2019 | Gardner Douglas Cobra GD 427

Gardner Douglas are one of the more well established and well thought of company's producing cars such as this

Officially a small volume manufacture they produce between 20-25 cars a year all of which must go through extremely scrupulous tests ensuring their quality and guaranteeing all parts used are brand new, it is for this reason all their cars get their own chassis number and are registered as Gardner Douglas cars

Based in Grantham in Lincolnshire they were founded in the 1980s by Andy Burrows who is still in charge today, it was in the year 1990 the company became formally known as Gardner Douglas still trading today making cars such as this as well as Lola T70 inspired cars

A continuous company history and still operating factory helps to put ones mind at rest in contrast to some of the smaller shall we say 'shed' style builds that can be found, Gardner Douglas is a bonafide motorcar manufacturer

The car we have here is testament to that featuring the Chevy small block, LS3 version which is the 6.2litre version of the Chevrolet small block... weird I don't quite understand how engine number codes are assigned but hey it sounds bloody good and puts out 480BHP!!

That sort of power requires some management so in the absence of any driver assistance in the form of traction control or abs etc a Tremec Magnum 6 speed gearbox has been utilised together with beefy 275 section rear tyres, a limited slip differential, double wishbone front suspension & fully independent rear suspension

Everything has been carefully thought out with the Tremec Magnum chosen because of its irrefutable strength and capability, known to be able to handle 750bhp with ease

And she's light, very light with a single moulding fibreglass body, and very triangulated steel space frame chassis she barely pushes the 1 ton mark so the performance is rude

0-62mph in 2.8secs when hooked up but the real bonkers bit is 60mph to 120mph which it dispatches of in less than 2 seconds, she's about as fast as any modern supercar, if not faster

Interestingly the moulding the for body is taken from a race car campaigned by AC in the 1990s that Gardner Douglas acquired and still use today

Our car here is the only Gardner Douglas 427 ever produced with power steering, the steering set up is quite genius with 100% assistance when driving below 3mph and a gradual decrease up to 20mph at which point there is no power assistance at all. Again this was carefully calibrated and thought out before being programmed in but can be re-mapped should someone prefer a different set up

The commissioner of this car was quite particular and also insisted on the reverse gear not being clunky, the Tremec is bulletproof but the only foible is that they require a hefty thud for reverse, this stops you shifting into reverse whilst driving along protecting the box, however it isn't very nice, so some more clever mapping was done with the ECU to ensure that reverse is not available above 1mph, with this done the solenoid could be changed to make reverse as smooth a change as all the others

And it is a very cute little box to use with a short throw between the gears and wonderfully positive feeling

She also has a bespoke set of pedals set up for a fly by wire system to work perfectly with the LS3 engine, mapped currently for road use and fully adjustable

Gardner Douglas insist their cars are not Cobra replicas, of course the appearance says otherwise but once you drive one and feel the quality of manufacturing and the solidity of all the parts their claim becomes clear

This car feels like a manufactured car built bespoke for the sole purpose of driving enjoyment, the speed is great but the real essence is in the spirit of driving because we enjoy doing so