1964 Gordon-Keeble is a very rare classic
Pat Cashman, a retired newspaper publisher living in Vicksburg, Mississippi, saw an article in Auto Week magazine back in the early 1990s about a little known and little produced car called the Gordon-Keeble. Named after the two men who came up with the car’s concept in the late 1950s, the Gordon-Keeble was first produced in 1964.
Intrigued by the car, Cashman decided to further investi- gate this little known British automobile.
“I had never heard of the car, but I liked what I saw,” he said. The 64-yearold Cashman knew, however, the task of finding a Gordon-Keeble would be difficult, since only 99 were ever produced.
“They made them for about two years, starting in 1964,” Cashman said. The majority of Gordon-Keebles are still on the road today, he said. There’s even a club of G-K owners in England, and it has about 80 members, Cashman said.
According to the club’s website, gordonkeeble.org.uk, company founders John Gordon of Peerless Cars Ltd. and Jim Keeble, an engineer and race car driver, built the first Gordon-Keeble for USAF Pilot Rick Neilson, who wanted them to fit an American V-8 engine from a Corvette into a Peerless car to give it extra performance.
According to the website, the GordonKeeble prototype was the “sensation of the 1960 Geneva Motor show.” Gordon and Keeble designed and built the car from scratch in three months. Gordon later took the prototype to Chevrolet in Detroit and got an agreement from then Chevrolet president Ed Cole to supply 1,000 of the 327 cubic-inch Corvette engines and gearboxes per year.
Production on the Gordon-Keeble got under way in 1964, but trouble soon began. A prolonged labor action limited the supply of steering boxes, which caused financial difficulties for the fledgling auto company. When the money ran out and the company was liquidated, only 91 Gordon-Keebles had been produced.
The company was reopened briefly under new owners as Keeble Cars Ltd. but produced only eight more cars. The last Gordon-Keeble — No. 99 — was built in 1966. However, enough spare parts existed for a 100th vehicle, which was later constructed privately.
The Gordon-Keeble intrigued Cashman, who began watching industry publications in an effort to find one he could call his own. He looked for about a year and a half before coming across a 1964 model in Hemmings Motor News.
“This one was up in Maryland,” Cashman said, adding he sent his nephew to see the car. Soon, Cashman was $23,000 lighter in the wallet, but was the proud owner of a 1964 Gordon-Keeble, No. 23 in the G-K club.
“I bought it in 1992 from a retired Marine pilot who worked in the Pentagon,” Cashman said. “It was every bit as described,” he said, adding “It seemed like a good deal. They’ve gone up quite a bit over the years.”
Cashman’s Gordon-Keeble No. 23 has a “strong Corvette engine” under the hood, he said. The 327 cubic-inch V-8 produces 300 horsepower and is hooked to a fourspeed manual transmission. “It was the base Corvette engine at that time,” he said.
Cashman said he’s had to work on the brakes, radiator and clutch of his rare Gordon-Keeble, “but I’ve never had to do anything to the engine.”
The fiberglass body of Gordon-Keebler No. 23 is silver in color and the interior still sports much of the original navy blue vinyl material. The dash is original as well, though Cashman said he recovered the two front seats and two door panels.
Cashman and his wife drive the two-door hardtop regularly these days, though primarily to club events and car shows. Cashman took his GordonKeebler to the Concorso Italiano out in Pebble Beach and also drove it in the Copper State 1000, an antique car rally in Arizona.
“We finished, although we did have to come in on the hook,” Cashman said. Coming down from the mountains the brakes went out, and Cashman said the only prudent thing to do was to put it on a trailer for the last few miles down the mountain.
Meanwhile, the Gordon-Keebler Club remains active in England, where members recently celebrated the car’s 50th Anniversary. Most Gordon-Keebler owners live in England, and 48 showed up for the 50th Anniversary event, Cashman said.
John Gordon of Peerless Cars Ltd. and Jim Keeble, an engineer and race car driver, built the first Gordon-Keeble for USAF Pilot Rick Neilson, who wanted them to fit an American V-8 engine from a Corvette into a Peerless car to give it extra performance.