Buying a Hawk

[chris rawson]

Hi to all, have been monitoring this forum for sometime now and finally decided to take the plunge and buy a car. (Was a very close run thing though between the Stratos and Ultima.!!!) I have done some research on the car that is jointly owned by John Whalley and Gerry that is for sale at approx. £20K. Does anyone else have any history on this car, whether it has been crashed or even if the value is fair? If not are there any other cars up for sale? Would prefer an Alfa lump although as I run a Dedra Turbo and Integrale EVO2 as day cars I would consider cars with these engines.

Thanks for any help in advance.

Chris.

[STR470S]

Hi Chris

This car was built by Graham Bates of GB Engineering. It was originally built with a 246 engine. He will be at Abingdon all day Saturday or he can be contacted on 07831 225437.

Chris

[rutthenut]

That's right, the car was built by Graham Bates. It was fitted with a Ferrari V6 and had lots of detailed replica parts in addition to the basic kit. It had a Marlboro-style paint scheme at the time.

The engine threw a valve (or worse) and was taken out, but not replaced. The car - less engine and box - was sold to John Whalley (and Gerry) and was then converted to use the Alfa V6. I think it also got a single colour paint scheme in recent times.

I believe that the engine went to Dennis Jones, who had it repaired and fitted into his car, which has the Pirelli paint scheme.

As far as I know, the car hasn't been crashed whilst in John Whalley's custody (can't say the same for his turbo-engined car though). I have no idea about it's lifetime with Graham, but if it needed work doing, I am sure it would have been seen to as he used it partly as an advertisement for his services as G.B. Engineering.

Finally, it has apparently been set up by John Whalley with 'journo-friendly' suspension settings, although you could obviously change those as you see fit if you bought the car. His own car runs with toe-out at the rear for excessive amounts of oversteer!