"The customer has purchased an almost finished car..." British Leyland had entered the chat

@isaacsrandomvideos667

2 жыл бұрын

😂

@jimtaylor294

2 жыл бұрын

Interwar car buyers: First Time?

@charlesc.9012

Жыл бұрын

@@jimtaylor294 Bentley stated clearly that the price only included the drivetrain and chassis. BL promised a car, and delivered a colander.

@jimtaylor294

Жыл бұрын

@@charlesc.9012 Depends on the car really. I'd also have to point out that contemporary Alfa Sud's were exponentially worse; they started rusting *before* they'd even left the factory... and the Alfa Romeo Arna... so ghastly that it's now extinct in the UK. (according to the DVLA; the several thousand that made it over here have all disappeared from our roads... and thank god because the car was so bad even Alfa & Nissan like to pretend it never existed) By contrast: the Austin Allegro had an almost comical reputation for *not rusting* , even when owners *wanted* her to XD.

@charlesc.9012

Жыл бұрын

@@jimtaylor294 The Alfasud was often wheeled across open ground in an unpainted state due to mismanagement. It was also made soviet steel, which meant it was doomed the moment it started life

I lived in Cardiff in the late 1960s. A father of one of my school friends had an orange Genie with the 3 litre Ford engine. He took us out in it on the A470 dual carriageway going out of Whitchurch and floored the accelerator. I thought it was wonderful then and still do now! Thanks for an excellent video.

@glynluff2595

2 жыл бұрын

Ah Whitchurch, I can remember visiting my uncle who lived there. He was Factory Engineer at K L G and materially assisted Gilbert in their start up by supplying obsolete equipment and storage at knock down prices.

I’ve always loved the British specialty makes. Gilbern, Ogle and Peerless. Beautiful, yet quirky machines!

Those are some handsome cars! The V6 versions would be a hoot to drive, I bet.

@popuptoaster

2 жыл бұрын

The old Essex V6 wasn't a great engine, made a nice noise but you'd be lucky to find a stock one that actually made the rated 140bhp.

@ianoliver3879

2 жыл бұрын

Well... I had a silver mark 3 with the V6. Very handsome, but front heavy - the back end could get skittery in the wet.

Amazing what a butcher and a former POW achieved. Very attractive designs

I remember to see it on the RAI Amsterdam autoshow in 1973 Still have the sales brochure.

The "mighty Gilbern.." you state and I'm think... Why on earth haven't I even heard of this clearly known automobile. I've worked in car factories galore and all the cafe chat that entails yet until now never heard of it so thanks again Sir for another remarkable upload, enjoy your weekend.

I remember seeing one of these in the early '60's. For its time it was really futuristic looking.

@drd6416

2 жыл бұрын

Looks a little like an alpine Renault of the same period

HubNut needs to review one of these cars, just because they're Welsh.

@benhooper1956

2 жыл бұрын

You know before I settled on a 480 it was one of these that I wanted for my first car, but the prices beat me...

@volvo480

2 жыл бұрын

@@benhooper1956 they are not quite in my budget either...

@benhooper1956

2 жыл бұрын

@@volvo480 I think it is about 1 Gilbern for 2 honest 480s, or 2 Gilberns for one "immaculate low mileage one owner premium dealer" 480

@redram5150

2 жыл бұрын

Dunno if I'm more impressed with the car or the fact the name doesn't have six w's

How cool. I'd never heard of the make. I liked that white estate shown near the end.

I had no idea there were Welsh automobile builders, but it brings me much joy that there was.

@chrisg6086

2 жыл бұрын

and still is, with Aston Martin at St Athan

Always so well written, edited and produced. A very high quality channel.

My doctor in North Wales had one of these 35 years ago.

I've been familiar with Gilbern from all my car encyclopedias, that seem to always feature pictures of the Invader GT, which I've come to like. The grille emblem on the 1970s cars is sweet. I have a picture in another book somewhere of the kit as-delivered.

That was both fascinating and very educational! I’ve been a fan since my Neighbour’s son, a doctor, had one back in the late sixties. Absolutely beautiful cars. Thank you Ruairidh!

I actually live in Pontypridd at the moment, love to see the history! One thing, the end of Pontypridd is a soft "th" sound as opposed to a "d"-Welsh is a strange language! Regardless, thankyou for covering a little known gem from my hometown!

@stuartaharris

2 жыл бұрын

the pronunciation at 0:46 sounds correct to me.

@112chapters3

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks boyo lechy dah

@seansverige

2 жыл бұрын

@@stuartaharris agreed, but Llandow ~ @2:05 on the other hand...

