Factory Visit

The only way to order a kit car is to visit the factory, meet the people and go for a spin in a finished car, so that's what I did at the weekend. Myself and a friend had a blat up the M1 to Nottinghamshire and spent a few hours with Keith and the team. First up was a tour of the factory, which was pretty much exactly what I was expecting, being a small industrial unit stuffed with parts. It was a bit messy, as they were in the process of finishing off a new clean room for the manufacture of suspension and other precision parts and also making way for a new milling machine that was being delivered the following week. There were half a dozen or so built and half-built cars (not all of GBS origin) having various things done to them in the workshop.

After that, it was time for a trip out in a company demonstrator. The Mazda Zero was out on a magazine photo shoot, so once all its fluids had been checked the faithful old Ford Zero was fired up. I was always going to buy the Mazda, as it's slightly more cost-effective, but it didn't matter too much as the Ford demonstrator had stainless steel panels and a bigger engine, which made it a bit heavier and meant it had roughly the same power-to-weight ratio as is ultimately possible from the Mazda. Given that this is over 250 BHP per tonne, it doesn't hang about and with Keith being an ex-rally driver, the drive was fantastic.

All that was then required was to specify what I wanted and pay a deposit! In the end I went for:

• Extra front cross bracing (this cannot be added later, so I thought the extra stiffness was worth it from the start)
• Lowered floor (to allow the seats to be mounted on adjustable runners)
• Cobra hoops (rather than the standard roll bar)
• Sport front wings (I think they look a little better that the standard cycle wings)
• Orange GRP panels
• Black dashboard
• Black rear diffuser

Colour-wise, I've always thought some colours work on certain cars and some don't. I liked the yellow, orange, white and red but have already seen lots of yellow and red Sevens on the road. I own a white car (the dreamy 1.4 Polo), so I decided on orange. I think it will contrast very nicely with black wheels, chassis, dashboard and rear diffuser as well as many of the GBS machined parts, which happen to be orange and black. I nearly changed my mind though, when I saw how many orange panels there were ready for delivery in the warehouse!

As others have said, everyone at the factory was really friendly and very enthusiastic, happy to talk through everything in great detail, which helped to reinforced my decision to go with GBS over one of the more established brands.

Seeing as the factory is a good 3 hours away in a van, I intend to go back up and collect everything in one hit, which should be in about 12 to 16 weeks. Can't wait!