First Gilbern?

[gilberninvader]

Was the very first Gilbern GT built in 1957 or 1959 as per the newspaper article i've found? This was retrieved from the Western Mail and Echo -Cardiff Offices.I have been re-reading some old press articles and came across an early one from October 1962

It appears from the report that the very 1st Gilbern was made in 1957, and that the 2nd car, i quote, 'They pinched and scraped and altered and modified and above all they persisted until in 1959 they sold their very first car, in kit form'

If this article is to be believed then maybe we should be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the very first Gilbern this year and not in 2009!!
However we could still be correct in saying in 2 years, we are celebrating 50th year from the very first 'production car' and not the very first Gilbern made!!

Any thoughts ?

ps anyone know the chassis no and car reg of car No 1 and chassis Number of Car No. 2?

[Admin]

How about A01001 & A01002 !

The earliest cars listed in Club records are:
A01012 - 195 TPG noted as the third production car, with a history of engines and listed as on show at Llangollen Motor Museum.

A10013 - 3777MM (there several question marks on this), the engine appears to have been change to a 'B' but the chassis may have received a different 'A' designation.

Best to get the received wisdom from GT archivist Brain Gent.

[gilberninvader]

Spoken with Brian Gent at length today, sorry Brian to bombard you with more and more questions. It was lovely to chat with you over the early history;and that some unique historic cars are still around that i thought had long gone.A mine of info on GT history.

Brian confimed the first production car was A10010(Peter Cottrell's) The 2nd car was A10011 and so on..
The 3rd Production car also now resides in Llangollen Museum, reg 195 TPG, unfortunately they believe they have the 1st production car with chassis No. A 10012( Anyone going to tell them?)
i suspect that the preproduction car was altered, tweaked etc until they were satisfiedwith it and could have finished it in 1957 as i believe, backed up by the newspaper article.

They may have used parts of the Preproduction car actually in the making of the 1st Production car, maybe the only person who can verify this now is Bernard Friese himself. Unless anyone else can verify it etc.

Shall we celebrate anyway the 5oth Anniversary of the making of the first Gilbern in 1957? Thinking caps on as we dont have much of this year left if thats the case?

[gilberninvader]

Following on from the TV article highlighted in another post; the Llangollen Motor Museum believe they still have the first production Gilbern car, namely 195 TPG in their museum.

I understand its actually Production car number 3, however it's still probably the earliest known GT that survives today.

I think the museum should be advised though, regarding the production car they actually have, even if it's only for historic accuracy. Anybody volunteering ....admin/Sec/GT historian etc

regards Gareth