1970 Ginetta G15

[Darkspeed]

Turns out that this....





....may be an ex factory demonstrator that was a feature car in many road test reports of the period. Having looked at a couple of road test write ups there are few details even visible in the couple of photo's that I took that confirm it as very likely.

[Sweetpea]

Jul 5, 2021 14:25:50 GMT Darkspeed said:

...there are few details even visible in the couple of photo's that I took that confirm it as very likely.

It had trees growing out of it back in the day? Interesting design feature but I suppose it was a different time.

I'll just be going now...

[Darkspeed]

Jul 5, 2021 18:40:08 GMT Sweetpea said:

Jul 5, 2021 14:25:50 GMT Darkspeed said:

...there are few details even visible in the couple of photo's that I took that confirm it as very likely.

It had trees growing out of it back in the day? Interesting design feature but I suppose it was a different time.

I'll just be going now...

There's always one....

[bertrand]

This is a fascinating thread. One thing I don't understand however, in connection with the chassis fabrication, is the construction of the front section. If the front is made of continuous tubes, coloured red in the photo- how did Ginetta get the angle into the front bit- the chassis angles upwards towards the front doesn't it? Did they cut a V out of the tubes to achieve this?

[Darkspeed]

Jul 6, 2021 19:17:49 GMT bertrand said:

Did they cut a V out of the tubes to achieve this?

Yes, they did just that.

[biturbo228]

Great find Darkspeed! It pays to be known as a person who has lots of a given type of car. People tend to ring you up with stuff like this

Any ideas on the general plan, or is it currently 'dig it out of the undergrowth and see what's what'?

[Darkspeed]

Jul 7, 2021 11:44:08 GMT biturbo228 said:

Great find Darkspeed! It pays to be known as a person who has lots of a given type of car. People tend to ring you up with stuff like this

Any ideas on the general plan, or is it currently 'dig it out of the undergrowth and see what's what'?

It has its benefits but also its drawbacks because for every sensible contact you have to deal with twice the amount of time wasting idiots who want everything for nothing.


The plan is to get these dug out, pressure washed off and then stacked in a covered barn for 12 months to dry out - once they have dried the shells can be inspected to see the extent of the damage to the glass fibre and just how rotten the chassis’s are also will have had time to make an inventory to see if all the parts are there.

Honestly to rebuild either one of these is unlikely to be financially viable. They would be the labour of love of a mad person to take these on.

[jonomisfit]

[Source] Darkspeed said:

They would be the labour of love of a mad person to take these on.

I look forward to your new thread on them 😁

[Darkspeed]

Bit of work today on completing the hose joiners as I was on the lathe anyway











And then onto the modification of the window frames for KBW molebert - these are now tacked and ready for test fitting.
























And thats me about up to date with jobs for others - now back on my own car for a bit.

[Darkspeed]

Feature from Custom Car July 1972 -Joint test with a Fiat 124 - 124 not a big car but look at the size of it in comparison to the G15





A fair bit happened to that car in the last 50 years !

[jjeffries]

They are such pretty cars. Them, Elan’s, Clan Crusaders … the plastic fantastics.

John

[Darkspeed]

Jul 11, 2021 23:56:43 GMT jjeffries said:

They are such pretty cars. Them, Elan’s, Clan Crusaders … the plastic fantastics.

John

Can't quite get to agree on the Clans being pretty but the G15 is often compared and referred to as a baby Elan - The Elan similarity is especially strong from the back. Ivor Walklett drawing A LOT of inspiration from the Lotus.






Plans are made and equipment is now packed up and ready to go and do some gardening tomorrow!

[jamesd1972]

Welding gloves are good for dealing with brambles !
Drink lots...
James

[75swb]

Jul 19, 2021 16:05:41 GMT Darkspeed said:

Plans are made and equipment is now packed up and ready to go and do some gardening tomorrow!

This took me longer than I care to admit to register... I thought there wouldn't be any car updates because you were gardening, then it clicked! Can't wait to see the results

[Darkspeed]

A long rather warn day that involved many rest brakes and drinking lots and lots of fuids.

Turns out is was Reg's 88th birthday - Roy took ownership of the cakes !



Did I mention it was bloody warm - Arrived at 10:30 and then grafted un til 16:30 apart from the cake break.

There are 3 chassis

Chassis from the - works demo / sprint car





Chassis from the racer





And the one originally seen is a spare chassis removed from a car that was fitted with a replacement.





Decision was made to take the racer away first as it had the most complete chassis and body and could be filled with as much as we could stuff into it.





The racer also had an aluminium cage which we managed to feed in through the rear window as I did not want to risk disturbing the doors and hinges.

A good number of alloys and odds and ends and 4 good seats




Racer chassis missing parts - also found some damage to the chassis which was caused by Roy running out of talent at Silverstone.

A bit of rot





Patina


















Back again in a couple of weeks from more removals

[Darkspeed]

More Patina,

[Darkspeed]

Quick update

The factory Demo/Sprint car has found an owner with the future son-in-law - Yay more work for me! Hoping this will be more a case of guidance - we shall see.

The Racer will be a joint project between me and the cake meister. He already has plans for a long stroke 1200 Imp based on a new Sunbeam B1 block and a very hot big valve head etc. etc. I rather fancy seeing what I can do with the the VW Aero lump.

We are getting quite a collection of G15's in these parts. Road cars, Rally cars, Race cars, Sprint cars, Factory Demo cars. - Whatever next.

[Darkspeed]

Small job started today - adjustable pedal pads for KBW - Sliced, cleaned and the mounting tubes turned up in the late - No bolts... and will not work without bolts.





Captain Itchy has also been quite busy lately - Body in Prime Coat.

[Darkspeed]

Another collection day and another G15 sitting on my lawn !


The sprint car / Factory demonstrator road test feature car - This needs a fair bit of work. One of the chassis was bobbed so that it would fit in my mates Vito.



















Some of the other parts we returned with. Poor old Gemini has had to be evicted for a short while.











More of the standard reinforced wishbones. Of the 5 pairs that we have 2 sets are the reinforced type.










Couple of VW boxes I brought back with me.



An odd Davrian wishbone - PM if interets to RR's



Unlikely I will be doing anything with the VW stuff - there is the short stroke development crank - just the one aero barrel - but I think parts for two engines barrels / crank cases heads etc. I know nothing about these things - johnthesparky is the VW stuff of any use to you? Collection from MK14 - probably going to scrap otherwise. 4 pistons look near new.


Also have a set of Celica Supra Iron Cross alloys - No centre caps - drop me a PM if any RR interest

Two of the three Imp engines are frozen but will get stripped as they are 533's so should yield the Sport cams etc. Also have a couple of new welding projects as there is a newish Imp sport manifold that has been cropped for some reason and a 40's combined that looks in very good condition but has also been cropped! The Imp sport will find a new life on the Sprint car and the combined will probably find its way onto the racer.




I think this orange thing with the black object is a VW specific engine stand - will test its validity when I get 5

More G15 front hubs than we have G15's for mixed with allsorts

Next trip is another load of boxes we need to go through I think there is a is a full injection system - Bosch K jet from a Porsche 924 that was destined to be used on the VW engine .... I think.

[johnthesparky]

Oooh yes, gearboxes look interesting, but would take more rather than it going to scrap, I’ll pm you