Gordon-Keeble Limited
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Readers may remember the article in our January issue about the background of the new Gordon-Keeble announced in January.
The car is now made by Gordon-Keeble Limited (formerly the Gordon Automobile Company Limited) in Southampton. This company is entirely separate from the other companies mentioned in our January issue and we apologise for linking the name Gordon-Keeble Limited with other companies which never had any connection with that company or the car. The reference in our January article to the Gordon factory going broke was entirely unfounded. There has been no question of the Gordon company or factory failing to meet all its obligations or as far as we know of any obligations to Bertone not being met by an English company. Our information is that this company is on a sound financial footing and has recently made a large issue of share capital for cash and will shortly be making further issues.
After the appearance of the Chevrolet-engined Gordon GT. the prototype car was taken to America and studied by various divisions of the General Motors Corporation. Chevrolet approved the design and General Motors took a favourable view of the possibilities of marketing the car in the U.S.A.
Discussions took place in 1962 between the manufacturers of the Iso Rivolta and the Gordon-Keeble with a view to Iso making a modified version of the car under licence from the Gordon Automobile Company Limited but these discussions were not fruitful. The prototype Gordon car and a chassis were in the possession of Iso for some time during the negotiations. The Gordon-Keeble was described as resembling the Iso Rivolta in many of its ideas since the Iso Rivolta appeared at Earls Court before the Gordon-Keeble, but we would like to make it clear that the Gordon-Keeble owes none of its ideas to the Iso company.
The decision to produce the Gordon-Keeble in this country was made in mid-1963 and production was in train in August of that year.
The new Gordon-Keeble is constructed in fibre-glass, the prototype being constructed in steel, not vice versa as stated in our January article.
We would like to express our gratitude to Gordon-Keeble Limited for drawing these facts to our attention and to apologise to them for any misleading impressions which our January article may have given.