This film covers the remarkable rediscovery of the Vixen GT, a one-off mid-engined sports car from the early 1960s built by British Formula racing driver Ian Stronach.
The Vixen GT
Although very few have ever heard of the Vixen GT is has a couple of very significant claims to fame. It was the first GT car with a rear mid-engined layout (the engine is in the back but in front of the rear axle line), and it was the first sports car to use an integrated rear spoiler – one year ahead of the Ferrari 250 GTO.
Exactly what happened in the decades after Stronach sold the car is largely unknown, but what is known is that Belgian classic car collector Let Didier discovered it for sale on an internet classifieds website, unceremoniously sitting in a field in France.
Didier recognized that the car had a hand-shaped aluminum body and Formula car suspension, with his interest piqued he set off with his 13 year old daughter the next day to see the car in person. Upon closer inspection he realized the car had been built by someone who knew what they were doing, and he saw a faded sticker in the window indicating that it had previously raced at Zandvoort.
I won’t go into too much detail here so as not to spoil the film, Didier does a wonderful job of telling the full story of the restoration and resurrection, including a touching meet-up with the Stronach himself in England.
Patina
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Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
