The Incredible Gordon Keeble - The Best Car Ever To Have Failed
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- Опубликовано: 13 мар 2024
- It was car that deserved to succeed. It was better than many of Europe's big name GT cars, cheaper, faster and with a beautiful Italian designed body. Yet after only two year the company went bankrupt. Today I drive one and find out why it failed despite its brilliance!
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Ah, switches. Not a touchscreen in sight. Lovely!
Ah, switchgear! I remember it well and oft lament its passing.
Not to mention the visiblity.
No airbags either and I bet it had a full sized spare wheel. Also, probably rear wheel drive as the engine looked like it was mounted longitudinally. A thing of beauty.
It is hardly surprising that Gordon Keeble went bankrupt, irrespective of how good it clearly was. Lotus were good but were always being bailed out. Without David Brown’s finance Aston Martin would have been continually bankrupt. Ferrari always struggled and were “helped out” by Fiat several times. Car making has massive economies of scale.
sean connery recalled a lunch with saltzman broccoli and david brown.after goldfinger.they told him for thunderball they needed db5s.however as they were a great advert for the company they insisted they only pay cost price not the 5000 pound list price because they were special customers .brown was surprised sean said but agreed ,make sure you insist on cost price in the contract so we have no misunderstanding.sean thougt it typical of the pair penny pinching a small supplier for he thought a couple of thousand pound they didnt need.brown had the last laugh however .they were invoiced for the cars cost 6000 pounds ! he lost a thousand per car but they were backed by his tractor profits! he was delighted theyd signed a contract that gave him full value.so was sean.they were greedy bastards and deserved it he said!
😂 Excellent 👌
As an employee of David Brown Tractors, we knew that the profits from Tractors and our sister company David Brown Gears were subsidising Sir David's vanity project at Aston Martin. Until in 1971 Aston Martin was sold and Tractors were sold to the American conglomerate Tenneco
Indeed, Aston Martin did not start seeing any form of profit (albeit technical if not real profit) until at least half way through the DB7 production run...
Just ask Henri Fisker. :(
My favourite car, bar none. Heartbreaking looks, gentleman’s club/fighter jet interior and a big V8. Thanks Jack.
I knew a former garage owner years ago who had one of these parked up in his home garage, being ‘restored’. I knew it was rare, but not that rare.
Hate to say it .This is the first time I've seen this car.
It's a real beauty 😊
I want one. I WANT one! The closest I'll ever get to owning a GK, I'm sure, was naming our two tortoises Gordon and Keeble.
After the first bancruptsey, the company was rescued by a Rolls Royce dealer in St John’s Wood called Harold Smith Motors and he sank everything into saving GK. After it all went pear shaped, he was reduced to being a humble mechanic and I had the pleasure of working with him, although I couldn’t keep pace with his drinking which went some way to the companies demise.
Strange that, in our society, a car dealer is "someone" and a, highly skilled, mechanic is "humble" I've been a mechanic all my 52 year working life and also when I was a kid, it has always been an underpaid and under respected trade ( the lack of respect is the only reason that so many fly by nights are out there).
Could not say that better
My father worked there!
@@stevefuller1779 Maybe he meant humbled in the sense of being a business owner who lost it all. Been there myself, and it is indeed humbling.
Oh man look at that interior, style over substance in spades and I'm here for it. Lovely.
Interiors like this reinforce my dislike of stupid giant touchscreens.
Indeed. I was just going to post that the interior is stunning.
Sorry, that console is hideous. Looks like a central control panel for a 1950s Russian nuclear reactor.
@@alexgerrits349you mean you don't like 1950s Russian nuclear reactors? ;)
@@gbspikyfish Well, when they are operational, they seem to be fine. However,, the Russian Leaders always need to conduct some unnecessary experiment to prove their expert can do something they can't do and the whole affair blows sky high... (or falls from space or implodes in the sea) Still, what I have seen looks like a depressing atmosphere as does that console.
Wow ! What a beautiful dashboard/centre console ! Why can't modern cars be this elegant ? Never mind footroom-have your left leg sawn off !!
