Manufacturer Ginetta Cars Designer Lawrence Tomlinson Body style 2-door coupé | Production 2008-2014 Class Sports car | |
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Assembly Leeds, West Yorkshire, England | ||
The Ginetta G50 is a specialist GT4 class-developed racing car, designed by Ginetta Cars. A road version of the car was planned, but did not enter wide-scale production; instead, the smaller Ginetta G40 was launched.
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Development
In late 2007, in what he later described as his Victor Kiam moment, Leeds-based businessman Lawrence Tomlinson bought Ginetta Cars from the group of enthusiasts, who themselves had bought it out of administration.
The G50 was developed to celebrate 50 year of production of Ginetta Cars. With base specifications penned by trained engineer Tomlinson, the car was developed in under six months.
Racing
Launched in 2008, the G50 was awarded Autosport National Car of the Year in its first year. With its own Ginetta GT Supercup one-make series, the G50 has also been undefeated GT4 class championship winner in every season of British GT Championship, and won the GT4 European Cup in 2009, beating Aston Martin, BMW and Porsche.
As a result, Ginetta Cars won "Small Business of the Year" from the Motorsport Industry Association in 2008, and in 2009 Tomlinson was nominated by the MIA for the "Outstanding Contribution to Motorsport" award.
Road car
The first Ginetta G50 road-registered car was shown in April 2008, and then took part in the Silverstone Supercar Tour. It features the same base set-up as the race car, with a proposed development of a V8 model with 520 brake horsepower (390 kW). Retail prices were estimated at starting from £45,000 ($72,549) for the V6, and £100,000 ($161,220) for the V8. However, due to the economic recession, Ginetta indefinitely shelved plans for general production of the G50, instead opting to produce the smaller, cheaper Ginetta G40.
G50 EV Prototype
In 2009, Ginetta, in conjunction with Zytek, built an electric version of the G50 as the Ginetta G50 EV Prototype. The car was fitted with a rear-mounted 90 kW (122 PS; 121 hp) electric motor, with the regular petrol engine being removed. Ginetta gave an estimated range of between 150 and 250 miles. In November, former Formula 1 World Champion John Surtees drove the prototype through the Channel Tunnel, with the car becoming the first production-specification car to be driven through the tunnel. However, production was cancelled following the company's failure to secure a government grant for the project.
G50Z GT3
A GT3 specification car was developed in 2009 featuring a 4.0 Zytek V8 which was then down graded to a 3.4L v8 when racing in GT Asia by Craft Racing. The car was intended to challenge for outright GT victories instead of GT4 class victories.