• Astonishing history file, just 4 owners from new
The Background
Here’s a great pub quiz fact for you – the Gordon-Keeble badge is a picture of a tortoise standing in a puddle of urine.
Yes, it’s true. Back in 1963, when the first prototype was completed at the company Slough headquarters there was no badge or bonnet mascot. The prototype was wheeled out for the company’s management to view and just as they were looking at it, a pet tortoise from a neighbouring industrial unit waddled into view. As a joke, one of the engineers picked it up and placed it on the car's bonnet as a mascot, whereupon the tortoise proceeded to relieve itself all over the freshly painted bodywork.
The tortoise inside a yellow circle became the company’s emblem from that day forward, but then Gordon-Keeble was never a company to do things in a conventional manner.
Founded by John Gordon and Jim Keeble, a British and an American businessman respectively, it had coupé bodywork designed by Bertone, mounted upon a spaceframe chassis.
A Gordon-Keeble would set you back £2,798 when new, or just under £50,000 in today’s money. Not bad for a handmade car with Ferrari 250 GTE rear tail lights (no, they’re not from a Rover P6, as so many believe).
Fitted with a 327 cubic inch (5.3-litre) Corvette V8 and a fibreglass body, the Gordon Keeble was the UK’s fastest four-seater with a top speed of 160 mph and 0-60 in just six seconds - quick even by today’s standards.
A total of 99 were completed, plus one more built in 1970 after the company had folded, making it a rare and exotic beast today.
This car had just one owner until 1994, who kept it for 30 years and maintained it regardless of cost. When he passed away, the car was then purchased by a private collector and then another in 1995 (both in Scotland). For 56 years, the car lived in Scotland but was sold last year by a specialist classic dealer to its current owner, who has used it to attend various historic events over the past 12 months.
He absolutely adores the car and is in two minds about selling it, but he's been given the opportunity to purchase a unique and well-known historic racing car and it's a chance he can't pass up, meaning that the Gordon-Keeble has to go to create space within his garage.
The car’s history is documented from new, including a rebuild in the early 2000s where it was given a number of upgrades, including lowered suspension, wider wheels, bumper removal and the front seats from a Jaguar XJS to replace the worn-out originals. Such modifications are common on Gordon-Keebles and tend not to detract from their overall values providing they’re sympathetically carried out - and this example is a gem.
the mileage of just under 47,000 is genuine and backed up by the car’s history file.
Accompanying the car is a substantial lever arch file, containing stacks and stacks of paperwork including bills and receipts going back to the late 1970s and a copy of the old-style blue V5 registration document.
There are also a series of photographs of the car’s restoration, which was completed in 2004. A number of the receipts come from Ernie Knott, the founder of the Gordon-Keeble Owners’ Club and a world-renowned expert on the marque, proving that the car has been maintained by those with the best calibre imaginable.
It's an astonishing history file but it runs to hundreds of pages, the most recent of which documents a full service carried out earlier this year at a cost of over £700.
Whichever angle you view it from, the Gordon-Keeble is an absolutely wonderful looking car. Its proportions are vast, yet they are also beautifully balanced making it one of the most handsome cars of the 1960s.
This car is a 17-year-old restoration and as a result it isn't perfect, but you have to look really closely to find the imperfections.
There are a couple of areas where there are micro blisters under the paint and there are also a few small cracks to the fibreglass finish on the near side front wheel arch, while on the driver side there's a small chip on the paint work just at the side up the headland bezel. The headlamps, incidentally, will be much easier to replace than the Ferrari taillamps - they're taken from a 1963 Humber sceptre. There’s also some trim missing inside the driver’s side door shut, exposing the fibreglass beneath.
The car is fitted with nearly-new Pirelli tyres all-round and the steel wheels with spin off centre caps are in excellent order.
There's a lot of aircraft heritage in Gordon-Keeble’s history and it's immediately evident from inside the cabin, with a huge central bank of switches emulating that of an aeroplane cockpit and a stylish four-dial dash.
The three-spoke wooden rimmed steering wheel is both a beautiful thing to hold and to look at and really sets the cabin off nicely.
The front seats are taken from a Jaguar XJS and are much more comfortable and supportive then the low-back originals that would have been fitted to the car, while the rear seat has been re-trimmed in the same colour and grain of leather.
It's a lovely looking interior and the colour scheme works beautifully alongside the dark metallic blue paint. All of the dials, switches and controls appear to work as they should.
Under the bonnet, you'll find Chevrolet's venerable 5.3-litre small-block V8, which is a famously reliable and unstressed engine capable of delivering impressive performance.
With such a tiny mileage, this one is barely run-in and it performs beautifully, registering good oil pressure and showing no signs of any leaks or rattles. It sounds incredible, too.
The vendor reports that the car drives extremely well and has completed a number of long journeys in the past year, and that the transmission, steering and brakes are all in good order.
This is an extremely rare opportunity to acquire a car that is a guaranteed talking point wherever you take it.
The combination of that lithe Italian styling, beefy V8 and incredible rarity make it a highly prized and collectible car and the modifications it has had should be viewed as tasteful improvements, as they serve to enhance the ownership experience.
It's a genuinely wonderful thing and also a great investment opportunity for the future.
Notice to bidders
Although every care is taken to ensure this listing is as factual and transparent as possible, all details within the listing are subject to the information provided to us by the seller. Car & Classic does not take responsibility for any information missing from the listing. Please ensure you are satisfied with the vehicle description and all information provided before placing a bid.
As is normal for most auctions, this vehicle is sold as seen, and therefore the Sale of Goods Act 1979 does not apply. All bids are legally binding once placed. Any winning bidder who withdraws from a sale, is subject to our bidders fee charge. Please see our FAQs and T&C's for further information. Viewings of vehicles are encouraged, but entirely at the seller's discretion.
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1964 Gordon Keeble
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