This is a 2007 Westfield GTM Sports Spyder, it’s one of only 30 that were made, all sharing the same unusual monocoque fiberglass chassis and mid-mounted drivetrain.
Originally named the GTM Spyder, before the company was moved under the Westfield umbrella, the car offered an alternative to the likes of the Lotus Elise for those who wanted to build the car themselves in their shed.
This is a 2007 Westfield GTM Sports Spyder, it’s one of only 30 that were made, all sharing the same unusual monocoque fiberglass chassis and mid-mounted drivetrain.
Fast Facts: The Westfield GTM Sports Spyder
- The Westfield GTM Sports Spyder is a small mid-engined British roadster with design roots reaching all the way back to the 1967 Cox GTM, a Mini-based kit car built by Cheshire garage owner Bernard Cox. Only around 30 examples of the final Spyder variant were built, with an unusual fiberglass monocoque chassis and mid-mounted drivetrain.
- Beck and Fitch launched the GTM Libra coupe in 1998, with Richard Oakes styling and Bryn Davies suspension work built around a GRP monocoque claimed to be stiffer than the Elise’s aluminum tub. The open Spyder followed in 2002, requiring extensive reinforcement of the box sections, floor pan, and rear bulkhead.
- The most powerful commonly used engine was the 1.8 VVC unit from the MG F Trophy 160 and later the MG TF 160, producing 158 bhp and 128 lb ft, paired with a 5-speed manual. Period reviews noted that the Spyder was close to a Lotus Elise 111S in outright pace.
- This 2007 example was first registered in the United Kingdom then imported to the Netherlands the following month, and is (unusually) a left-hand drive car. It shows 33,395 kilometers, received major maintenance in 2020 including a timing belt, and comes with two keys and extensive original documentation.
History Speedrun: The Westfield GTM Sports Spyder
The Westfield GTM Sports Spyder is a small mid-engined British roadster that can trace its family tree all the way back to the earliest days of the British kit car scene. In its final form it was a two-seat convertible built around a fiberglass monocoque chassis, powered (most often) by the 1.8 liter Rover K-Series engine used in the Lotus Elise and MG F, and sold in either kit or turn key form.
The Westfield GTM Sports Spyder is a small mid-engined British roadster that can trace its family tree back to the earliest days of the British kit car scene. Images courtesy of GTM.
The car carried three sets of names over its life – the GTM Spyder, GTM Sports Spyder, and Westfield GTM Sports Spyder, this was due to a series of ownership changes that ran through the British kit car industry in the 2000s.
The GTM Marque
GTM stood for Grand Touring Mini, a name coined by Cheshire garage owner Bernard Cox and his friend Jack Hosker when they built the original Cox GTM in 1967. The car was mid-engined, its styling nodded toward the Ferrari Dino, and it used two Mini front subframes linked by a sheet steel semi-monocoque tunnel chassis.
About 50 kits were built in Cox’s Hazel Grove garage before production problems forced him to stop in late 1968. Howard Heerey and his father took over the design in February of 1969 and renamed it the GTM.
By early 1971 it’s estimated that approximately 170 GTMs had been built, although surviving production figures for the Heerey period are inconsistent to say the least. A local road-widening scheme resulted in a compulsory purchase order for their factory in March of 1972, forcing them to shut up shop.
The marque changed hands twice more before Peter Beck, Paddy Fitch, and Dougal Cowper bought the rights in 1980. Beck and Fitch continued after Cowper’s departure, moved the operation to Sutton Bonington in 1982, and steadily improved on the design.
The GTM Rossa arrived in 1986 with a fiberglass monocoque, and in 1993 the Rossa K3 became one of the first cars to use a mid-mounted Rover K-Series engine, arriving before the Lotus Elise, MG F, and Ariel Atom would do the same. Some have argued that it might have been GTM that gave the other marques the idea in the first place.
The car was a two-seat convertible built around a fiberglass monocoque chassis, powered (most often) by the 1.8 liter Rover K-Series engine used in the Lotus Elise and MG F, and sold in either kit or turnkey form. Images courtesy of GTM.
From The Libra To The Spyder
In 1998, after three years of development, Beck and Fitch launched the GTM Libra. Designed by Richard Oakes with suspension work by Bryn Davies, it was a closed lightweight sports coupe built around a GRP monocoque with over 20 box sections, which GTM claimed offered greater torsional stiffness than the bonded-aluminum tub used in the contemporary Elise.
Suspension mountings all bolted directly to the tub. Double wishbones were used at the front with Rover Metro uprights and a forward-mounted steering rack. The rear used an unusual double trailing arm layout bolted to the rear bulkhead. The engine and gearbox rode in a triangulated tubular steel frame secured to the rear bulkhead.
The GTM Spyder followed four years later, arriving in 2002 as an open version of the Libra. Richard Oakes handled the styling again, and while much of the mechanical hardware carried over, the central tub was extensively reworked.
Removing the roof meant reinforcing the closed box sections within the monocoque, adding strengthening to the floor pan, and redesigning the rear bulkhead. This added 30 kgs to the weight of the tub, and it removed the option of fitting the 2.5 liter KV6 V6 that some Libra builders had used.
