Gordon-Keeble was a British car marque, conceived in Slough, then constructed in Eastleigh, and finally in Southampton (all in England), between 1964 and 1967.[1] The marque's badge was unusual in featuring a tortoise — a pet tortoise walked into the frame of an inaugural photo-shoot, taken in the grounds of the makers. Because of the irony (the slowness of tortoises) the animal was chosen as the emblem.
Design
The Gordon-Keeble came about when John Gordon (formerly of the struggling Peerless company) and Jim Keeble got together in 1959 to make the Gordon GT car – initially by fitting a Chevrolet Corvette V8 engine into a chassis by Peerless – for a USAF pilot named Nielsen.[1] The concept proved impressive, and subsequently a 4.6 litre Chevrolet (283 c.i.) V8 was fitted into a specially designed square-tube steel spaceframe chassis, with independent front suspension and all-round disc brakes.[1] The complete chassis was then taken to Turin, Italy, where Bertone built a body made of steel panels,[1]