Gilbern Owners Club National Meet, Eddrig House, Wrexham

This event has been on my calendar ever since Gordon Johnston contacted about his T11 Prototype and saying there wasn’t enough Gilbern’s on the site. He was right, none of the Gilbern models were built in massive numbers which is probably the reason they don’t pop up at Classic Car shows that often. If they do their usually walked past with only the true petrolheads giving them the attention they deserve. After all this was Wales’s only sports car manufacturer. Gordon had told me about this national meet and a few weeks ago he called me again to confirm that his car would be attending. So partially wanting to see these cars, I also wanted to see the T11 in the flesh.

I always enjoy attending club national meets, previously this has included the Scirocco Register and TVR Club, and you get to see not only concours cars that attend shows but the cars that keep the marque going with daily and ongoing projects/restorations parking up. You also get to see the club, not the forum but the friendships that are made through the love of the same badge and the catch up that happens once a year as well as putting names and faces to avatars and user names. With that are people walking round and seeing what been done to others cars and talking about mechanical triumphs and failures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 One thing that did stand out, unlike some sanctions of classic/retro car clubs, was the acceptance of modified cars and not just the “it has to be one way” or “best kept as it left the factory”. There were cars with modern Vauxhall power plant, Cosworth engines and well as modified V8’s!!!!!

There must have been 60 cars that had made the pilgrimage over to Eddrig House and the setting within one of the walled courtyards really added to the whole event, something you would just not have gotten if it was in a field. From what I could tell every marque was represented, GT, Genie and Invader, although oddly for a car manufacturer, other than the GT that was badged on the front, none had the marques had names on the rear!!!!!

 

 

 

 

I was there for well over 2 hours and was made to feel more than welcome, chatting to people about their cars, the club and even ended up buying a Gilbern air filter cover, I don’t even own a Gilbern!!!!! If you ever see one of these cars at a show, give it some time as you won’t be disappointed, they may had some underpinnings from other cars but the finish was more than up there contemporary sports car manufacturers of the day as well as looking a little more modern in a time of Spitfires and MGB’s. I thoroughly enjoyed my day exploring these rarely seen cars and I’m looking forward to bringing you an insight to some of these cars over the next month or two.

For more information-

http://www.gilbernoc.co.uk/