Thursday, March 19, 2009

GSM sports cars

While searching for the missing Ikara that was sold new to a customer in South Africa, I have been contacting sports car club secretaries over there and searching websites. In my search I have found a South African sports car that I knew nothing about - excuse my ignorance. It is the GSM (Glass Sports Motors). These cars were designed and developed by 3 South Africans, Bob van Niekerk (a well known racing driver), Willie Meissner (an automotive engineer) and Verster de Wit (a car designer). They were produced from 1957 to 1964 and aerodynamically were considered way ahead of their time. They were raced successfully in both South Africa and England. Two models were produced, the Dart and the Flamingo. 116 GSM Darts were produced in Cape Town and over 60 in England (where they were called the GSM Delta). Approximately 128 GSM Flamingos were built in Cape Town. They were powered by 4-cylinder Ford Cortina engines, 1200cc at the beginning before moving on to the 1500cc unit. There does exist a prototype V8 with a Ford 260 cubic inch engine and overdrive gearbox which was built in 1964, just prior to when production stopped.

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