Ok, this was a tough one! The Great Skunkle introduced me to the Gordon Keeble back in 1991. The reason I know and remember this is because that was the year he finished the restoration of the 1967 MGB GT, and we were out for a ride, when there it was, a Gordon Keeble!

A rather fantastical sighting while riding in a, well, fantastical car!

Thinking back, the sighting of the Gordon Keeble was really VERY bizarre. You see, the car was parked in a shut-down dilapidated gas station with a “for sale” sign in it’s front windscreen having only a phone number (which we’ll talk about later). The car was covered in a VERY thick layer of dust and filth as though it had been parked there for quite some time. The 4 flat tires were also an indication!

Skunkle nearly crashed the newly re-minted MG when he spotted the Keeble. He slammed on the brakes and turned down a side street so as to turn around. He yelled “ISO” (eee-soh) as he made the maneuver. I hadn’t a clue what the hell he was talking about. I figured he was yelling gibberish at a rude motorist, or something. He went on to say that he spotted an ISO Rivolta parked over at the station, and we were going to check it out. (Let me know if you’d like to hear about ISO’s as a potential topic as well…)

So we swung around to take a look. As we got closer, Skunkle got markedly more excited, remarking “no, no, it’s not an ISO! It’s a UNICORN! Much rarer!” By that point I sat up a bit. For Skunkle to proclaim that a car is rare, REALLY meant we were onto something. To him, a Rolls was pedestrian, and barely raised an eyebrow!

So we pull up to the car, as indicated above, covered in dust. Despite the dust and the flat tires, the car is gorgeous! Gleaming red paint, and a creamy looking tan interior. The proportions were a bit odd, lending one to think that there was something special under the hood, as the hood was quite long, and there were massive exhaust pipes poking out the side (Note: these were Hooker Headers that WERE NOT factory parts. They looked cool though!). Skunkle jotted down the number, and we hopped back in the car, to motor on to another adventure down Mound Rd in Warren, MI. 

There were LOTS of vintage car lots and consignment automotive dealers on Mound Rd back then, and we’d usually hit them all on a Sunday after Mass, and then continue onto down town to visit whatever stores were still open, continuing on a loop that would take us north on a hunt for hobby shops, looking for model ship-building supplies. 

Anyway, back to the story…

We get back to the house in the late afternoon, and Skunkle shuffles around in his pocket and pulls out the paper that he wrote the number for the Keeble on. He calls the number and laughs. It’s disconnected! So, he calles the operator to see if there was perhaps a forwarding number on file. No luck! So, we found a unicorn of a car that is for sale, but can’t contact the owner!

Skunkle decides that this is too good to pass up, hops on the computer and types up a quick note. We hop back into the car, this time his Opel Kadett wagon commuter car, and head back to the ISO. He slips the letter past the door molding, onto the driver seat of the car.

Months go buy, and he never hears from the owner, and the car sits, never moving, his letter still on the seat. He does some more investigating, and the VIN shows the car NEVER being registered here in the states. So, he’s at a dead end. About a year goes by, and he sees a flatbed at the lot towing the car away. The driver of the truck tells him that the owner, who he wouldn’t name, is moving, and he was sent to bring the car to a lot where it could be picked up by a transport company. The Driver told him that the car was being shipped back to Europe!

So, that was the end of our encounter with the Keeble. We had an image in our head of some “old-money motor magnate” parking the car there, perhaps years ago, after tiring of it, looking to sell it off rather callously. After forgetting it, and wanting to retire to the French Riviera, he order’s his staff to find the car, and pack it up with the rest of his things. We presume that the car’s probably sitting, covered in dust, at a French petrol station, with a disconnected number posted on a for sale sign in the window, as the glorious beast slowly rots. 

This whole story of the Keeble reminds me of the poem by Rainer Maria Rilke called “The Panther”.

His vision, from the constantly passing bars,
has grown so weary that it cannot hold
anything else. It seems to him there are
a thousand bars; and behind the bars, no world.

As he paces in cramped circles, over and over,
the movement of his powerful soft strides
is like a ritual dance around a center
in which a mighty will stands paralyzed.

Only at times, the curtain of the pupils
lifts, quietly--. An image enters in,
rushes down through the tensed, arrested muscles,
plunges into the heart and is gone.
 

The Keeble, a great beast sitting frozen in its element of the road, condemned to sit and watch as lesser “beings” scoot back and forth as it stands paralyzed.

Almost brings a tear to my eye! 

