John Gordon, formerly of the Peerless company, and Jim Keeble first worked together in 1959, fitting a Chevrolet Corvette V8 into a Peerless chassis for an American Air Force pilot. The result led to the Gordon GT, whose prototype was built in 1960 with a 4.6-litre Chevrolet V8 in a spaceframe chassis with independent front suspension and disc brakes.
The body was designed at Bertone by the young Giorgetto Giugiaro, and the prototype was built in just 27 days for the March 1960 Geneva Motor Show. For production, which finally began in 1964, the car gained a 5.4-litre Chevrolet 327 V8 and a glass-fibre body, and it was built first at Eastleigh and then Southampton.
The Gordon-Keeble was fast, comfortable and very well made, but at £2,798 it was priced far below rivals such as Aston Martin, and problems with suppliers and a lack of money brought the company down. About 100 cars were built before production ended in 1967. The tortoise badge came about when a pet tortoise walked into an early publicity photograph.
