I’m still in the damn hospital, still being stuck with needles and tubes and wires and I’m still sick of being here. Yesterday I let myself indulge in a lot of complaining, but today I’m just going to try and rise above, or at least to the side, of the frustration and discomfort by talking about a car I feel like doesn’t get talked about enough: the Gilbern Invader. These cars meet one of my main criteria in choosing a car: most people at least a little into cars will look at it and think “what the fuck is that?”
Also, it’s a handsome, deeply cool car from Wales of all places, with a big bold dragon on the grille and a look that feels like something between an early Mustang and an Alfa Romeo GTV. It’s one of that interesting set of British cars from the ’60s and ’70s that were handsome sporty machines with fiberglass bodies and beefy engines.
Gilbern – the name comes from a portmanteau of the founders’ first names, Giles Smith (an ex-butcher!) and Bernard Friese (an engineer who knew about fiberglass), sort of like if David and Beau and I decided to name this site Dajasbeau or something.
(Medical update: they just pulled a drain tube out of me and boy did it feel weird. The sensation of a tube with a plastic flared end being pulled from inside you to outside you is pretty unnerving. But it’s out!)
Gilbern started making kit-type cars in 1959 with BMC and later MG mechanicals, then graduated to fully-built cars like the Gilbern Genie, which had some MGB underpinnings and an Essex V6 engine like my old Reliant Scimitar.
From the Genie came the Invader, and it’s a great example of how a few small styling tweaks can make a huge difference, especially on the Mark III Invaders like this one:
The grille became full-width instead of the previous trapezoidal shape, and the whole car was widened and lowered a bit, with a track widened by about four inches. The result was a car that looked more purposeful and imposing while still feeling dignified and handsome. The Invader is just a great-looking GT car in its clean simplicity.
Here, you can watch a video of some sideburns and the guy who lives inside them driving one, as well as some great footage of the factory, where you can see the nearly fully-formed fiberglass bodies coming out of their molds like cicada shells:
There were even wagon – sorry, estate– versions of Gilberns that were very cool, even if a bit oddly droopy at the rear:
These cars also reminded me how most of the Welsh manufactured products I’m aware of, a number in the high twos, seem to feature dragons prominently as their logo. Gilbern has a wonderful version of the Welsh Dragon as their badge, a red dragon that seems to have won a battle against a white dragon long long ago, and as a result, gets to be on the Welsh flag – if you can beat it in a fight, maybe they’ll put you on the flag? Anyway, the only other Welsh-manufactured product I’m that familiar with is the Dragon 32 or Dragon 64 computer, and its logo is also a stylized version of that dragon:
I have a Dragon 64 in my collection of weird crap; it’s a lot like a Welsh version of the Radio Shack TRS-80 color computer, and is an interesting machine, even if it has graphic modes with some of the most garish colors I’ve ever seen.
The Gilbern Invader, though, is a hell of an appealing car. I’ve never gotten to drive one, though I suspect it may be similar to my old Scimitar GTE, which would be very satisfying.
Now I just want to get out of this damn hospital bed.
I guess you have to be reminded of the lovely Davrian (aka Darrian IIRC).
I had the pleasure of seeing one of these at a Cars and Coffee last year; the owner also had a lovely Welsh flag blanket in the rear seat. A Gilbern Estate is still on my list to see IRL. I do have an 87th scale resin model of that, which I will build once my children stop needing me 22 hours a day.
I found this site because I have a Google alert set up for anything Gilbern.
I owned a Mk3 Invader for a few years but reluctantly sold it because, once the problems started, I had no tools, experience, garage with lighting/power to deal with the problems.
A couple of points to note if you’re thinking of buying one.
Heavy front end with the 3 litre V6 and light rear with rear wheel drive makes it fun to drive in the wet! It had two fuel tanks in the rear boot connected by a pipe across the inside rear, so not an ideal arrangement if you are rear-ended.
Mine was a 4 speed manual with overdrive. I’d definitely buy another if I could afford to pay somebody to restore and maintain it.
You will find the story of mine if you search Google with G4IAT Gilbern
Get well soon, Torch.
If they send you down to MRI, I’ll try to make sure it’s a short, pleasant visit.
Come on. If anything, your names would combine to be The Mighty Beaudaja!
I’m seeing a whole lot of Volvo 1xx series in the styling of these.
Sorry to hear you are back in hospital Torch, but relieved to hear the external plumbing is gradually being removed.
Never heard of the Dragon 64 but I can think of a personal computer that’s wildly popular and (often) Welsh made. The Raspberry Pi! Sony have a factory in Wales that has been churning these credit card size computers out from the beginning. My example was made in China, however. I was going to say that the Welsh version should have a dragon silkscreened on the board but I guess China kind of have a bit of an association with dragons too…
I love that Dragon computer logo. Attractive use of the Welsh dragon concept out of racing stripes. Really clever but simple details with the eye, wing, and tongue. It must have looked appropriately modern at the time.
It doesn’t speak well of the performance of the Gilbern that it’s getting quickly overtaken by a Type 3 Fastback in the video.
Gilberns must be scarce by now. You could even call one a Welsh rarebit.
If your country’s flag had something as cool as a dragon on it, you’d put it on everything too.
Glad to hear you are getting unneedled, that is one of my phobias and I hate it when they have to stick me.
As for the car, not bad looking though imagine if it spoke Welsh for prompts. We would be what the hell does this thing want now.
Example of Welsh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufKf4eORcKA&ab_channel=EasyLanguages
I’m not a fan of the entire hood leading edge / headlight situation. It just seems.. unresolved. It is better than the earlier version, I’ll give it that.