1962 GSM flamingo

The Flamingo was a further development of an open racing car

The company’s first model was the dart. It was developed after GSM founders Bob van Niekerk and Willie Meissner traveled to Great Britain in the 1950s to learn all about the new lightweight material fiberglass. Development of the car actually started in the UK, but then the entire development process was relocated to Cape Town, where the two partners would build Glass Sport Motors’ headquarters. The dart should be an open racer and not so much a tram. It was succeeded in 1960 by the GSM Delta.

In 1962 the brothers developed their third model – the GSM Flamingo, a two-seater coupé with a fixed head that is loosely based on the dart. That said, many of the chassis components have been changed. While the dart had transversely mounted leaf springs, the Flamingo had double wishbones and side coil springs. The rear suspension had a unique trailing arm setup on each side to keep one wheel from turning faster than the other under load.

It was powered by a wide variety of engines

Like its predecessors, the GSM Flamingo was powered by different motors. Originally, the car was supposed to have a Ford V-6 engine, which was developed at the time. However, the engine was not ready in time.

This resulted in the Flamingo initially using the 1.8 (1,758 cc) OHV unit from the Ford Taunus. The unit produced 80 horsepower (60 kilowatts) at 5,000 rpm and 104 pound-feet (141 Nm) at 2,500 rpm. This was sufficient for a time from 0 to 60 mph (97 km / h) for 9.7 seconds and a top speed of 112 mph (180 km / h).

The Flamingo also came with a 1.5 liter Ford Cortina non-crossflow unit on loan from the Cortina. That resulted in 85 horsepower (63 kilowatts) at 5,600 rpm and 86 pound-feet (116 Nm) at 3,000 rpm. This allowed for a sprint from 0 to 60 mph (97 km / h) in 10.0 seconds and a top speed of 107 mph (172 km / h). Both four-cylinder versions were combined with a four-speed manual transmission.

There was another version of the flamingo that came out in 1967 – probably the last year of production for the flamingo. It was fitted with a Ford 4.3 liter V-8 straight from the Ford Fairmont. It produced 164 horsepower (122 kilowatts) at 4,400 rpm and 258 pound-feet (350 Nm) at 2,200 rpm. This enabled the Flamingo V-8 to sprint from 7.2 seconds to 97 km / h. It was believed that the top speed was more than 193 km / h. The engine was connected to a three-speed manual transmission. Only a prototype was made with this engine.

Regardless of the engine, the Flamingo always powered the rear wheels via an old school manual. It should be noted that these are asserted and approximate COPs and some sources (especially for the four cylinder versions) claim poorer COPs.

Light weight was the key

The Flamingo was perhaps the company’s more serviceable car, but that didn’t mean it was heavy. Because of the fiberglass body, the car was very light. The 1.8 liter version was actually the lightest and only weighed 710 kg dry. The 1.5 liter cars were a little heavier at 725 kg. No wonder that the one-off V-8 prototype, weighing 889 kg, was the heaviest, albeit still the lightest.

One of Gordon Murray’s favorite rare cars

Glass Sport Motors is not the first example of the South African automotive industry, but it is the first recognized automaker from the region. Compared to other automakers from South Africa, GSM managed to establish a mass production process. Only around 120 GSM flamingos were built with this. Gordon Murray – the man behind the McLaren F1 and its modern successor, the Gordon Murray T-50 – has a Flamingo 1.5 liter from 1964 in his private collection.