Cottage Classics - Ginetta, Elva, Turner, and TVR Specialists and Enthusiasts

1st May 2008 Sorry folks, we ceased trading on 31st March. The stock has almost all been sold off and the trade creditors paid.

For Ginetta related enquiries please follow the Ginetta links here. Our TVR jigs, moulds and parts stock are all that are still available for sale. Email or call for details.

We'd like to thank the large numbers of great customers we have had over the last 15 years.

We will keep the non - Ginetta aspects of the bulletin board active by way of a thank you.

7th April 2008 The Chris Dady Elva was out at the weekend.

Apologies for the missing pictures from the bulletin board but recent necessary web changes chopped them out. We can reinstate any on request.

Though more pictures and info on the bargain Fairthorpe Electron Minor road/race car are on the Bulletin Board.

Many hours and lots have money have gone into this!

4th April 2008 The Fairthorpe Electron Minor is now for sale, and there are 95 people watching the GSM on Ebay.

3rd April 2008 Many more pictures of the Bond just before it goes on Ebay. The Gilbern is sold and the GSM is on there now.

The G12P is sold - well done Tom!

1st April 2008 This is not an April fool! This coming weekend sees an Exciting festival of Ginetta racing and birthday celebrations at Cadwell Park. A full programme of testing for G50s, G20 juniors and seniors and Club Ginettas on Saturday, a party with live music, bar and hog roast in the evening and an inevitably exciting day of racing on Sunday. Anyone wanting free tickets should Email: Spadge

There will be a special Ginetta only parking area and the opportunity to parade around the track in your Ginetta! If you have an unfinished project or a Ginetta race car - bring it on your trailer! If you don't want to do that - bring some pictures!

There will also be the official announcement of Ginetta Heritage - the new racing series and company specialising in all things historic from our favourite manufacturer; with their full support and approval.

The first race of the new series FOR ANY GINETTA will be at the Second 2008 Ginetta Festival 7th September 2008. For more details call or Email: Spadge

It does sound too good to be true to a Ginetta fan but it's happening - HONEST!

Oooooooooh I'm so excited about this Historic Ginetta Racing!

29th March 2008 There's an exciting development for the racing of Historic Ginettas coming soon! In the meantime our GSM for rebuild goes onto Ebay tonight, here

26th March 2008 Offers are in for the G12P and the blue G4. Both of the GSMs have to go this month in order to do some work on the storage barn that they are in. They'll soon be on Ebay unless you want to make us an offer!

24th March 2008 An Exciting G12P Project is available in America for only $10,000! Email Tom

The Gilbern project is on ebay, take a look at:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=150228626892&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=005

Gilbern GTs make great historic race cars

18th March 2008 We have finally got around to putting our latest Gilbern Project onto the bulletin board. With work starting on the storage barns shortly, it has to go, so it will soon be on Ebay unless you want to make us an offer!

Anyone else want an Imp combined inlet exhaust manifold for twin 40s?

11th March 2008 Richard Dean tells us that during Goodwood Testing last weekend both the G4R and G10 from the Factory Heritage Collection were in fine form.

G15, G4 and TVR shock absorbers are now in stock.

4th March 2008 Collecting soon, Robert's G4. He's hardly used it due to work commitments and now his daughter is getting married. Virtually new. Unrepeatable!

Currently in production are G15 cages, G15 and G4 fuel tanks, TVR and Ginetta shock absorbers.

Back on the A roads around Saffron Walden soon!

28th February 2008 Collected today, Brian's TVR Vixen Series 3 for some tlc. It looks like it has had some sort of race history.

TVR panels seem to have been flying out of the door recently. Bonnets, inner arches and rear screens especially

Check out the bulletin board for plenty of recent updates including a G15 in the free ads

26th February 2008 Dust off your G12, it'll soon be time to go racing!

Sssh, don't tell anyone but...we want one!

20th February 2008 It's not previously been our thing but................ Ginetta Cars are really coming up with the goods these days, witness the delivery and testing of the first G50s.This has to be good news for Ginetta owners and fans of all ages and models of the marque.