Glorious machine. Stunning dashboard. EVERY manufacturer should take note of this. We need to go back to simplicity. Great video Jack, as always. 😊
What percentage of folk really want an Ipad type of thing glued to the dashboard?
@@Lucan-ve6zc: they spend much of their driving time being distracted by their smartphones anyway 😂
TBF a lot of cars of that era had simpler dashes than the G-K.
Truly glorious car, one of my all time favourites, thanks for featuring it!.
Many years ago one came up behind me as I was driving along in Aberdeenshire and (naughtily) I managed to take a picture via the (big) side mirror of my van!. Thing is, knowing what it was and how rare a sight it was, I was almost beside myself with excitement!. But sadly, nobody I knew was interested enough in cars to understand and share my excitement!
Thanks for testing this beautiful car, most of us in France didn't ever heard about it. Sad story, it deserved to be successful.
One of Giugiaro's all-time greats; from a time when he could do no wrong (Bertone days). One can definately spot the influences and similarities with his Giulia 105-series GT and [earlier] Alfa 2000/2600 coupe, but I think this one has the charm and class of its own. Thanks so much for this rare treat, Jack. You made my day w this one!
Built at Eastleigh Airport now Southampton Airport the home of the Spitfire. As I live nearby I believe my dad wrote a few articles on the car
I saw one of these in New Zealand in about 1965 and fell in love instantly! 60 years later, I am still only a Lottery win and a willing seller away from owning one. Fabulous car!
Good luck!
where in NZ?I seem to remember seeing one too?
Theres a nice blue one in Christchurch. The owner has had it for years and its mint. I took photos of it a couple of years back and talked to the owner.I really like them as well.
I first saw a photo of this car when I was 6 or 7 years old, in rural Australia, and my family was driving an Austin A30. I couldn't believe a car could be so beautiful, and the name, Gordon Keeble, sounded so exotic! It's still one on the best styled cars I've ever seen, Thanks for the video. And thanks to the owner for lending it to you.
Saw about 12 of these one day a few years ago in Ironbridge. What a sight. Beautiful motor, I've loved these since I was a kid.
Had that same motor in my full sized 62 Pontiac Parisienne here in Canada...and it STILL ripped that heavy car down the road!
JACK!!! You continually suprise me with these cars you get for this channel! It is always a pleasure learning more about these super cool cars.
Thanks!
Thanks Jack. I believe production was based in the old Spitfire factory at Eastleigh for a while. A great shame it wasn't able to succeed!
Forgot to mention the ultra small pillers in the cab giving great views.
Yes,very noticeable in the interior shots.
Fantastic looking thing, love the slanted headlights..
would love to see a review of a Hillman Imp! :-)
What a gem❤. Amazing that 95% of the original production cars are still around. Thanks for sharing this wonderful story.
Ow dear Lord, this is such a pretty car. Saw it in your YT Short with that music behind it and I melted, again.
First came across one of these years ago in an episode of Waking the Dead and the looks just stunned me instantly. In that episode it belonged to a drug dealer who fitted it with a 'special' petrol tank so he could carry some smokeable substances and the turtle logo was mentioned too.
Thank you for sharing, they are sooo rare and altogether loveable.
A Peugeot 504 Coupe look-alike.
Or vice versa - timewise.
Spot on. I had a 504, my first car, handed down from my parents. I was surprised to hear in this video the body was designed by Guigaro, and not Pininfarina.
Agree exactly what i thought,but still Great though.
Love the shape... the Rover-esque tail lights, and the front Chinese-eyes! so elegant!
Oi!!! That's r@cist!!!!!
@@shabbos-goy9407 well the Silver Cloud coupé of the same vintage was called 'Chinese eyes'...and the description of the slanted lights stayed, and is normally used for cars like the GK or the Jensen CV8
Austin taillights
Has some Lancia Flaminia vibes!
@@Schlipperschlopper pretty sure you mean Flaminia ( and I agree!)
