Great British Sports Cars Zero review

GBS Zero is a minimalist roadster on a Caterham-like theme

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The GBS (Great British Sports Cars) Zero is among a number of Caterham Seven-alike models whose existence the original maker has learnt to tolerate during the past few decades.

The first of those (the original unoriginal?) was a Westfield that looked so much like a 7 that Caterham litigated it into it having a slightly different appearance, and every 7-but-not-7 has been a variation on the theme since; familiar but somehow not at the same time, like seeing a mate who’s been clean shaven for 30 years suddenly appear with a beard.

The Zero is GBS’s take on the minimal two-seat, front engine, rear drive roadster. We haven’t driven a GBS for more than a decade and there’ll be a huge difference between the model we tested then, and this one, which has more than 200bhp and is more accommodating than a Caterham.

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DESIGN & STYLING

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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.

INTERIOR

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GBS offers a simple but comprehensive pricelist and options, with roll cage upgrades, power hikes, limited-slip differential choices, colours, trims and more.

Our test car had a few boxes ticked, including a smart carbonfibre dashboard, which is shorn of most buttons and instead has a few switches on the transmission tunnel and three column stalks for wipers and lighting, including self-cancelling indicators. There’s no heater, but you can have heated seats.

Overall, perceived quality impressions are pretty good, I thought. The cockpit is still snug, with fiddly doors, as per the norm on cars like this, with four-point harnesses standard. There’s generous room in the footwell, as much as Caterham’s wide chassis I’d think. The steering wheel doesn’t adjust, and the gearlever sprouts a little longer from the tunnel than in a 7.

Otherwise the control layout and ergonomics are good, pedal spacing generous, yet their feel, weighting and pedal positions – one of the things micro makers don’t always nail – are fine.

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

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GBS takes a Duratec engine and shortens the sump, fits throttle bodies, a stainless exhaust, lightened flywheel and billet engine pulleys, to help it make 210bhp at 7000rpm and 200lb ft at 4000rpm, although different tunes are available if you like.

Likewise different engines – this is one of those cars where you can largely spec and build it as you want it. Any which way, the engine drives the back wheels through a five-speed Mazda MX-5 gearbox (niche makers are going to hope Mazda continues making MX-5s for some time). There’s even an option for an MX-5-based Zero.

In this car, performance is strong. There’s ample response throughout the rev-range, because the car’s so light that you don’t have to be right up into it to make progress, though if you want to swap gears quickly you’ll find the gearshift accurate and short.

Traction breaks easily but predictably in the wintry conditions of our test and is something that we’ll hope to explore more when the year warms through.

RIDE & HANDLING

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There are double-wishbones at both the front and rear, and the Zero has 15in Team Dynamics alloys wearing 195/50 R15 Yokohama AD08 tyres.

It’s true that the chassis feels rigid, although as with many cars like this there are still things that make a noise – doors, harness buckles and the like – as you tackle pockmarked roads.

Rolling comfort is pretty good, but body control remains tight, as you’d expect given it doesn’t weigh a great deal. Light cars are sometimes easily deflected by big bumps but the best – Lotus Elises and such – are well sprung and damped to prevent this. The Zero is a car that avoids too much crashiness.

It does, though, always feel that big bigger and less immediate than a standard-chassis 7. If you’re unfamiliar with a 7 and coming from a bigger sports car, this may not be a big deal, because by most standards, even light sports car standards, the Zero is a compact thing. But if one is comparing the lightest and most compact of the breed, the GBS gives a little away to a Caterham.

The steering’s a bit nervy around straight ahead but calms with a bit of lock applied. It was a pretty grim, greasy winter’s day for our drive, so hot-asphalt, sticky tyred high-g cornering will have to wait for another time (we’ll try a Zero on circuit later this year), but first impressions of the handling seem precise and predictable.

VERDICT

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We found the Zero an easy car to warm to, even on a cold winter’s day, where it remained more usable and entertaining than 600kg, roofless, open-front-wheeled cars have a natural right to be.

While it looks like a 7, like many lightweight sports cars such as the Ariel Atom or a used Lotus Elise, differences in character between brands can run a little deeper than you might think on looks alone.

GBS’s take on the minimalist two-seat roadster adds some compliance and size to the typical theme, and is enjoyable with it.

Matt Prior

Matt Prior
Title: Editor-at-large

Matt is Autocar’s lead features writer and presenter, is the main face of Autocar’s YouTube channel, presents the My Week In Cars podcast and has written his weekly column, Tester’s Notes, since 2013.

Matt is an automotive engineer who has been writing and talking about cars since 1997. He joined Autocar in 2005 as deputy road test editor, prior to which he was road test editor and world rally editor for Channel 4’s automotive website, 4Car. 

Into all things engineering and automotive from any era, Matt is as comfortable regularly contributing to sibling titles Move Electric and Classic & Sports Car as he is writing for Autocar. He has a racing licence, and some malfunctioning classic cars and motorbikes.