Like many teams at this year’s World Cup, the story of Gilbern - one of the only car manufacturers ever to have come out of Wales - is a tale of what could have been.
Attentions turn once more to the land of the Dragon today as Wales take on England in the final match of the World Cup's Group B.
And away from the football, the Gilbern story is equally enthralling.
Gilbern produced three models - the GT (above), the Genie and the Invader - between 1959 and 1973, all of them pitched to the luxury market and at owners with deep pockets.
The Gilberns weren’t lacking in power. A later variant of the Invader was packing a tuned version of the 3.0 litre V6 engine from the Ford Zodiac.
The styling was bang on the money, too.
The Gilbern GT was likened to a ‘baby Aston Martin’, while the Genie and Invader both have that Italian whiff of Lancia about them.
As Brian Gent (above), Chairman of the Gilbern Owners Club explains it, the manufacturer sailed agonisingly close to global fame without ever quite making it.
In the late 1960s, Prince Charles took delivery of a Gilbern Genie (an example of which can be seen in red, below). Had he stuck with it, and had the Prince of Wales become an ambassador for a proudly Welsh company - we might now be talking about Gilbern in the same breath as British firms like Jaguar.
Yet… Prince Charles was persuaded to swap his Gilbern for an MG sports car after just six weeks.
And by 1973, fifteen years after launch, Gilbern had shuttered the doors of its factory in Llantwit Fardre, Pontypridd, Glamorgan.
It’s now up to Brian, 65, and the Gilbern Owners Club’s global contingent of 400 members to keep the Gilbern fire alive.
And here Brian, a retired rail engineer originally from Surrey but living in Llandeilo, south west Wales, explains the enduring appeal:
So, Brian - why have I never heard of Gilbern until now..?
"You’re not the only one - a lot of people in Wales have never heard of Gilbern. I often get asked, ‘Why have you got a Welsh flag on the back of your car?’ And then you have to explain why. It’s always an interesting conversation."
Can you explain a little about the history of Gilbern?
"Well, for me, it was only ever a ‘proper’ car company when it was owned by Giles Smith and Bernard Friese (hence the name ‘Gil’-’Bern’) before they sold out to Ace Capital Holdings Ltd - part of the Mecca entertainment group - in 1968. One of Ace Capital Holdings’ directors was a car enthusiast, so he thought running Gilbern was a great idea, but he didn’t have the time to devote to it. Instead he put in a bloke that he knew, Mike Leather, who was a brewery salesman.
And it all went downhill after that, basically!"
And when did the love affair with Gilbern start for you?
"It began when I was 18. A guy I knew, a professional photographer, turned up one day in a Gilbern Invader (above). Up until that point I didn’t know what a Gilbern was. I was stunned by the wooden dashboard and all the dials in the cabin. Another one of our friends got married and we used the car to shuttle between the church and the reception. On that very journey, the throttle stuck open and we ended up ploughing onto a muddy bank! But it didn’t put me off. I loved the fact that it was something not many people had. I tried to buy one - for £295 quid. It would have taken every penny I had. But I just couldn’t afford the insurance premium so the idea got knocked on the head. I got busy with life - but I never forgot about my passion for Gilbern."
Brian has owned umpteen classic cars down the years, from a 1930 MG to a rare 1953 HRG (another rare British car manufacturer once based in Surrey).
But in 2005 he finally got behind the wheel of his first Gilbern - a MkIII Invader. It’s a classic that’d set you back around £13,000 today… if you can find one.
Since then, Brian has had a ‘succession’ of different Gilberns, including the GT he lusted after as a teenager. He currently owns four - two GTs with racing heritage, a Mk1 Invader, and a Mk2 Invader in the process of being recommissioned and which was also a well-known race car for many years. It only recently came out of hiding having been in a lock-up for 12 years!
Brian, meanwhile, has been Chairman of the Club since 2019. There are 400 members worldwide.
Brian adds:
“What I always wanted to own was a Gilbern GT with a racing history. Ultimately, I bought an ex Paul Scott GT car that started racing in 1968. It’s a car I campaign now. I also fell in love with a one-off race car they built specially for a guy called Ken Wilson, a wealthy builder from Bridgend, which was an 1800 GT but fitted with a 4.7 litre Chevrolet engine, a Jaguar gearbox, and parts from his Formula One BRM. It took me ten years to find!”
The Gilberns weren’t cheap, were they…?
"No, they weren’t. When the Mk3 Invader came out, it was the same price as a 2.8 litre Jaguar XJ6. The people who bought the cars new were all professionals - solicitors, surveyors, doctors. Because you had to be someone with money to buy one. And you’ll find lots of Gilbern families. Someone’s Dad will have bought a GT in 1963, then a Genie, then an Invader, and you’ll see the same family name on the owners documents going back generations."
What sort of rivals did the original Gilbern GT face-off against?