Spot on Jack, Re the automatic and P.A.S, My late father restored a manual one about 30 years ago, GLB 5J, took him ages. When it was finished he took my mum for a drive, lasted about a mile and a half and turned around to go back home. He found the manual gearbox and with no P.A.S made it a very heavy car to drive, he sold it and bought another Jag.
It is a pretty car. The front reminds me a bit of the Lancia Flaminia Coupe.
One thing is clear. Many sensational luxury GT cars were offered in the Midsixties. People with big wallets had quite some choices. The prettiest among many Beauties was the Iso Grifo.
Most of those cars did not earn the manufacturers plenty of money and the production of many of those Beauties was quite slow.
European styling and US power was a very good comination. Those cars were actually much easier to maintain than other brands.
The sensational Facel Vega, Monteverdi, Iso Rivolta, Intermeccanica, De Tomaso and others took this route.
I guess you can add Jensen and Rover to the list? And Range Rover, though not launched before 1970, but then keeping the britified Buick 215 CID (3.5 liter) V8 running for more than 30 years.
By "Britified" I mean, among else, different carburettors and injection systems, and increase in displacement from 3.5 liter to 3.9 to 4.2 and finally the 4.6 liter in the Range Rover P38A
@@sallhame That is what I meant by others. I stuck mainly to the sportier makes and models.
I own classic Italian and mainly American cars of the Sixties. I am always pissed if some snobs regard American cars as lower than European makes.
For those who care. Car and driver did compare a big block 65 Catalina against a Ferrari 2+2. Guess which one would accelerate much faster?
And the compression of Pontiacs was already 10.5 to 1, compared to about 9 to 1 of most Ferraris of the time.
Having 95 out of about a hundred Gordon Keebles still on the road must also be a testament to the build quality and of course the fact that the body is fibreglass. In the UK and Europe rust is always the killer of vehicles, but fibreglass avoids that problem.
That console is insane, like a space ship
Beautiful. Just beautiful. I'd love one of these 👍🙂
It's a beautiful car .... so stylish. And I like your "it's a GT not a sports car" comment. Soooo many GT's are regarded as "sports" cars when they aren't. Alfa GT 04-10 is one.
Jack, I've been watching your content after recently subscribing to the channel and I really love the insight and backstory of the cars featured in the videos!^^
Keep up the great work and warm regards to you from Indonesia.
Looks quintessentially British, like a Deerstalker hat on wheels. Visions of Turtle neck sweaters, gentleman brogues, briar wood pipe and a stash of Dunhill tobacco in the jacket pocket of a Harris tweed jacket draped over the rear seats 😂
Stunning car and video.
It's that time again.
Home from a long days work.
Cold beer.
Let us have a look what's happening on youtube.
And hey presto!
There is number 27, waiting to be devoured!!
Awesome Jack. Thanks.
Greetings from the Netherlands
Just watching the wheel move over the bumps you can see it ride's beautifully with a compliance rarely seen in modern car's.
Absolutely brilliant video jack ❤👍 what a beautiful car absolutely stunning car brilliant
A 327 Chevy is never a bad idea. This is a beautifully understated but elegant car. This could have lived in the same space as the Jensen Interceptor had it had a chance. Great video!
Could have been a Jensen in between the CV8 and the Interceptor.
I’m so glad I grew up during a time when such cars were possible. The never again cars and times. RIP.
A lovely looking car
2:00 it's a tortoise not a turtle. Completely different animal
You say completely different, most would say variations on a theme!
Yes, I thought the mascot was a tortoise.
Not a great trademark for a a sporty car.
@johnmunro4952, a tortoise is a type of turtle!
@@curlyspikes7114 However, in the race with a Hare, the Tortoise wins !!!
In the late 60’s a kid at my school used to be dropped off/picked up in a Gordon Keeble that externally looked the same as this one. The ‘slab’ of switches was backed by a large stainless steel patterned plate. The engine burbled beautifully.
I have only seen one in all the intervening years. What a treat! Thank you.