19th February 2008 Richard Warne has joined the team on a part time basis. TVR and Trident owner Richard is just in time to help with the work of the Tornado Talisman, the TVR 1800s and the Costin Amigo that are at the top of the work list at the moment. Interestingly, the Ginetta G4, Ginetta G15s and the Ginetta G21 are all ticking along more slowly in the background.

7th February 2008 After an enlightening visit to the Ginetta Factory yesterday we came away in the knowledge that the Company really is going places. It's a top quality facility, recently opened by Damon Hill, complete with a boardroom like something out of a Batman film, gym for the staff, canteens, huge stocks of engines and a storeroom run with military precision.

With production of Ginettas at an unprecedented level in terms of numbers and quality, the massive investments made seem also to be making financial sense.

The Company is also well aware of us lot with the old cars (They are getting quite a collection of their own!) and will be running 2 Ginetta Festival events which will feature historic Ginetta racing and other stuff for road Ginettas: Cadwell Park April 5th and 6th and Mallory Park September 6th and 7th.

The Elva is nearly done and Patrick's G4 has gone for a paint and refit.

30th January 2008 The Round Tube G4 project has gone! But there's a nice G4 for sale in Leicester.

Not shown elsewhere on the site yet but we may have coming a Gilbern GT apparently with a restored chassis and a new MOT £4500 - interested?

There could be a genuine square tube G4 with a body and suspension, assembled needing finishing for racing etc in the offing - interested?

23rd January 2008 Lawrence Tomlinson and Richard Dean, Le Mans winners and grande fromages from Ginetta Cars Ltd dropped in yesterday.

Pilot Damian plonked the old crate on our soggy field with considerable aplomb and even more impressively pulled it out of the hole it had sunk into when it was time to scoot off to the next meeting.

Patricks G4 is coming on well.

17th January 2008 Our friend Dennis sent us a picture of his lovely G10/G11, thanks old chap!

10th January 2008 Happy New Year! Patrick W-B's championship winning G4, is in for a new body tub and some chassis tweaks. Work on the Tornado continues. Another G4 is in for suspension and steering work. The Elva Coupe is coming for another front end. The gearbox is coming out of the yellow courier for a check over.

23rd December 2007 Happy Christmas! There's a Tornado project in the offing - interested?

There's a bare square tube IRS chassis in the offing - interested?

There's a round tube G4 with a body and suspension, assembled needing finishing for racing etc for £8,500 in the offing - interested?

15th December 2007 The G27 has sold and another arrives! G15 books in stock for Christmas.

5th December 2007 One Bond has sold and another arrives! Two Gilbern GTs.

The Lotus Elite bodywork is nearly done. The Race G15 chassis is going well, and progress on the Tornado continues.

21st November 2007 Been a bit busy for the website - sorry! G15 restoration underway. Lotus Elite in for bodywork. Ouch! That wasn't in the plan!

The Davrian, Grantura and Tornado are ongoing, there are orders for Ginetta and TVR panels and we're about to start a race G15 chassis for Debs. We are also keen to have a go at the GSM Deltas we have and oh yes, isn't that a potentially class winning Fairthorpe sitting over there in the corner gathering dust?

G27 Reduced to £7000 What a bargain! Especially as a potential front runner in the new race series

26th October 2007 Another GSM arriving on Sunday! We collected a G21 for a chassis rebuild, conversion to IRS and V6 Cosworth yesterday. And we got sent this, which is excellent:

24th October 2007 The Boys did it! Dave Randall came 2nd overall and won his class in the race thereby securing second in the championship and Josh Sadler won his class and clinched the championship in the HSCC Historic Roadsports. So that is a G4 one two.

Patrick WB's G4 pedalled by Josh Sadler - 1st

Dave 2nd this year - due to a couple of mechanical niggles

19th October 2007 Details of the GSM are now in.

Dave Randall and Josh Sadler will be fighting for the HSCC Roadsports title at Silverstone tomorrow in their G4s. Good luck chaps!

4th October 2007 Newly arrived Ginetta Books. We've been offered a G21 needing an MOT and a G15 restoration case with a good chassis - interested? Email: Spadge

1st October 2007 Good progress with the Fairthorpe. Work continues on the TVR 1800S, the Davrian, the G4 and the Tornado.

