‘cos you never know until you ask...
Looking for a 110 Station Wagon in exchange for 1987 Ginetta G26. Fibreglass body, galvanised chassis, no rust, 2 litre Pinto, 5 speed, RWD MoT & tax until March 2010, daily driver.
A few details below from an article in the owners club magazine and the opening bit from Futuramic on here.
Imagine if you will, a RWD Ford - easy peasy. Now, mentally, make it look better, go faster, be easier to fix, be more reliable, become lower, harder and handle better. Finally imagine that it will never, ever go rusty. This car can't exist, can it? Well it does. So therefore, if it is so much better than the saloons it is based on the price must be astronomical. No, far cheaper.
This car was taken off the road last year and ended up with Ginetta Heritage in Suffolk looking a bit folorn. I put a battery on it and took it for an MoT
- Rear brake pipe was stretched
- One rear brake wasn't at full efficiency
- One rear brake binding (probably a seized wheel cylinder as it's the same wheel)
- No indicator repeaters fitted
- Number plate light not working (I suggested he give it a thump and it should come on but apparently that’s not acceptable)
- Exhaust leaking
- Emissions too high
- Fuel pipe not clipped properly
I called that a result, especially as the BMW being tested before me failed on its emissions and the bill was heading north of £200 in replaced components.
A gentle drive back home with the fail sheet, but not in defeat. I hit the local Partco place and ordered new ignition parts. The plugs were a mixture of rusty and sooted and number 3 HT lead was held on with gravity only. The exhaust was leaking from the join at the front pipe and the front silencer so I took it to the local exhaust place where they made up a few new bends and fitted a new front silencer. I clipped the fuel pipe down, changed both rear wheel cylinders and tweaked the brake pipe. I couldn’t find side repeaters locally so ordered them from Vehicle Wiring Products. The re-test was booked for a week later and it passed.
Driving it to work every day brought up a few other issues, some more urgent than others. After a few days my list of things to fix was: thermostat; replace the Cortina L dash with a Ghia one to get a revcounter; change the seats for lower ones; fix the heater flap to get warm air through the vents; repair the passenger door lock; get some interior panels in there; stop the exhaust from banging on the chassis and floorpan; lower the rear suspension; get some better wheels to fill out the arches; paint the bumpers black; change the horn; change the radiator cap; replace the servo vacuum pipe; fix the boot cable release; fit a bootlid prop; fix the automatic choke; fix heated rear window; fit a radio; repair the passenger’s window mechanism; fix the brake judder.
Since then I’ve made progress on most of those, started enquires on others and learned to ignore the rest. There’s a buzzing exhaust that I keep meaning to trace but it drives really well. It’s had new discs, new rear cylinders, wheel spacers, 2 new tyres, new battery, new thermostat, new heater fan, new (ok, newer and nice and quiet) rear axle, new propshaft doughnut, new bootlid gas strut, Recaro front seats and loads of other things I’ve probably forgotten. The interior was almost completely missing when I bought it, a spare one was tracked down and is either fitted or in my garage.
Downsides are: there’s some vibration at 70+mph, the exhaust is knocking somewhere on the chassis and some of the interior still needs to be fitted. Upsides are it won’t rust, it looks good in an ‘80s wedge kinda way, I can be a drifting God on roundabouts or carry fair speed through them with all four tyres screaming equally. It accelerates reasonably well because it’s light and it pulls well even up steep hills through town in the higher gears. I’m sure a new hot hatchback would be faster but we’re talking fun here - accessible fun while driving every day, not having to do 100mph before it starts to come alive. Other Ginettas are race-bred, have better performance and look better, that’s why they’re worth more. But if you’re in the market for a car that’s cheap, simple and fun the G26 makes enormous sense.
Projects come up on ebay every so often, this one can be driven every day.
Looking for a 110 Station Wagon in exchange for 1987 Ginetta G26. Fibreglass body, galvanised chassis, no rust, 2 litre Pinto, 5 speed, RWD MoT & tax until March 2010, daily driver.
A few details below from an article in the owners club magazine and the opening bit from Futuramic on here.
Imagine if you will, a RWD Ford - easy peasy. Now, mentally, make it look better, go faster, be easier to fix, be more reliable, become lower, harder and handle better. Finally imagine that it will never, ever go rusty. This car can't exist, can it? Well it does. So therefore, if it is so much better than the saloons it is based on the price must be astronomical. No, far cheaper.
This car was taken off the road last year and ended up with Ginetta Heritage in Suffolk looking a bit folorn. I put a battery on it and took it for an MoT
- Rear brake pipe was stretched
- One rear brake wasn't at full efficiency
- One rear brake binding (probably a seized wheel cylinder as it's the same wheel)
- No indicator repeaters fitted
- Number plate light not working (I suggested he give it a thump and it should come on but apparently that’s not acceptable)
- Exhaust leaking
- Emissions too high
- Fuel pipe not clipped properly
I called that a result, especially as the BMW being tested before me failed on its emissions and the bill was heading north of £200 in replaced components.
A gentle drive back home with the fail sheet, but not in defeat. I hit the local Partco place and ordered new ignition parts. The plugs were a mixture of rusty and sooted and number 3 HT lead was held on with gravity only. The exhaust was leaking from the join at the front pipe and the front silencer so I took it to the local exhaust place where they made up a few new bends and fitted a new front silencer. I clipped the fuel pipe down, changed both rear wheel cylinders and tweaked the brake pipe. I couldn’t find side repeaters locally so ordered them from Vehicle Wiring Products. The re-test was booked for a week later and it passed.
Driving it to work every day brought up a few other issues, some more urgent than others. After a few days my list of things to fix was: thermostat; replace the Cortina L dash with a Ghia one to get a revcounter; change the seats for lower ones; fix the heater flap to get warm air through the vents; repair the passenger door lock; get some interior panels in there; stop the exhaust from banging on the chassis and floorpan; lower the rear suspension; get some better wheels to fill out the arches; paint the bumpers black; change the horn; change the radiator cap; replace the servo vacuum pipe; fix the boot cable release; fit a bootlid prop; fix the automatic choke; fix heated rear window; fit a radio; repair the passenger’s window mechanism; fix the brake judder.
Since then I’ve made progress on most of those, started enquires on others and learned to ignore the rest. There’s a buzzing exhaust that I keep meaning to trace but it drives really well. It’s had new discs, new rear cylinders, wheel spacers, 2 new tyres, new battery, new thermostat, new heater fan, new (ok, newer and nice and quiet) rear axle, new propshaft doughnut, new bootlid gas strut, Recaro front seats and loads of other things I’ve probably forgotten. The interior was almost completely missing when I bought it, a spare one was tracked down and is either fitted or in my garage.
Downsides are: there’s some vibration at 70+mph, the exhaust is knocking somewhere on the chassis and some of the interior still needs to be fitted. Upsides are it won’t rust, it looks good in an ‘80s wedge kinda way, I can be a drifting God on roundabouts or carry fair speed through them with all four tyres screaming equally. It accelerates reasonably well because it’s light and it pulls well even up steep hills through town in the higher gears. I’m sure a new hot hatchback would be faster but we’re talking fun here - accessible fun while driving every day, not having to do 100mph before it starts to come alive. Other Ginettas are race-bred, have better performance and look better, that’s why they’re worth more. But if you’re in the market for a car that’s cheap, simple and fun the G26 makes enormous sense.
Projects come up on ebay every so often, this one can be driven every day.