@G58

2 жыл бұрын

Welsh is closer to the original language of Britain than most others, especially English. I find it appalling that news readers, other TV and radio presenters and actors in the UK are so ignorant of the correct pronunciation of Welsh words and place names. The narrator of the Drew Pritchard antiques thing is one of the worst. Pritchard is based in Conwy which is the heart of Welsh speaking North Wales, yet he makes zero effort to pronounce any of the place names correctly. “Clangoflen” is one of his worst crimes! Peace

@olivercook9663

2 жыл бұрын

@@G58 exactly! Every time I hear him try to pronounce Llangollen I die a little inside 🤣

The T11 looked quite sharp!

The estate calls to mind a Reliant Scimitar.

I've always thought the only motoring related thing to come out of Wales was the M4

@chrisg6086

2 жыл бұрын

And the Aston Martin DBX

What a lovely story. I remember these cars well and have always liked them.

Although Wales did not have a major car assembly plant, there were factories supplying the industry:- Rover axles in Cardiff (in Rover Way-where else!), Ford engines in Bridgend, KLG spark plugs in Treforest, and of course, steel plus a few more that I have forgotten.

@Hattonbank

2 жыл бұрын

Bowden Cables, Llanelli Radiators, Borg Warner Transmissions, Bradite Paint, Abergavenny Treadplates, BSC Port Talblot, WA Thatcher rubber moulding, Silent Channel windscreen seals Maesteg, i dealt with them all!.

Such a pity that they never managed to stay afloat, the cars might not have been the most powerful or luxurious they have a quirky but interesting shape. 😀👍🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Highlight of my day! Thanks mate, awesome video as always.

One of my friends was considering buying a Gilbern Invader, so I went on a tour of the Gilbern works with him. It was very interesting to see the production, but eventually he bought a different car (A Ford Tournier- I wasn't impressed by it!). I did however watch an Invader in a "police chase" at the Cardiff Searchlight Tattoo, and I have subsequently seen a single one at a car rally. They were quite good looking cars for the time

Saw a few Gilberns back in the day. They were a handsome car, I also remember the Gordon Keeble which was a similar design but had a big V8 in it.

My uncle Harry Luff assisted in extracting the prototype from its lair to ground. He later organised availability of obsolete industrial binnage and storage from KLG at knock down money to assist in their industrial creation.

4:50 This car just needs a diagonal line across its front grille to be a perfect mix of Volvo Amazon and 164 models

Brilliant work again thanks a lot

Nice looking cars. Unlike the dragon on the radiator grill it's unlikely that they breathed fire with that engine range.

I think the styling of those cars was really cool, a shame they faded away like that

You can still see a good selection of these wonderful cars at classic car shows in south Wales.

Fascinating history lesson. Thank you for doing this video.

Amazing car ! ⭐️ thank you for sharing 👏🏻

I remember being driven past the Red Ash Colliery in Church Village a few times during the late 60s and thinking to myself that it really was quite a small operation. The last time I saw a Gilbern in the flesh was at St Fagans Folk Museum in Cardiff during the 80s. But they undoubtedly still have their fans, and are obviously real collectors items for DIY types.

Excellent video, nicely narrated as usual about an interesting obscure subject.

Great video…well done!

Love the door handles on the T11, never seen them before 🙄

@uncinarynin

2 жыл бұрын

Those remind me of the Fiat X1-9

@robbybobbyhobbies

2 жыл бұрын

I think Mr Parker is pulling our legs. That's plainly a Morris Marina (or was it Ital, then?) handle.

@stevie-ray2020

2 жыл бұрын

Looks like all the lights & handles, etc., came straight out of BMC's parts bin!

@ap9970

2 жыл бұрын

@@stevie-ray2020 Bin being the operative word

I love these designs! Obvious influence from the classic roadsters of the UK, but I also see a bit of Nissan Z in the design, particularly around the headlights! In many ways I like the style more than the MGs or Triumphs of the day!

That Invader Estate is one good lookin ride....👏🤘🏻🇺🇸

Love this!!

@dcpete5475

2 жыл бұрын

As a kid, I visited with my father the 1973 Amsterdam car show and got the sales brochure of the Gilbern Invader.

One of the more nicer looking small volume produced cars. The Invader looked quite together in looks, styling. Unique character. Used to pass the factory quite often going to relatives nearby when young.

What a great potted history of an often overlooked manufacturer.

Great watch - thanks!

There was another company who made cars in Wales. More than 30,000 Austin J40 cars came out of a factory in Bargoed between 1949 and 1971. You could claim that they had a home home-produced power plant. The engine bay boasted 4 real spark plugs, though actual power came from the muscles of its driver.

I knew nothing of this. Thank you. It's the first GB car company where every car they sold was nice looking. Most British cars from that era - to me - looked weird.

You should do Rowe from Cornwall. A builder of lorries and buses that in its own tiny way contributed to the development of the commercial vehicle.

