Monday 4 December 2006

Factory Visit

Went down to GD today - got off to a bad start as the A1 was shut at leeming lane due to an accident - if it wasn't for sat-nav I think I'd have been stuck there all day. Met Andy Burrows and his wife Meena and had a look round the workshop. It was a bit smaller than I expected but crammed full of delights none the less.

The best bit was when Andy took me out in the LS1 powered (400 HP) demonstrator - words fail me. I used to ride supersports bikes but somehow this thing seemed even faster. The acceleration was relentless. There was a story from back in the 60's that reckoned that Carol Shelby used to put a 100 dollar bill on the dashboard and if a prospective customer could reach it whilst he was accelerating they could keep it - I can believe that!


WATCH THIS TEST DRIVE VIDEO FROM THE GD OWNERS FORUM!!!.

Right click and open in new window



I don't think I needed much more convincing. The only real choice was which body style to go for? GD give you the option of a MKIII or MKIV body. The MKIII was in effect GD's own interpretation of the Cobra shape. The MKIV body has been produced from a plug taken from the Orignial Superblower CRS moulds. The MKIV has slighlty more muscular arches but the main difference is in the position of the scuttle. This is further forward than the MKIII resulting in longer doors, more distance to the dash and more height below the dash - particularly with the more original flat bottom dash panel. I'm nearly 6'4" but there was going to be plenty of room.


THIS IS MKIV BODIED GD

Asked a lot more question but mainly in a daze now. Anyways the deal was done and a chassis was duly ordered and the deposit paid. Allowing for Christmas shutdown my chassis should be ready end of February / beginning of March - this should fit in nicely with the refurbishment of the donor parts.

Haven't ordered the body yet as I've not fully made my mind up on my build sequence - plenty of time for that yet

I forgot my camera - Doh! - Sorry.

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