Regarding the tortoise emblem...I was an apprentice at keewest developments in the late 1970s working for Jim Keeble & Geoffrey West....in Jim Keebles own words....''we were on a photoshoot for one of the cars & a tortoise appeared....I put it on the bonnet of the car where it proceeded to do a woopsie which lifted the paint!...we decided there & then that the GK would have to have a tortoise as its emblem''
A famous Liverpool club and boutique owner had one in the sixties that I used to drool over fell in love with the interior glad to see one on u tube
I remember seeing a Gordon Keeble in Christchurch, New Zealand in the early 1970s and it had the look of pure class. Especially the interior which does resemble the cockpit of an aeroplane with all the switchgear arrayed on the prominent centre console. The melodious burble of that V8 is a nice bonus.
a Gordon Keeble what a brilliant car Giugiaro at his best still quick and beautiful you wont find many for sale really valuable you can still see some peerless in the grille !!! one of the best cars you have driven yet jack!!
The saddest thing is that at least two of the 99 have been converted to electric power.
Amazing find, great car. Super video. Love the dashboard, it really shows the best of practical design. Like the idea of the progressive throttle, great way to discourage speeding and using fuel. It should be adopted today. The Company goes bankrupt due to a strike? Really, in Britain? Well nothing has changed there, we are headed in the same direction today.
Very cool and unusual car and what a great road test/review (as we`ve come to expect from this great channel!)
Such a beautiful car, one of my all time favourites along with a stunning badge design too. Keep up the good work Jack.
A really good looking car in the flesh. One of my flying instructors had one back in the '70s and it sounded and went very nicely. I believe they actually built 90 to start with and then another 10 after the liquidation when the company was briefly resurrected in '66-'67, so 100 in total and none after that date.
Really good review as ever, Thank you Jack. Great to meet you in person at Rustival too. All the best with the channel. 👍👍
Great vid as usual Jack, well researched, well edited and well presented - top job. Beautiful car too, I love that interior.
Must be more than 20 years ago that I've seen one in reality - strangely in Kiel, Northern Germany. It was a white one - a colour I always think about to be critical for a car, since it shows every design flaw - but it was so nice (and I knew what it was, which surprised myself). It was just parked at the side of a road, so I could not hear the sound, sadly. But now I could hear it, thanks for that.
Thank you for this video! I have heard so much about these cars but never seen a film of one before.
A beautiful British car that was curtailed by another strike. Thanks Jack!
Sad to see what happened in those years!! Have a great weekend!
Not just back then. It seems there are still people hell bent on ruining great cars.
But Thank goodness this isn’t the Gordon Keeble recently ruined by those EV criminals in Wales.
The way that crass vandal boasted about the numbers of surviving examples, knowing that he had just ripped the soul of it, was truly one of the most disturbing things I’ve ever seen.
The fake ‘climate change’ induced ‘net zero’ nonsense is what enables such disgusting vandalism. And it may well last a fair bit longer than the obviously fake so-called pandemic, but it will end one day, and the crimes committed by the EVangelists will NOT be forgotten, and they must NEVER be forgiven.
Peace 🏴
This Gordon Keeble is brilliant! I saw and filmed a pair (one a prototype) at the last London Classic Car Show! The mission, if you choose to accept it, is to track down this cars predecessor, the Slough built Peerless. Keep bringing us cars like these.👍🏾
Absolutely. Peerless GT review please
We had chassis number 57 in the family in the 70's. It turned up about a mile from where I lived, 350 miles away from where it was when I grew up, after a 20 year disappearance, and I tried to buy it, but it wasn't to be. The prices have since spiralled, so that dream's over now.
WOW LOOKS STUNNING, SOUNDS INCREDIBLE, INTERIOR LOOKS GLORIOUS, LOVE THIS CAR..CAN I GET ONE OF THE 80 PRODUCED? GREAT REVIEW THANK YOU --Number 27
There is a Gordon-Keeble and a 260z 2+2 Super Samuri that have both both been sat under tarps slowly rotting local to me for the last 20 years. Such a shame. The guy that owns them when asked about them claimed he was waiting for them to be collected for scrap. Great to have a little more info on the GK, brilliant video!