So, about the Gordon Keeble…

Manufacturer:  Well, Gordon Keeble

Country of Origin: United Kingdom                                                       

Platform Life Cycle: 1963-1967                                                              

Body Style: 2 Door Uber Lightweight Sports Coupe

Engines: Rover/Buick 215ci/3.5 litre V8 (The same one used in the Rover P6 3500) Then a 4.6 Litre Chevrolet 283, and then a 327, and several others. It would almost appear that each car had a slightly different engine!

Transmissions: 4 Speed Manual                 

Total Number Produced: 99 (Yes, 99!)

The Keeble was really an interesting concept. Almost a back to basics idea. Take a great, powerful, but lightweight engine, and plant it into a purpose build, sublime chassis. In this case the chassis was made out of a lattice of tubular steel that weighed less than a fairy’s eyelash. It was a sort of metal mesh nest. The body of the car was made of aluminum which was hand hammered into submission by little old Italian gentlemen in Turin Italy, while smoking strong cigarettes and drinking strong coffee. The result, the equivalent of a road going formula car.  

So, what’s with the name? Let’s face it, Gordon Keeble sounds like the name of your postman, not a sports car. Sports cars are named after weapons, or naval battleships, forces of nature, or things that go zoom – or at least sound like they should.  

Well, Gordon Keeble are the names of two crazy blokes who were mad about speed. (John) Gordon was a chassis engineer for the venerable Peerless Car in the UK and (Jim) Keeble, a race car driver.  

As the story goes, in the early 1960s, a mutual friend of theirs who happened to be a USAF pilot suggested that the plop a US made mill, into a Peerless chassis. Keeble said “nuts to that” (paraphrasing, of course) and decided that they should start from scratch and build a proper sports car. This was back in 1957. Gordon bought the defunct tooling from Peerless when they went under. He and another fellow engineer Named Bernie Rodgers continued to build Peerless autos for the next few years.

Gordon started off on the project, and improved on the Peerless tubular chassis, creating a super stiff, yet impossibly light base for which to insert a crazy lump of an engine that would most likely propel the car to speeds that would peal the paint! Gordon shipped the car off to the US to let the then CEO of GM, Ed Cole, and the father of the Corvette, Zora Duntov take it for a spin. The two were so impressed with the car, that they agreed to supply Gordon with engines, and also the US retail distribution network to sell the cars! 

Imagine that! It’s 1963ish and while you’re oogling that new Corvair, you spot, in the corner of course, a heartbreakingly beautiful, curvaceous car, not carrying a chevy bow-tie all by its lonesome. No-one in the dealership can tell you a dang thing about it, and they won’t let you drive it ‘cause it’s expensive, and the steering wheel’s on the wrong side!

Anyway, a whole bunch of compromises were on the horizon. British manufacturers weren’t accustom to the supplying components that could stand up to the high specs of the yankee engines. 350 foot pounds of torque would simply rip normal gearboxes to shreds, and existing rack and pinion steering systems, as intended couldn’t handle the weight or stresses associated with the intention of containing the beast that would become the Keeble.  As a result of the issues with the suppliers, and the already high sticker price of £3000 combined with the insanely high cost of production, money was ridiculously tight for the fledgling company.

By 1965 Gordon (and Keeble) had to bail, and the firm fell into bankruptcy. The company was sold off to a Harold Smith and Geoffrey West and production was moved to the town of Sholing, and production resumed later that summer. They managed to produce 6 cars in that time. 

Things get a bit foggy in the history, but it would appear that West and Smith weren’t really interested in making a “company” out of the mess they’d bought, but rather, wanted to build some cars from the remaining inventory, and sell them for a bit of a profit. They were both instrumental (later) in organizing the Gordon Keeble owners club, and servicing organizations. This accounts for the VERY high survival rate of these vehicles with something like 95% of total production still cruising the roads.  

It’s really a very tragic story. Two experienced men, with a great vision, hampered by less than enthusiastic suppliers and bureaucracy.  

The chassis of the Keeble, with the body and mechanical components removed almost looks like a jig used to produce a “real” car's frames. The front suspension is a rather ordinary coil over shock wishbone arrangement. The rear, a de dion tube setup, not unlike that of the Rover 3500 in principal.  The one unusual thing that I notice with the Keeble is the brakes. They’re just brakes!

On a sports car, one tries to achieve a VERY low level of unsprung weight. Unsprung weight is the weight of the components on the “road side” – if you will, of the suspension. The things that are separated from the chassis by the suspension. Usually, the tire, wheel, hub, control arms, brake components, etc. A means to achieve a VERY low unsprung weight on the rear end f a car with independent or semi independent suspension such as the Keeble, would be to mount the brake rotors and calipers inboard, on each side of the differential, which is affixed to the chassis, and doesn’t move up and down with the wheel.

