Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Greetings,
This is not really an Elan update though I have been working on my S1. Had to take some time off for open heart surgery on June 14th but feeling fine now. This post is actually about the car I recently purchased...one I have been persuing for 15 years. It is a 1963 Ginetta G4. The car was imported from England in 1974 by and American Airlines pilot then sold to the PO that I got it from. The car sat tarped for the past 35 years in his side yard. It is complete and needs everything but I am very excited about restoring the car. I have been trying to locate other Ginetta folks on line but the one forum (Drastic Plastic) in the UK will not accept my e-mail and thus I can not post anything. I have only had the car a few days but things I have discovered include, mumified rat, Martin valve/rocker shaft assembly, top bows and top in locked trunk...no keys, paper work and reciepts back to 1968 from perhaps the original owner in England. Lots of mod work done at a shop called M.A. Bigland Preparation.
If anyone has and leads or perhaps owns a G4 i would love to touch base.
Thanks so much.

What a find !!!

Congratulations and best wishes for restoration !!

Hey PDX. That really is cool. I've sometimes wondered if there was another car I'd want to own/play with besides an Elan. I've always loved the Ginetta race cars, but know so little about the marque that till now, I had no idea they made road cars. Congrats, and I'm guessing you'd have lots of people interested in following your restoration, even though it's not on topic for this forum.

BTW, I'm in Seattle. Does the "PDX" mean you're in Portland?

Cheers,

Dave

Hello PDX, I was at a car show near San Francisco and met this guy and we had a great conversation admiring each others cars. I had never seen a Ginetta before. I'm sorry I don't have any contact information on him.
But thought you would like to see what he had done to his.

Dave, I agree, that would be the other dream car I would want next to my Elan.

Sarto

What a great find, no wonder you're pleased about it. Original G4's are very sought after over here in the UK so that's some car you've got there. I think one was raced by Chris Meek who also had a strong connection with Lotus as he raced Europas and was very successful. Because the marque is still going most of the UK talk that I've seen is about the new cars, but you could try the UK owners club (http://www.ginetta.org/goc/ to see what they cover in the older cars.

And of course there's always the very popular UK based Pistonheads forum which covers the modern Ginetta racing and also sections on the earlier cars. The Ginetta sections aren't as busy but I'm sure if you put a post up there or in the "classic car/yesterday's heroes" section of the forum you'd meet other owners.

There was also a book on the marque - "Ginetta the Illustrated History" by John Rose. It's out of print but you might be able to pick up a copy through the specialist seller, bookfinder.com or even Ebay I suppose. That's more about the marque, history and model development than specifically about the G4 but there are some great period B/W photographs in there.

Brian

The original founders of Ginetta sold up a few years ago, and then started a new company called DARE.

They still have links to items relating to G4s

Here's a link that may help.

http://www.dareuk.com/g4.php

Regards
Richard

Elan owners: Please, do NOT look at this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ge_o4NdL ... re=related

I said DO NOT LOOK!!!

But wouldn't this thread sit better in: (elan-photos-f18/) or in (free-parking-f19/)

Whatever, it's such a great find, and a super pairing!!

Hi richard, I did look. Thanks for the youtube site, it had great races of other Elans. I had posted on the RACING section "A day at the track" Behind the Elan and the Europa I think is a blue Ginetta. You can zoom in.
PDX, Have fun with the restoration, its rewarding as it all comes together.
Sarto

...

great little car! g4 roundtube, one of my favorite race cars, followed by a chevron b8

c.

The blue #3 in Sarto's photos is a 64 G4R round tube owned by Rob Forbes, Redwood City CA.
Tom Claridge owns a G4R that originally was a factory car. Rob & Tom are regular entrants at NorCal vintage races.
I've seen the red Ginetta at several shows. I understand it is a Dare version.

PDX,

You should look up Tony Ingram down in Santa Barbara Ca. Tony was/is Mr. Ginetta over here. He would be great help in setting the car right. BTW he also show's up on this forum from time to time .

George

Here are a couple pics of Johns Ginnetta at Kohler races. My favorite, other than maybe his 23c. John owns Continental Motors in Il.
Mike

I am currently restoring a 1966 S3 Coupe but you will see from my member name I'm also a G4 enthusiast, I have a 1965 G4 round tube and also a 1966 G4 square tube. I have completed the round tube restoration and when the S3 is finished I'll carry on with the square tube. I have lots of pics and would be glad to help with info etc

This is the garage mate for my S4. Not unusal in the UK, but a different story in S Cal.

James

Tony Ingram is a good friend, and is definitely a Ginetta authority. See this from his website:
http://lotus7.com/The_Ginetta_Chronicles......html
Cheers,
Greg
2 Elans