Cox GTM

Although the GTM is no longer built, the company GTM is still in business building “unspoilt sports cars.” It began in 1966 when Jack Hosker made a model for a GTM (Grand Touring Mini); it is believed he made the chassis model from packets of cornflakes.

Fortunately for him, his friend Bernard Cox, who ran the garage Cox & Co in Hazel Grove, Cheshire, liked the model and offered Hosker a corner within his premises to build a prototype, which he did just in time to unveil the Cox GTM at the Racing Car Show in January 1967.

The car was built as a semi-monocoque made of sheet steel with a box-section backbone, Mini front subframes at both the front and rear, and a fibreglass body. The Mini engine was fitted to the rear subframe, making the GTM the first mid-engined kit car. Under the forward-tilting bonnet were the radiator and standard Mini petrol tank.

The Cox GTM was offered as a kit only, but a body/chassis unit could also be ordered for £330. The prototype was fitted with a 1,293 cc engine and was raced during the 1967 season by racing enthusiast Howard Heerey, who worked at a nearby garage and helped design and test the prototype.

For the 1968 season, Heerey and Cox built a new, lighter racing car with a 1,150 cc engine. The car received considerable promotion and praise when Cars and Car Conversions magazine tested an early Cox GTM: “It’s nearly all Mini — and it don’t arf go!” The testers managed to accelerate from 0–60 mph in 6.4 seconds, reporting a top speed of 115.5 mph.

The magazine’s editor subsequently built his own GTM and reported the construction process in the magazine. He later raced the car around the UK and even entered it in the Nürburgring 500-kilometre race in September 1970.

By that time, Bernard Cox had stopped producing the vehicle nearly two years earlier. Howard Heerey and his father, Brian, took over production of the GTM in 1968. They made several changes to the design, replacing the Mini front subframe at the rear with a spaceframe.

It is believed that only 55 Cox GTMs were built. Under the Heerey name, another 170 GTMs were produced between 1969 and 1970. The production rights were later sold several times.