I'm ashamed to say I'd not heard of this beast, and I was on the installation of the Zetec Ford engine in S Wales too. Thanks again Sir, these are wonderfully informative uploads.*

Thanks, fascinating story.

No mention of the Mk3 Invader? Rationalisation of main suspension & powertrain parts from Ford (3L Essex V6 & transmission, Cortina Mk3 front suspension complete, Cortina Estate rear axle....). Wider arches on the body to accept the Ford suspension, redesigned exterior with Triumph & Ford lamp units. Revised interior to move the model more upmarket. Only ever offered as a fully built car from the factory. It was right at the end but a significant chapter in the history of the company.

what beautiful cars

Interesting that this should appear on my "home" page just days after I saw that yellow T11 prototype at the Camberley Car show last weekend. Owner said that the shell didn't even have the door apertures cut in it when he bought it, and he sourced many of the parts needed to get it roadworthy, for example IIRC Austin 1800 mk II rear lights. It has an Austin Maxi engine as you mentioned, and the ubiquitous Morris Marina door handles

So interesting! Thanks

The Genie was a class act when it came out and very robustly constructed. A friends father had a Reliant Scimitar coupe and I think that was a tad cheaper to buy at the time so it did undercut the better looking Gilbert Genie.

Right enjoyed that. Thanks.

I've lived in Ireland for most of my life, but I still feel drawn to my native land. Two years in Swansea isn't long, but I don't think it matters. On a side note, this makes me a very strange specimen. I'm basically a Welsh leprechaun. No gold, just drunk on the weekends.

Excellent video .Could you do an episode on the Rickman Ranger, Rancher and Metisse models. Thanks.

Far better looking than any Swede that's for sure. And those GTs are probably a hoot to drive!

I loved the Invader right from the start, but sadly by the time I had spare cash and no other responsibilities, I couldn't find one. Same goes for the Citröen DS.

@mebsrea

2 жыл бұрын

Surely a DS can’t be that hard to find? They built more than a million, and there must be thousands left.

Wales does not put me off in the slightest. On the contrary. Highly interesting car, really rare and today an absolute gem. Any of these 'off the grid' marks are so much better than anything the big manufacturers could ever offer. I bet the mix and match parts from BL they used were put together in a way that it actually, well, worked.

I well remember Smiths butchers in Church Village & Gilbern cars. I had no idea of the connection.

Gilbern and Ginetta produced some great designs back then

Sharp looking little car.

Gilbern, so I now know what car was sat outside my local Volvo specialist.

All the Gilbern Invaders I've been involved with had the same weird characteristic: the lower door hinges were slightly inboard of the upper ones, making the doors swing open.

@johnbewick6357

2 жыл бұрын

That was the one thing I really disliked about them. Used to MOT one for my insurance broker and had to be very careful not to park too close to anything before getting out otherwise a great risk of the door swinging out and crashing into it. Also very heavy doors so not easy to hold them back if you forgot about the swing.

I see someone has taken footage of my T11 at Brighton a few years ago pity about the rain that day althrough it did dry out later on that day

My mates got a v6, so nice still

I am vaguely acquainted with this brand of car through sports car encyclopedias but have never seen any kind of road test of any of the models. The estate looks quite a bit similar to a Reliant while the T11 is so beautiful I would think it could easily be sold today with the same styling but with a few of the necessary mechanical upgrades. The 2 men originally involved are to be saluted for designing such an appealing car, even if the market back 60 years ago weren't all that enthusiastic about a fiberglass car.

@vickielawless

8 ай бұрын

The T11 prototype still exists, I've seen it at various cars shows but didn't know what it was! I dread to think how you'd get in and out of something that low..

Wonderful individual enterprise. With the plethora of ‘standards’ demanded today will we ever see any similar ventures?.

@faithlesshound5621

2 жыл бұрын

At one car a month, what low volume builder could afford crash testing to get a Euro NCAP rating? Or design his/her own engine management system, active suspension or collision prevention?

Interesting

That’s $500k in 2021. My dinky house costs more than that. “Affordable” sporty cars are a thing of the past. Amazing story

you should do the story on the British Leyland corporation the rise and fall.

Now this looks like a little company Malcom Bricklin could have gotten involved with at the time. He was a mover and shaker sort of character in the automotive world, and this could have caught his eye if he wasn't focused on the US market so much.

I'd love to have the estate wagon.

I'm not sure whether it's fair to call the 3-Day Working Week as 'lax' - I believe the 3-Day Week for Manufacturing was imposed by government in direct response to the Oil Crisis....?

@superadventure6297

2 жыл бұрын

That's what it was.. a lot of power generation in the UK was oil-fired power plants. Other economic problems factored...