25th September 2007 Off to Germany to deliver a G15 and collect the GSM. Apparently the G27 we have for sale has the record for the fastest car around Goodwood on road tyres EVER!!

20th September 2007 What a fantastic time we had ! The most G4s in a race ever?

11th September 2007 We are off San Francisco tomorrow for the Buttonwillow Ginetta G4 event. Staying with Dan Pitt and his G4.

With 16 G4s racing and other Ginettas on show it should be quite a time. We are hoping rumours that Ivor Walklett will be there will be true.

Workshop is open as usual.

8th September 2007 The Goodwood Revival was excellent. All the G15s have SOLD We have bought a second GSM Delta. The Fairthorpe race car is coming on well. The engine and gearbox went into the Grantura 1800S this week. The G4 we are restoring needs some suspension tweaks.. Work resumes on the Davrian and the Tornado imminently.

Those flares are SO last year darling

Fragile but blindingly quick in the right hands!

29th August 2007 We are off to the Goodwood Revival and rather excited, as usual. The G4R, 25 URO we restored is in the Fordwater Trophy and we are helping Joe Throbnozzle with a Cortina 1500 GT amongst other things.

28th August 2007 We went to France and fell in love. Does anyone have a GSM Delta or Dart we can look at to help us work out how to rebuild the one we just adopted? GSM Delta - our nect race project!

And within an hour of returning to the office, the orange G15 was SOLD.

11th August 2007 These two beauties both left here yesterday. Our orange racer to a career in USA and John's silver beauty to its home in Bolton. Spadge is off to France for a couple of weeks - more exciting news on his return. Anyone passing is welcome to check up on the boys in the workshop, but we suspect that they will mainly be lying about in the sun!

6th August 2007 A great little G15 at a remarkable price with an MOT. The yellow G15 now has an MOT. Gerry Hunt's G4 is SOLD

Ding dong! The front end looks better than ever!

5th August 2007 Chris Dady came in a splendid 4th in the Handicap race at the delightful Bentley Driver's Club Meeting at Silverstone yesterday. Best time of 1.18 on Dunlop Historics with a 1600cc FIA legal engine was a good performance we thought.

2nd August '07 Motorsport magazine is out and features John Gafford's G4 and some spout from Spadge. It's a nice article apart from Richard Heseltine accusing the bonnet scoop of unoriginality and renaming the AC gauges as Smiths!

1st August '07 Wow! A flurry of activity on the Bulletin Board regarding G15 parts. The G4R is SOLD , and the G4 restoration kit is SOLD.

Coming soon: An inexpensive G15 and possibly a G21 restoration case. Email: Spadge

26th July '07 The G33 is SOLD , the yellow G15 is reduced in price and the G4R is up and running.

19th July '07 Another G4 project on the books and in stock.

18th July '07 A great value recreation of Gerry Hunt's G4 with 1960s V5 and chassis number for only £15,000

17th July '07 An exciting 230 bhp Zetec G27 has just arrived and watch and smile as Spadge makes a mess of running this site himself!

5th July '07 The Porsche 550 is sold and is off to Spain any day soon.

11th June '07 Despite being one of the nicest Ginetta G33's that Spadge has ever driven recent changes in the market have prompted a price drop.

30th May '07 Just in case you haven't noticed there's a brand new Derrington cross flow alloy head in the Free Ads.

23rd May '07 The amazing Chris Lawrence of Lawrence Tune fame needs some cash for his Deep Sanderson Race engine.

8th May '07 A sort of photo diary about Cottage Classics at Brands Hatch last weekend.

1st May '07

26th April '07 And now the blue Grantura Mk3 has SOLD

25th April '07 The Marcos 1500GT has SOLD and whilst testing recently the driver, who wasn't Spadge, thought "just one more lap" and this happened. There are

two more similar sized holes, one in the sump and one on the other side of the block!

21st March '07 Coming soon, for £7,500 a Gilbern GT with FIA papers!

15th March '07 Built from a right hand drive donor Porsche 914 and registered as a Porsche in 1973 this is the most faithful Porsche 550 replica ever produced.

