Guess the year that this Pembleton T24 was first registered, having been hand built in a small village in Worcestershire...
Nope, you're wrong. We're not about to get all beardy about pre-war motoring, because this curious creation was actually first put together in 2023. Yep, it's a brand new car.
"Vintage motoring reimagined for the present," is one of the tag lines that Pembleton uses to sell its wares. The company was formed by Phil Gregory, who in 1999 built the very first Pembleton using the aluminium body panels from an old caravan. That was a three-wheeled, bike-engined creation drawn up and built in just five weeks, as trikes wen free on the ferry to Ireland and a wedding anniversary roadtrip was planned for the very near future.
So, as you may be able to tell, Phil is a proper eccentric British engineer. In the Eighties he built his own methanol powered, slick tyre-shod motorbike - the Gregory 1100cc - from scratch and used it to win the national hillclimb championship and set multiple course records around the UK. His nickname in the motorcycle press at the time was 'The Worcestershire Wild Man'. Oh, and he towed said bike to races behind his Dino using a tow bar set-up that he put together himself. He once also had plans to build his own helicopter.
"He doesn't have a mobile phone, never had an email address and he could probably just about turn on the computer, but he wouldn't get much further than that. And yet he somehow managed to get bespoke belts made up in Japan for the bike engine," says his son Guy Gregory, who took over the running of the company back in 2015.
Esta historia es de la edición September 2023 de BBC Top Gear UK.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición September 2023 de BBC Top Gear UK.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
HEAD TO HEAD VANTAGE vs 911 TURBO
For as long as we can remember the Porsche 911 has been the default best sports car money can buy. Does the new Aston Vantage represent a changing of the guard?
BOSS LEVEL:PART TWO
In a world exclusive, three makers of the world's most powerful hypercars are cordially invited... to drive each other's creations
THE THEORY 0F EVOLUTION
Ridged bladder seats, an inflating steering wheel and an AI track day coach... has Lotus hit on the supercar's future, or gone mad?
Koenigsegg Jesko Attack
The Jesko Attack drives like a conventional supercar. Brakes like one, turns like one, grips like one. But it doesn't accelerate like one.
STIC LAPS are back!
It's a 1.75-mile figure of eight on an old Canadian Air Force base just south of Guildford. Hardly Monza, or the Mulsanne straight, and never in a million years - you'd think a place that would become one of the most sought after performance benchmarks in the motoring world.
URBAN OUTWITTERS
Does the solution to city motoring lie in designs from the past with powertrains from the future? TopGear goes in search of answers... at rush hour
FUTURE FERRARIS
If you thought Ferrar's past was colourful, wait until you see what it's cooking up next. The future's bright, the future's rosso
DIRTY DOZEN
Ferrari's new super GT makes no secrets about what's under the bonnet, but can it swallow five countries in just a few hours? Better get on with it...
MYTH BUSTER
\"ADAPTIVE DAMPERS ALWAYS NEED TO ADAPT\"
The S2000 from a parallel universe
Meet Evasive Motorsports’ Honda S2000R, the car the Japanese firm should have built itself
