Resident's Classic Car Restored - A Family Project!

Part of providing tailored, personalised care for residents is learning about their lives before they joined Elliscombe House – their families, their jobs, and their interests and hobbies.

All of our residents have fascinating stories to tell, and one of our current favourites is about resident Michael’s 1961 Gilbern GT car, now restored into an award-winning classic vehicle by his daughter and her husband.

Michael has always been a motoring enthusiast, and he purchased the car after seeing it at the Racing Car Show in London in 1961. He liked it because it was stylish, light and durable, and could be bought in component form – although his car didn’t arrive this way! As his daughter Cindy explains, “With dad’s car, they’d actually done a basic assembly to check everything fitted and worked. Then, rather than strip it down, a Gilbern employee drove the car, in its part-finished state, from Llantwit Fadre to Cheam!”

Michael used the car for his work, often transporting heavy equipment with it, until 1967 when he was given a company car. The Gilbern was then passed to his wife, where it became the ‘school run’ vehicle until it failed an MOT in 1972.

Twenty-two years later, Cindy’s husband Colin was thinking about restoring a classic car and she suggested the Gilbern – whose engine, gearbox and trim were located in various parts of the house and sheds at Michael’s house.

Life got in the way of the project until their relocation to Somerset ten years ago. With the help of car restoration experts (and a set of instructions discovered taped to the chassis) the project ‘motored’ ahead, and was completed just in time for the 2021 National Day.  Cindy and Colin were delighted that their restored Gilbern won the Cyril Ward Cup (for the most significant non concours car at the show, as it was taken on a trailer) 60 years after it was purchased by Michael. At the 2023 National Day the car then won the A&G Casey Cup (awarded to the GT Class Winner in the Concours), as well as the Emil Rosner Cup (awarded to the Overall Gilbern Owners Club Concours Winner).

It is now used on special occasions and destined to stay within his family, as Cindy plans to pass it to his granddaughters in the future.     

The Gilbern in the early years

Pre-restoration

The Gilbern today