"In reviewer road tests, you’d often see the GT go up against the MGB - because they shared the same engine - and the Sunbeam Alpine. Basically, anything around the 1500cc to 1800cc mark. There were various engine options, and various states of tune to choose from with a Gilbern. In one test, the GT was quicker to 80, 90mph than the 3.0 litre Austin Healey.
With the Genie and the Invader, they only ever produced one 2.5 litre engined car. Because if you had the money to buy a Gilbern, you’d obviously go for the 3.0 litre variant with the Weber carburettor."
For you, what’s special about the way the cars look?
"Well, the thing people always say is that the GT looks like a baby Aston Martin. There are a couple of members in the club who have their GT painted in Aston Martin metallic green. And when they stop for petrol, they get people saying, ‘Wow, I like the Aston’. Our members often don’t like to quash the myth!
When Bernard Friese designed the Genie, he was very much influenced by the Lancia and Fiat range at the time. If you look at a Genie from the side, you can see it has a lot of Italian in it. The Mk1 and Mk2 Invader was very much an upgrade of the Genie, particularly in terms of the suspension. There was also an Invader estate - which was famously modelled by a young Rula Lenska (the actress and Coronation Street star)"
So… what contributed to Gilbern’s demise?
"One important factor was the T11 concept car, built in 1970 and created by British designer Trevor Fiore. Only one example survives of the three chassis they made. But at the same time Gilbern was also in the process of developing a Mk4 version of the Invader - a long wheelbase version which South Wales Police was considering as a motorway patrol car. Again, that prototype still survives. And Gilbern was also working on a Mk3 estate. All of these things take time and money.
Yet we’ve spoken to people who were there at the time, and they’ve told us how Gilbern was wasteful in developing the T11, spending money like it was going out of fashion. Ultimately, everything comes at a price. The jam was spread too thinly, as it were, when Gilbern finally went ‘pop’. The oil crisis in the early 70s didn’t help either, as no-one wanted a car that did 23 miles to the gallon."
And talk to me about Prince Charles
"The most famous Gilbern owner had it for just six weeks - the Factory was desperately trying to get him into one - and that was Prince Charles, now King Charles. The King had a Gilbern Genie and I’ve got a whole series of letters from his secretary to prove it. However, MG found out about the Royal-Gilbern arrangement and tried to scupper it. Charles was ultimately given a grey MG CGT which became his drive instead. And Gilbern essentially came extremely close to global fame… but fell just short. Just look what having Princess Anne in a Scimitar did for Reliant - every horsey person in the world wanted one. With Prince Charles as ambassador, it could have changed the world for Gilbern. But, sadly, it just didn’t work out."
Has anyone tried to revive Gilbern?
"Yes - lots over the years. But the interesting thing about the Gilbern Owners Club is that we can actually have a huge say in what happens with Gilbern in the future. The Club was set up in 1969 when the factory was still going, and there was a good relationship between the Club and the factory. When the factory folded, the Club managed to salvage the complete body mould for the GT and the Mk3 Invader. With the paperwork we salvaged we’ve also created a file for every car built. What we also did was buy the name and all of the trademarks. So, over the years we’ve had many people come to us and say, ‘We’re going to start a car company, and we want to call it Gilbern’.
But so far, all attempts have failed - and many were doomed from the beginning. It’s up to us now to protect the Gilbern name. I have to say this, as Chairman of the Club, but we’ve been very well run for many years. We are not your average owners club in the sense that we have our own new and used spares department, holding around £45,000 worth of parts. You can’t get them anywhere else and we still get them manufactured to keep the cars on the road. We ship stuff all over the world!"
Talk to me about your race history with Gilberns?
"I started racing hill climbs and sprints in 2014. I’ve done the sprint at Goodwood and hill climbs at Shelsley Walsh, Wiscombe Park, Loton Park, Chateau Impney, the Isle of Man Classic, Manor Farm, Gurston Down and the Jersey Motoring Festival. I also hold the Gilbern records at Manor Farm and Loton Park, and for the fastest GT, I hold that at Wiscombe and Gurston Down. My time at Wiscombe is 49:23."
What should you look out for if you’re eyeing up a Gilbern to go along with your lease car…?
"The Achilles heel of a Gilbern is the chassis. They rust. And unlike a Lotus where you can just unbolt the body, you can’t with a Gilbern as they’re bonded and riveted to the chassis. It’s a major job to restore it so it’s far better to buy a Gilbern with a good chassis to begin with.
And if you’re looking to buy a Gilbern, your first move should be to join the club. You get a monthly magazine full of interesting stuff but we have a marque historian for every model. Once you’re a club member, you can find out what we know about a particular car. There’s also a technical advisor for each car, giving you real back-up."
** With thanks to the Gilbern Owners Club. Pics copyright Brian Gent and Gilbern Owners Club.
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