Quote Originally Posted by RogerH View Post


As good as George was in the GeeCeeEss - here he is about to be caught and passed by Ron Roycroft in the Alfa.
At this point in time, the old war horse's ex domestic car Ford V engine could give no more in the way of horsepower and the very expensive specially race engineered Alfa power plant naturally had it beaten, but only just and in a straight line.

Look closely at the two cars and consider each in respect of, weight distribution and centre of gravity. Nothing wrong with the GCS, are but the Alfa has independent front suspension some will point out, as well as a fancy rear drive set up. I will argue that that the Dubonnet suspension was an awful design in every way and any reduction in unsprung weight afforded by the complicated divided rear drive set up was certainly debatable. The arrangement was also claimed to provide a lower seating position for the driver, the photo also renders this debatable.

George imported an Allard J2 based on the reputation the car gained in hill climb events in the UK. He was quite focussed on hill climbs and reckoned the Allard would be the bees knees and what is more it had the sort of power plant he understood. He told me of his disappointment and how badly it handled when compared with the old GCS. George was not one to bad mouth anyone, however he made it clear that he did not think very highly of the Allard divided axle front suspension.

The GCS was a very well conceived design costing damned all and it had no vices and could always be driven on the absolute limit. This was so often demonstrated in hill climbs and often on a circuit, but here George always wisely had the need to finish in mind.

Crude, yes. Badly engineered, no. Cheap, yes. Uncouth, debatably. Nasty, no. Pedigree, not likely. But what a great old bastard it was and is. Let us give George and the old GCS full marks. The GCS was a truly successful, genuine Kiwi special and carries top marks in all respects. Hooooooooray.

P.S. Again check the photo and note the quite straight arm driving position adopted by George and the cramped wheel- in-chest attitude within the Alfa.

Sincerely, Trevor.