@DrivermanO

2 жыл бұрын

97@@superadventure6297The oil crisis had nothing to do with the 3 day week. The oil crisis merely caused the price of petrol to rise quickly - one weekend it went from 35p to 42p per gallon (I had just started work, so I remember this). At that time power stations were mainly coal fired and there was a miners strike in late 1973 /early 1974. Consequently as it was midwinter, there was an increase in electricity demand and the Government introduced the 3 day week in an attempt to control this - and I suspect to cause the general public to blame the miners/unions for the inconvenience. Didn't work - general election of 1974 resulted a defeat of Ted Heath, ushering in Harold Wilson's second attempt to run the country.

Australia had a handful of short-lived fibreglass-bodied cars, but the majority were only powered by small two-stroke engines!

MG, wolseley, Hillman, Austin, lotus, triumph, tiny bit of Ford. Now that’s a true “hybrid”

Gordon-Keeble next?

Very interesting, I’d never heard of them. How about a Scottish car manufacturer for your next video? The car made by ladies, for ladies en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galloway_(car) the Galloway; or the Argyll car en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argyll_(car) ; or the Dogcart en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrol-Johnston

@faithlesshound5621

2 жыл бұрын

There was a time when SNP luminaries felt obliged to be seen in a Hillman Imp, as that was the only car then made in Scotland.

@paullacey2999

2 жыл бұрын

@@faithlesshound5621 Youve never seen the Argyle supercar then?

@faithlesshound5621

2 жыл бұрын

@@paullacey2999 I had never heard of it until today. However, regarding the SNP, I was referring to an earlier time when the only other Scottish-made cars had been Albion, Argyll and Arrol-Johnston: all long out of production.

@paullacey2999

2 жыл бұрын

@@faithlesshound5621 For a short time the AC3000ME was built in a factory in Hillington,near Glasgow too.Albion built trucks in Scotstoun also.Scotland did make a few things back then!

Interesting video, but how many cars did Gilbern produce during their existence? Also, slightly confused at 6 minutes, when you talk about the T11 being introduced in 1972. That yellow car shown, which I must presume is a T11, has an "H" registration plate, which is 1969/70. I had a "J" registered Cortina - October 1970! How can a 1972 car have a 1969 registration?

Really nice looking cars. Why was it that they had such small engines? Was it due to the cost of gasoline?

The glass work on all of these cars looks familiar but unsure... am I seeing Capri windscreens, Morris minor and Cortina mk11 rear side windows etc, etc..??!

At 4:07 Ye Householde Catte barges in with a "mrrp" 😺😊

i live in wales i call gilbern the welsh ford

Bella🎏

The French are good at wacky but nobody does quirky better than the Brits. I'd love an Invader estate

I've seen the wagon & wondered what it was . Never herd of them

Alfa Giulia is in there a bit and de Tomaso Pantera

Although popular in the mid 1960's, 'the era for glass fibre spécials was a fleeting one'. Alpine, Tvr, Karmann and many others would disagree with this. 😁

1.4l maxi?? i thought they were 1750, we squeezed one into a mini. scary acceleration!

I see the Gilbern estate was cursed with the Webasto sunroof. Surely a portent...

A good affordable GT- very similar story to the Gordon Keeble GK1(good cars but not enough financial capital)

It's not true that there was no market for cars with a glass fibre body. Matra produced the Jet (actually an improvement of the René Bonnet Djet), M530, Simca Bagheera, Simca/Talbot Rancho, Talbot Murena, Renault Espace and Renault Avantime models from 1962 until they pulled out of car manufacturing in 2003. Their sports cars were based on Renault, Ford and Simca mechanicals (with some bits out of Peugeot, Lancia and Citroën parts bins)

No real mention of the Invader mk3?

I thought i knew every car. Well...i didnt know this one

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 ❤ 👌🏻

very god

8:55 Your idea of 'mass production' varies greatly from mine. I suppose you consider Pagani and Koenigsegg also a being 'mass produced'.

@jakekaywell5972

2 жыл бұрын

Both of those would also be mass-produced, as there's a clear standardization of parts, materials, and general design. The only cars that are not mass produced are prototypes and one-off coachbuilt wonders.

I always thought the Renault Megan was a Welsh car!

The Gilbern GT 1800 used a 1600cc engine? Damn, well ahead of BMW in the creative use of misleading engine sizes and what they call the car. T11, A 1.4L E series engine?

@thomascarroll9556

2 жыл бұрын

Impressive performance 1600 to 1800 in less than 10 seconds 😂

@indiekiddrugpatrol3117

2 жыл бұрын

If they used Cortina mechanicals why not use a Pinto? 😂

@markstokes5365

2 жыл бұрын

GT was available in 948/1500/1800 and Coventry Climax engines

Never heard of it and sad it didnt survive.