Month: June 2012

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So what to do now ??

Keith at GBS set my expectation at 2 to 3 weeks before I could collect. First job was obviously a major tidy up of the garage. That’s one weekend gone….





A weeks holiday in Scotland with the family – that’s another two weekends gone….
Still no Zero.
Problems with the fiberglass panel manufacture. Maybe this weekend. 
Spoke to Keith again today – not this weekend – very disappointed 🙁


Just have to do some more research and put a bit more detail in this blog…. and I think I will add a couple of dead bolts to the inside of the garage door – just in case.

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Why?

Why would anyone spend every weekend in the garage, spending huge sums of hard-earned, removing the skin from knuckles and wearing patience very thin, when you could buy a built one for less??


I have puzzled this for some time.


My answer (I am sure others answers will be different) is that I am engineer. I can’t think of any other reason. A constant quest to build things, understand how things work, and create new things. I gain a deep satisfaction from an elegant design well implemented: simple and effective.
Over the years my focus may have changed: IT design, house alteration and extensions, and now cars. But the core motivation is always the same.


When I was 17 I was given an old Triumph Herald. It was scrap – rust everywhere and an MOT failure. Many hours, many rivets, much welding and many tubs of P38 later, it passed it’s MOT and went on for another 4 years whilst I worked my way through a degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Following my Herald I went on to a Triumph 2000 Saloon and then a Spitfire.

Marriage and children (as delightful and life enhancing as they are) have since forced many, many years of sensible motoring. As the kids are getting cars of their own now, reliance on Dad’s taxi and Dad’s time is subsiding. So…. what to do???


Why not scratch that itch that has been there since those early Triumph days? Why not get back into automotive engineering once again? Why not build myself a kit car? 



After a good deal of research I decided to visit GBS in Nottingham. It didn’t take me long to realise that I had made the right choice. Richard and Keith showed me around the factory, introduced me to other kit builders who happened to be there, and took me out for that obligatory deal closer – the test drive in their Zero demonstrator.

After a week of soul searching I decided to take the plunge. I am not an extravagant man, and this was not a trivial purchase. It took a lot of internal justification, but on 19th May 2012 I shook hands with Keith and the deal was done. 

My Zero: 

Oxford blue GRP (incl dash); 
Alloy panels; Powder coated standard chassis; 
Lowered floor; Gaz shocks; 2.0L Zetec with GBS Plenum, GBS Water Rail and Raceline sump; MT75 Gearbox; All new running gear; GBS wiring loom and Smiths Dials; Team Dynamic Pro Race wheels with Yokohama rubber.