Certainly a great review, if not one of your best. Side and rear view, stunning, front, so very beautiful. The interior is just simply gorgeous, I adore the sloped instrument panel, the contrast of the black and brown is stunning. What an absolutely beautiful car. Nothing better than a classic 1960's car. Thank you so much for finding this gem. The video was fantastic.
Perfect proportions, one of the most beautiful cars ever built
Ive only ever seen one in real life. That was about 15 years ago. It's stayed with me ever since. THAT'S how nice this car is.
Love your work Jack! Thanks for all the lovely old interesting cars!
Jack thanks for featuring this car. I had known about this car in the late 1960's and had seen a few pictures. One was reportedly sent to Australia but I can find no record of it. It is a very pretty (?) car. No, I think attractive and balanced. But I finally get to see one. It has taken a long time! Your videos and selection of cars just gets better each time. You should feel proud that people are willing to loan such gems to you. That is high praise from owners. It is about time you ran another video of your Lotus.
The official 0-60 time for the Gordon Keeble was 6.2 seconds.
Hey Jack, I just got to say I really love your channel on here on RUclips. Just discovered it not long ago and I know about the Gordon cable. I've read about it before and from the first time I ever saw it. It always struck me as being just incredibly pretty. Such a beautiful car and I've always been a sucker for incredible, well designed cars and the Gordon keeble does not disappoint whatever shortcomings it has for me. It would be worth it. I mean such an incredibly pretty car it's just a shame they didn't produce more of them and produce them for much longer. But keep it up. Love the channel! Keep you up the great work. Look forward to you next video
The sound is beautiful!
Very informative video which I enjoyed very much. Well done.
I just love it when you talk about size 11 feet. Mine are French size 46. I drive a 74 Peugeot 504 coupe.
The rear and the roofline and pillar joining to the tail look really classy - as do the overall proportions.
Personally, striking as it is, the front is my least favourite aspect.
I’d love to see you review and Alvis of similar vintage - a car I would have bought, had I not been saving to get married.
That's a beautiful thing Jack I have heard of that make never realised it was so cool thanks for featuring it 😁👍
Fascinating thanks Jack. I’ve seen these for sale over the years in UK classic car mags but had no idea what they were all about. Thanks for filling the gap in my knowledge
Part of the consortium buy out was Harold Smith motors of Park Road St. John’s Wood.My father worked there and I remember at the age of 6 sitting in and playing in new ones for sale in the showroom and my dad taking me out for a drive… we had the turtle insignia as our doorbell at home.. my dream car..
Cortina racks have been swapped in (if memory serves me) so it is a shame that the factory did not make an emergency conversion, when faced with the Adwest supply issue!
As many have already said, once I'd seen the dash and centre console, I didn't much care about the performance. That's an added bonus. But interior wise, matt black with chrome dials and switches. Who could want for more?
Beautiful cars, I do remember seeing one as a child in London. Gorgeous looks and that interior!!!! Thanks Jack for yet another great video!
Must confess I often put Jack's videos on for background while I'm pottering. I never miss a word but don't usually see all of the footage. This one, however, was a case of pour a drink and stay glued to the screen. Fascinating. I knew production was only in double figures but didn't know the whole story.
I love the looks of the car and the dashboard and switchgear layout is brilliant. It's a car which could push the E39 off the top of my bucket list.
Very cool car, Jack. Thank you for showing yet another unique salon I've never seen before and it's gorgeous. Peace.
What an epic car, I remember them. It sounds a bit like the story an old friend once told me of fishing rods. An old friend was one of the first to sell carbon fiber fishing rods, and when he first imported them he tried to sell them at a knock down price, but no one would buy them. A friend of his came buy and told him that they were too cheap. No one will buy them at that price since they are not "value for money". So he took them out of the window for a month, put them back at twice the price, and from that point on could never get enough to meet demand. Keeble was the same.
Never heard of it , now i have !
You don't think the turtle maybe was a nod to Nuvolari? But what a lovely car.