Have you ever lifted a brake rotor? They’re blinking heavy! If you drop on one you’re foot, you’ll be taking a trip to the ER with a broken foot! 

I suppose the fact that they used a HUGE American lump as primary motivation sort of threw the whole chassis dynamics and balance thing so out of wack that details such as unsprung weight and weight distribution were futile. I can’t find much in the way of details of exact weight distribution, but in looking at the setup of the vehicle, how far the engine is set back behind the line of the front axle, and the way the body is position on the chassis, I would venture to guess that we’re looking at a 60/40 weight split over the front/rear, or there-abouts. Overall, a pretty neutral, typical setup. 

 The styling of the Gordon Keeble is lovely in the way that a UPS truck is lovely. It’s functional. It has a bit of Italian flair to it, but that flair is understated. It has nice proportions, but the overall application of the crazy thin aluminum skin is rather off. The reason, I believe, is due to the fact that the car ended up being cobbled together from off the shelf parts left over from Peerless, and other vendors. The spec home of cars, if you will!

Up front, the face of the car is flanked by 4 headlights mounted in a quasi-fashionable slant-eyed arrangement with the outtermost set slightly higher than the inners. Of immediate notice is the gaping vent in the center of the hood. In the more early cars, this is a simply bulge with a slit, but for some reason, the latter cars have this weird 1957 t-bird looking lump, ruining the otherwise understated lines of the car.  

Along the side of the car, one notices just how much of a greenhouse this vehicle has (The greenhouse is car speak for the glass area). The body is low, the roof high, and in between a large expanse of glass. There are vents on the front wings/fenders that allow for increased airflow to keep the rather massive engine cool. Also, take a look at the rims. Simple steel rims with no hubcaps, and they look GREAT! I love it! Today, all we see are oversized, bechromed monsters mounted on everything from Range Rovers to shopping carts. These steel rims are light weight and serve their purpose both functionally and stylistically. Like a fine pair of shoes, they do not detract from the total ensemble.  

Around back, is one of the most elegantly thin bumpers I think I’ve ever seen on an auto. The tail lights are parts bin units that I’ve seen a million times on other British steel, but can’t place their origin (I’ll post in comments if I figure it out!). To me, the rear windscreen is a bit awkward. It’s sort of bulbous and disproportionately huge for such a simple/elegant car.  

The interior is lovely in an all business sort of way. Parts bin components are the order of the day, but their execution pretty decent. Everything is where it should be, and is exactly as it should. The one novel detail of interest is the cross-quilted upholstery on the door panels and lower dash fascia. It reminds me of the Italian sports cars of the 1950s, and Spyker cars of today. It’s unique. It’s not often that one sees an interesting pattern in a car. The application of Chrome is tasteful, and the seating position sublime! You sit high in the cabin, with a nicely angled three spoke wheel falling to your hands. It just seems right! 

Overall, the most fascinating thing about the Gordon Keeble is it’s general rarity. As cars go, it’s pretty ordinary for the era. When compared to other GT cars of the era, it’s the C student of the class. It’s fast, handles well, and looks decent. The story of the original intention of the creators, only to be let down by suppliers, labor, and bureaucracy adds further intrigue. I can’t help to think what  could have been had all the stars lined up, letting these two gents build the car that they originally envisioned, rather than the monument to compromise which we are left with. Could Gordon Keeble have evolved to be today’s Pagaini? Who knows! 

As far as Weird Cars go, the rarity and obscurity of the Gordon Keeble reign supreme. It’s what I would consider one of the last of the micro-brew builders to go under. Specialty builders who build passionate machines, only to be outmoded by consumer and economic complacency.

 Today, the only “old” names that survive out of the hundred that have come before are Bristol and Morgan. When comparing their EXTREMELY low production to that of the Ferraris and Saleens of the world, their intrigue and no compromise nature is what attracts buyers. Gordon Keeble, is/was the last of the new era startups that accomplished what so many, even today, could not. Gordon and Keeble had a vision, managed to make that vision a reality, and if only for an extremely short while, sell that vision on the open market. Something so many have failed at, notably Preston Tucker and his Tucker automobile. Yet another amazing machine, brought down by the “man”.  

All in all, the Gordon is a very enjoyable auto that can hold its own with the big dogs, and still turns heads, if only in bewildering confusion. The Keeble is a car that is guaranteed to start a conversation at every filling station, car show, and traffic jam. 

“Nice car! Is that a Ferrari? – No, it’s a Gordon Keeble. – Who’s Gordon Keeble?”…