14th March '07 How to put pics on the bulletin board.

10th March '07 A Ginetta G15 For Sale. We've known this car since 1994 and it's always been well maintained and little driven, what else do you want?

6th March '07 Too late! The Lotus Élan +2s is sold.

28th February '07 We've slashed the price of our TVR Grantura race/rally car to help fund this season's racing in the blue Elva Courier Coupe!

23rd February '07 We sent out a newsletter on Monday. If you didn't get it and you want to get it please sign up (we lost some addresses a while back). If you got it and don't want it please click the REMOVE link. We've sorted out our remove process and it does now work.

14th February '07 Having tried the cunning ploy of offering cars for sale without photos now loadsa pics of this very desirable Ginetta G33.

7th February '07 So without a single blush pics and more info about that Marcos 1500GT.

2nd February '07 There was so much interest in the Ginetta G4 restoration project that we sold it before we added a pic. What is more we've recently sold a TVR Grantura MK2 and a Mini Marcos that didn't even get on here! So modestly blushing with success (and without the use of photos or a safety net) we offer a Marcos 1500GT for sale.

13th January '07 Happy New Year and the bulletin board will be erratic from 9am tomorrow (Sunday) for about an hour while we update the software ... a little late but we're starting the upgrade ... 10:10am and all done.

19th December '06 Spadge's very own TVR Grantura is sold and new race seriesTin Top looks like it's going to be quite something next year.

18th December '06 Just in a 1964/65 round tube Ginetta G4 restoration project. In fact so fresh in there aren't any pics yet but because it's getting near Christmas Spadge has a special offer for the lucky buyer.

6th December '06 The TVR Grantura MK2a is now ready for testing.

29th November '06 We've just group emailed a newsletter consisting of the entries for the 27th and 5th below. The bad news is your webmaster had a hard disk crash some six weeks ago and though we were backed up you always loose something, in this case it was the Cottage Classics newsletter list. We did recover an out of date list but if your surname comes after L in the alphabet or you signed up after February this year it's likely you aren't on it. So if you haven't received our Lotus Élan +2 newsletter we're afraid you'll have to sign up again ... but then a small price to pay to know what's going on at Cottage Classics!

and yes, there is another Dave Randall race vid on the way.

27th November '06 Here at Cottage Classics we've always maintained that the Lotus Élan +2 is one of the few plus twos that makes a practical classic and is still a sports car and the +2 we now have for sale is a very practical classic. Galvanised chassis, CV driveshaft conversion, Lotus 130 bhp engine ... well see for yourself.

5th November '06 Here in rural Suffolk communications become more difficult as winter sets in but the wires are being fairly burnt up on the bulletin board. That's where you can read how star of People Spinning and flags ... Dave Randall won this year's Road Sports Championship. (And we hear there's another video on the way.)

3rd October '06 Spadge's own Grantura race car for sale (because he's acquired a Ginetta G4 which he has to drive back from Norway!)

29th September '06 As promised pics and details of the Grantura Mk3 race car for sale that was the first MGB engined car built by TVR.

28th September '06 The TVR Grantura Mk2a is emigrating to race in Denmark.

18th September '06 The Gilbern is sold, the 1974 Ginetta G21 drove off towards a Cotswold sunset Thursday, Tony Day collected his lovely Ginetta G15 on Saturday and we have a TVR Grantura Mk3 race car for sale at £37,500 with the details to follow soon.

11th September '06 Chris Dady qualified for the Equipe GTS race at Oulton Park Saturday but the antique fan belt on the newly acquired Elva caused a pushrod to jam (work that one out) during Spadge's qualification. Problem fixed and Chris did twenty race minutes getting used to the car but obviously losing oil from the antique rocker cover gasket that they hadn't been able to replace. Spadge took over and throwing the car sideways around the "carousel" on the first lap the oil light came on! So that was that, no major harm done and they're both looking forward to Mallory Park in October.

8th September '06 The red Ginetta G21 has sold and tomorrow Spadge is co-driving the Elva Courier Coupe with Chris Dady at Oulton Park.