Gardner Douglas Sports Cars?

GD? Never heard of them til I came across this forum:

http://www.gd-owners.com/gallery/

Cool looking cars. Are these British cars? I don't think these were at the L.A. Auto Show

[Knothead]

Oh, WOW! Now THAT'S what I like! AC Cobras ROCK SO HARD!! They're savage, unmannered, low-slung little monsters with outrageous understeer problems (which you compensate for by burning the hell outta that rubber,) wind-burning, loud, hunks of pure elemental JOY!!!

I saw one recently on a flatbed, I thought it was an original until I found the owner, who told me it was a replica.

So THAT'S where it came from! OOOH! OOOOHH!! I WANT ONE!!





okay, NOW i'm focused.

oops .. found the main site for the autos..

http://www.gdcars.com/html/intro.htm

"Gardner Douglas are a low volume manufacturer of sportscars based in the beautiful Vale of Belvoir in Leicestershire..."

* I guess it's like an Brit version of the Panoz
http://www.panozauto.com/

[M_Six]

Pure power there. Lousy ride, poor handling, comfortable as a picket fence. But who needs any of those things when your lips are plastered back against your face from the G-forces.

[The Real Bingo]

From the looks of it, there are Cobra replicas in that forum gallery among other kit cars.

[Knothead]

Yep, this is the one I saw

Apparently, Douglas is building several different cars over there in merry old Leicester, England.

But still...could it be that they're making an AC Cobra replica that has had its inherent understeer problems resolved? This car became a part of my being in my '20's, when I learned performance driving (anybody remember the Bondurant Driving School?) and it's a "lock" on me....so many years of driving family (4-door) sleds, and now that I'm this decrepit ol' codger, I see this beautiful, muscular pile o' testosterone, why, I just wanna take that little sweetie to her redline.....

**gasp** I'll stop now...

[M_Six]

What???? The amateurs put the steering wheel on the wrong freakin' si......wha? Huh?

Oh....England!

Never mind....

[RedFury]

Oh Knot, just to sit in one and goose the accelerator would give me memories that wouldn't be forgotten....not even Alzheimers could rip them from me

[Knothead]

Oh, YEAH, man!

You get that bad boy up to speed, (say a modest 40 mph) then you simultaneously:

Drop the throttle;

Jerk the handbrake up

stomp the clutch (and drop down one gear)

Jam the throttle up again as you spin the steering wheel,

engage the clutch again,

and spin that sucker on its own axis, then power out into a new direction!!

WHOOOF! Dang, them little cars were BIG fun!!

Of course, back in the day, them little buggers weren't very well engineered, plus the tires weren't very sticky. You hadda muscle those suckers, but I think that this was their charm.

[Barney]

Gardner Douglas is one of many kit car manufacturers. I believe the Cobra is the most popular kit car, there are probably more imitations than there are real ones. Apart from exterior looks, it isn't anything like the real Cobra so it handles completely different.

I don't know if you get this show in the US or not, but here on Discovery we have a show called A Car is Born. It's about a guy who builds a Cobra kit car in his garage. It's an interesting program to watch whether you're interested in building a kit car or not.