GTM Spyder Specifications
The GTM Spyder measured in at 143 inches long, 64 inches wide, and 45 inches tall on a 91 inch wheelbase, with a curb weight (as given by the GTM Owners Club) as 790 kgs. Kits could be built around any of the Rover K-Series four-cylinder engines from 1,118 cc to 1,796 cc.
The most powerful commonly used option was the higher-tune 1.8 VVC unit fitted first to the limited-edition MG F Trophy 160, which produced 158 bhp at 7,000 rpm, and later to the MG TF 160, where the same output arrived at 6,900 rpm.
This Westfield GTM Sports Spyder you see here was first registered in the United Kingdom in late 2007 and imported to the Netherlands the following month. Unusually for a car aimed squarely at the British market, it’s a left-hand drive example.
The Trophy 160 produced 128 lb ft at 4,500 rpm, while the TF 160 delivered the same figure at 4,700 rpm. The standard MG F 1.8 VVC by comparison produced around 143 bhp. Either version gave an unusually flat torque curve thanks to Rover’s variable valve control system, which continued pulling to the 7,200 rpm limiter.
A standard 5-speed manual gearbox sent power to the rear wheels, and servo-assisted discs stopped all four wheels. AVO adjustable dampers were fitted front and back.
Period reviews placed the finished car close to a Lotus Elise 111S in outright pace, with more usable luggage space than a comparable Toyota MR2. Kit prices in the early 2000s were around £11,000, with a turnkey car from GTM at £17,280 and a build time estimated at 200 hours for the do-it-yourselfer.
The Westfield Era
GTM Cars was sold to the RDM Group under Dave Keene in 2003, and the company moved to Coventry in 2004. Under RDM, GTM developed two further projects – the Ballista, a rework of a Larini VW Golf Mk2-based kit, and a track-focused 40TR skeletal car built on the Spyder tub. Neither reached production. The Libra and Spyder remained the only two models on offer.
In late 2007, GTM Cars was bought by Potenza Sports Cars, which had bought Westfield Sportscars from founder Chris Smith a year earlier. GTM Cars continued to appear at kit car shows under its own identity through 2008 and 2009 alongside Westfield’s Seven-derived range, and in May of 2009 at the Stoneleigh show Potenza announced that the cars would be rebranded as Westfield GTM.
Production ended in early 2010, when Westfield withdrew the range because of parts-procurement problems, including the declining availability of Rover donor parts. A promised redevelopment was announced in 2017 for a 2018 launch, with plans for a spaceframe chassis and Ford EcoBoost, hybrid, and electric powertrains, but the revived model didn’t reach production.
Equipment includes Recaro bucket seats, a Momo steering wheel and gear knob, AP Sport brakes with red-painted calipers, front and rear anti-roll bars, TVR-style GTO headlamps, an aluminum fuel tank, and a stainless steel exhaust. It sits on 17-inch Anzio twin five-spoke alloy wheels wearing Uniroyal RainSport 3 tires.
Westfield entered administration in mid 2022, and its successor Westfield Chesil Ltd followed into administration in April of 2026. On July the 7th, 2026, Lincolnshire-based Winterton Bros Speed Shop acquired the GTM marque, intellectual property, styling moulds, and manufacturing jigs for the Libra, Spyder, and Ballista from the Westfield Chesil liquidation.
The company’s stated initial priority is spare-parts support for existing owners, with future GTM models under consideration – so all hope is not lost for GTM marque enthusiasts.
The 2007 Westfield GTM Sports Spyder Shown Here
This Westfield GTM Sports Spyder you see here was first registered in the United Kingdom in late 2007 and imported to the Netherlands the following month. Unusually for a car aimed squarely at the British market, it’s a left-hand drive example.
Its arrival coincided almost exactly with GTM Cars passing to Potenza Sports Cars, the parent company of Westfield Sportscars, in December 2007, making it one of the last cars completed when GTM was independent.
The car is finished in red with a black soft-top over a black leather and Alcantara interior, with body-colored accents on the lower dashboard and door cards and a mix of satin silver, carbon fiber, and brushed aluminum trim.
Equipment includes Recaro bucket seats, a Momo steering wheel and gear knob, AP Sport brakes with red-painted calipers, front and rear anti-roll bars, TVR-style GTO headlamps, an aluminum fuel tank, and a stainless steel exhaust. It sits on 17-inch Anzio twin five-spoke alloy wheels wearing Uniroyal RainSport 3 tires.
The odometer is showing 33,395 kms, and the most recent recorded service was carried out at approximately 25,000 kms – in 2020 the car underwent major maintenance that included replacement of the timing belt and a new set of tires.
The car is finished in red with a black soft-top over a black leather and Alcantara interior, with body-colored accents on the lower dashboard and door cards and a mix of satin silver, carbon fiber, and brushed aluminum trim.
The car is now accompanied by two ignition keys and a substantial documentation file that includes the original ordering correspondence between the first owner and GTM, technical drawings, component brochures, the workshop manual, and reference material relating to the Rover donor components.
It’s being offered for sale out of Harderwijk in the Netherlands and you can visit the listing here if you’d like to read more or register to bid.
Images courtesy of Collecting Cars
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