous shunt in 1983. Bev was not alone in tuning his car as others joined in to create some friendly rivalry. Nigel Ellis with his MkII had started with a standard car and again has constantly improved it, in the early days using Bevs cast off engines and tyres! 22 years later Nigel is still racing the car.	Nigel Ellis through the Esses - Wiscombe 1990
Nick Vandervell rounding the starting corner Wiscombe 1990	It usually runs semi slick tyres and has a 230 bhp engine running on triple Webers. It has over the years taken numerous class wins, and regularly beats race prepared Porsches and frequently gives concern for drivers of modern rally cars such as the Lancia Integrale. Other tuned Invaders have been run by Ian Wall, Don Williams and Nick Vandervell. There are many others who have competed, to many to list here. The highlight for Gilbern during this period was a meeting at Harewood hill climb in 1986. Admittedly this was a damp meeting but the MkIII Invader of Bev Fawkes and MkII of Nigel Ellis made it to the top ten runoff at the end of the meeting, these were the ten outright fastest cars on the day. They were amongst single seater Mallocks, Porsche 930 and a 7.2 litre McLaren Chevrolet! They finished 8th and 7th respectively. This resulted in Gilberns being nicknamed Gilbeams on the sprint/hillclimb scene, this being a reference to the Pilbeam which was and still is one of the quickest specialist single seater hill climb cars manufactured.

The 90s saw something of a tailing off in interest in the competition side with the notable exceptions of Nigel "Slicks in the Wet" Ellis and Nick Vandervell. Don Williams and Ian Wall were regularly competing at the northern meetings.

With the new century we are I believe about to see an increase in the competition side of Gilberns. Having rescued a MkIII that was raced in the mid 70s by Tony Bull, firstly with a supercharged V6 and then as it is now with a 3.5 litre V8, this car has now returned to the race track during 2000. We have had the event of 3 Gilberns all out together on the circuit and hopefully this is starting to encourage others to have an attempt at the sprint, hill climb scene. We have a number of cars being restored with the prime intention of racing. My other Gilbern, a much modified Genie/MkII hybrid has been built with this in mind. It features lowered suspension and all internal panelling has been replaced in aluminium to strengthen and lighten the car. This car will be gradually developed over the coming seasons into what I hope may be one of the best handling Gilberns around.

Mk3 V8 - Philip Ivimey/Steve Boniface & Mk3 Nick Vandervell Goodwood Estate 2001