Ollerton-based GBS is unusual among low-volume makers in that it likes to make things itself rather than assemble outsourced components, like Caterham, Ariel and others typically do. It estimates that 80% of the Zero is built in-house, including fabricating the chassis.
This is less surprising when you wander through the factory to find GBS is an engineering company at heart, making throttle bodies, radiators, even brake discs and calipers, and dampers, which it sells under the ATR brand name.
Mazda MX-5 tuner BBR GTi uses ATR’s throttle bodies and there are high-end restomodders who’ve used GBS’s composite design skills.
But the Zero basics are as per other 7-esque models, with a fabricated steel chassis, built relatively accommodatingly. GBS does a wider-chassis option but I doubt few will find it necessary. This is already broader of seat and footwell than a Caterham.
Aluminium bodywork is bonded to the panels, which director GBS Richard Hall says gives a threefold increase in rigidity. “We’re confident we make the stiffest [7-like] chassis,” he says. All up weight is around 600kg, evenly distributed front to rear, says GBS.
There are self-build and factory build options, with kit forms making it easier to export the car for local assembly elsewhere – you couldn’t sell a fully built one in the USA, for example, but GBS supplies kits there. In the UK, fully factory built cars start at £41,860 on the road, when fitted with a 2.5-litre Duratec engine making 210bhp and 196lb ft.