Cool dash and ‘center gadget’ panel
Hello Jack! What a priveledge for all you putting us in the driver's seat of this glorious Gordon Keeble. That beautiful design of that epoque could only be Italian... the recent passing away of the great Marcello Gandini being one of them.
Many motoring writers of yesteryear praised the Gordon Keeble. To me it's GT style and ability brings to mind the fabulous, and French, Facel Vega HK 500...
As an anecdote, I belive the cars were all "road tested" to 140mph... in the name of safety I'm sure!
Thank you (and Len) so much for showing us all this English masterpiece.
I have always liked the Gordon Keeble, 'incredible' is a very good description. The interior is just as nice with all those switches in the centre consul they really set the car off and someone has done a good job with the re-trim. Not forgetting of course that V8 sound burbling away! Would they have survived if they used rack and pinion steering? Who knows but as someone else has said making cars requires big investment. In the early 60's we still had the legacy of WW2 hanging over us in terms of the economy so small independents needed to have quite deep pockets to succeed. Such a shame they were not able to build more cars. 👍👍
What an absolutely charming car, imagine it in dark metallic blue with ivory hide! Thanks for the back story Jack.
In the early 1980's, I regularly saw a red forlorn Gordon Keeble car parked in St. Charles Place, just adjacent to Ladbroke Grove. I often wonder if that car survived, it made such an impression on me that fifty years later, I can still recall where it was parked.
Great item 😊
Tortoise, not turtle. Pedants'R'Us :)
Whilst I’d agree with you in that if it’s on land I call it a tortoise and in water a turtle, tortoises are actually turtles. All tortoises are turtles but not all turtles are tortoises.
Tbf the emblem could be a turtle.
The pet tortoise on the other hand........ 😂
And note, there are also terrapins!
I remember L. J. K. Setright adored these cars. I cannot think of this vehicle without his reference to it as the "late, lamented, Gordon-Keeble" popping into my mind.
Thanks for sharing this classic with us. 😎
Thanks Jack! I've been hoping you'd cover this car.
What a beautiful car, such speed and style. I am not at all surprised that some 95 of the 100 manufactured are still with us.
I always thought the look of them was like a big Alfa Romeo 105 coupe.
Jack I always enjoy ALL your productions. The Gordon Keeble was one of my favorite cars in the 60's. Very interested in its history.
As a Yorkshire lad who left the UK shores in the early 70's I love to see the countryside where you are driving. One day I hope to return
What a lovely old thing - I swapped a friend’s one for a weekend with my (then) fairly new AM V8 Vantage in the late 80’s, and I really didn’t want to give it back - remembering that makes me want to go and find one and finally scratch that itch! Great video, thanks.
Love this video, thanks for the education. I knew of Gordon Keebles but never this detail. Thanks Jack!
Back in the early 80's as I walked to school, there was one of these parked on the side of the road. Stunning car. Lots of styling cues from the Triumph Vitesse. Now the Vitesse is a good looking car, but this care was just done better, more tasteful, more curves.
I’ve always had a love of these cars, and what a lovely example, keep up the good work 27
Never heard of them until this video but taking into account when they were built, that 95% are still here is amazing. Obviously sourcing engine parts may be challenging but not impossible. Other parts however must be nigh on impossible. Obviously being such a small manufacturer they probably sourced a lot of parts that were generally available on the market as opposed to designing and manufacturing themselves. What surprises me most is that they went into liquidation and no large manufacturer bought up the rights to continue the line. Humber, Rover and others would have had a prime candidate for their segment of the market but as with many products it's not always the best one that survives. The fact that they have proves that they were indeed much better than their counterparts of that era. I'm surprised that nobody even now jumps at the chance of putting them back into production.
Stunning look at the rear screen
Lucky the guy never had a pet sloth I suppose but what a daft choice for the emblem,great quirky car though.Where do you find these rare cars 😊
Absolutely beautiful both inside and outside. Thanks Jack!
You're getting some amazing cars - My 1st copy of Classic Cars magazine bought in 1978 - had a blue one on the cover - still to see one in real life!