1964 GSM Flamingo – Classified of the Week

In the late ‘50s, fibreglass was a new and exciting means by which to build a car. The Americans had been dabbling with cars like the Woodill Wildfire, the Kaiser-Darrin and of course, the mighty Corvette. This new material that was lightweight, seemingly infinitely mouldable and of course, cheap, was soon on the minds of carmakers the world over. A case in point being Bob van Niekerk and Willie Meissne, who, in 1958, founded South African company, GSM – Glass Sport Motors. 

The company’s first car was the Dart, a small, lightweight roadster powered by a small Ford engine amongst others. The company’s second car, however, is what we’re looking at here. The brilliantly named Flamingo. Built from 1962, the original plan was to have this featherweight coupe source power from a Ford V6 engine, which would have been utterly bonkers. Sadly though, the engine wasn’t ready in time, and instead four-cylinder engines were used. You could have a 1.5 pre-crossflow Ford, or a 1.7. Interestingly though, this car has neither. 

There isn’t much known about the early part of this Flamingo’s life. What we do know is that it was restored in 1991, but was in need of restoration once more when the car changed hands in 1998. It was bought by Andrew Nash, who carried out a complete nut and bolt restoration on the little car. The body came off the chassis, the chassis was sandblasted and everything that could be renewed, was. The keen-eyed amongst you may have spotted that the engine isn’t a pre-crossflow. Ten points to you. It is in fact a 1600 unit from a Mk1 Escort complete with a stage two camshaft. As such, this little wheeled slice of ornithology is now quite… peppy. 

As you can see, the restoration was done to an exacting standard, a fact backed up by the numerous trophies it has collected over the last two decades. Further interest is also generated by the fact that after Andrew, Gordon Murray himself owned this little car. Apparently it was the talk of his design staff for some time. Though rightly so, as it’s a wonderful little thing. 

At a mere £25,000, this GSM Flamingo is a weird, but utterly wonderful example of what the automotive industry was up to in the crazy, experimental days of the ‘50s and ‘60s. But more than that, it’s a car that promises to be fun, it’s utterly beguiling to look at and with that 1600 engine, it won’t be slow by any means. If you want to stand out from the crowd, this is most definitely the car in which to do it.