Ginetta G40R – Road going Track Car Signs Off

Could Ginetta’s take on the ‘race car for the road’ concept work as an everyday driving proposition as well as a weekend toy? We’ve had nine months to find out

The Ginetta G40R simply had to be run as a long-term test car if we were to find out if it truly delivered the unique proposition it seemed to offer from our initial experience with it. The dinky but practical (at least by track-car standards) couple body, the dynamics and safety levels refined in years of racing, and the fact that it could roll on to the grid of a variety of national race series in standard guise seemed to set the $45,000 G40R apart from anything else. Ginetta, it seemed, had found fresh air in the market somewhere between a Caterham Seven and a Lotus Elise.

G40R mixed with the big boys on the trip to Le Mans

And I won’t deny that nine months with a gloriously fun-focused, lurid orange road-going racer was something that I was hopelessly excited about. Finding out just how hard it is to live with a flyweight car on a daily basis was something of a personal ambition, so I relished the opportunity regardless of the potential pain involved.

The Ginetta proved easier than most. Other Autocar staffers have joined in to help notch up more than 9000 miles overall in both the pre-production and full production cars we ran, but I personally covered almost 7000 miles in the G40R using it as a daily commuter as well as weekend track-day special and holiday wheels for a run to Le Mans.

Okay, so saying that a G40R is easier to live with then a Caterham is a little like saying that eating fish eyes is preferable to sticking a fork in your own optical parts, but the reasoning stands. The Ginetta is hard, noisy and a pain to get in and out of, while our car was also afflicted with various issues ranging from mild leaks to a vibrating exhaust, the rear view mirror falling off and a dodgy alternator (which lead to an RAC mercy dash). But with a standard three-point belt, a heated windscreen, solid roof and decent boot, it also delivered genuine usability for a car of this kind.

It’s a shame the optional air-con costs $2,625, since it’s a key element to making the G40R manageable in more mundane driving and even poor conditions. We’d say find the extra cash only if you’re intending to cover a decent amount of miles in the car otherwise spend it on track time instead. After all, that’s what this car really specializes in.

We visited the Rockingham circuit (coincidentally the site of my somewhat hit-and-miss inauguration into racing in a G40 Challenge race in 2011), Brands Hatch, Prescott and MIRA during the car’s Tehure, and it even saw success in an MSV Trophy race with Ginetta’s factory drivers. The car never failed to impress us, but it also never proved to be quite as electrifying as the aforementioned Caterham, nor as telepathic in its responses as the Lotus Elise – a car which also rivals the G40R for usability, if not for its race-ready potential and the safety element offered by an FIA-approved roll cage.

It came very close, though. Even Joe Osborne, one of Ginetta’s factory drivers who has competed in Ginetta G50s among plenty of other exotica, but was a sceptic of the G40’s potential as a road and track car, came away entirely won over by the rewards it offered. I’d agree with him that adjustable brake bias would be a worthwhile option, but clearly the Ginetta satisfies even if you’re used to rather more powerful and even more focused machinery.

As a rather less handy but still enthusiastic driver, I was particularly sold on the car’s general stability and accessibility. A bit more low-down urgency from the 2.0-litre Duratec motor would be a good thing, but the classic linear delivery is a joy to plunder on road and track, and the grip delivered by the wider tracks and forgiving Michelin rubber makes it a rather less sweaty-palmed experience than many flyweights while still delivering purist driver rewards. This and the diminutive size make it about perfect for UK roads. After all, increasingly, the true recipe for fun on our torturous black top is a car that you can wring much of the potential out of at reasonable speeds, rather than contemplating how upset you’d be to exit the next corner via the pearly gates. The Ginetta delivers this in spades.

Even Colin Goodwin got involved with the G40R by taking it for a run from London to Exeter and back. He returned with similar reports of enjoying the blend of usability and just enough power, rather than too much of it.

Ultimately the G40R has more than proved itself. We’ve actually followed the car’s development as we started our long-term loan with a pre-production car and eventually graduated to a finished production car. Yet the nature of this small, fiercely independent British company, not to mention the low-volume production of the G40R, means that it is essentially a continual work in progress. The seats that we’ve criticized are being replaced, and the quality and general finish is constantly being worked on.

So if you’re thinking of spending $45k on a fun weekend car, I wouldn’t let the newness of the G40R put you off. Our very early test cars are tricky to use as a real gauge of reliability, and no car produced in such small numbers in this price range is going to have mass-produced quality or finish. But given that you’re likely to be on first-name terms with the blokes who built it, you’ll know exactly who to go to if there is a problem.

It’s far from flawless, but the G40R has proved to have a broader range of applications than expected. I handed the car back convinced that I’d buy one simply because I’d get more use out of it in the UK than I would out of most other flyweights. It’s perfect for club-level competition, hill climbing or standard track-days, yet while even I wouldn’t want it as my sole vehicle, I know for sure I’d choose to use it for mundane journeys – even, just for the sheer fun of it, in the UK’s typically unenticing weather conditions. In a class where use is normally limited to fair-weather weekends, the knowledge that you could drive it to work in mid-January and not be either terrified and/or hypothermic when you arrive is a real benefit.

Whether it’s a simple track-day and weekend toy or a way to get involved in proper national competition, the G40R is an adventure to own and a great way to get the most out of being an enthusiast on the UK’s roads. I shall miss it enormously. More to the point, we now know that Ginetta has progressed from being an influential presence in racing to also being a genuine contender in the fabulously eccentric and very British class of the road-going track car. If you don’t get a fuzzy, warm and patriotic glow from that, you are probably reading the wrong magazine.