Jim Keeble liked to relate his time as a race engineer and racing driver over a short in the Wheatsheaf, he would recall the famous ERAs and Bentleys at Brooklands race circuit in Surrey. During World War two he flew a Spitfire Mk 9 in North Africa.

John Gordon had already produced the Peerless GT cars and sold some 250 of them by the time they met. Those were the days of the Reliant Sabre, TVR Grantura and countless kits to turn your Ford Eight into an MGB, all falling far short of Jaguar or Aston Martin which were GK's target.

After experimenting with a Rover 3.5 litre V8 in a Peerless, they started work on the Gordon-Keeble prototype. Working on customer's Chevrolet Corvette (which was fitted with one of the most powerful engines of its day) persuaded them that this 5.4 litre short block V8 was the way to go. Jim designed the chassis, four disc braking system, double wishbone front and de dion rear suspension. The body design which had to be the car's crowning glory was designed by Giugiaro and Bertone built the aluminium prototype from which the fibre glass production cars were made.

The car was duly finished in March 1960 and featured as a star exhibit on the Bertone stand at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1960 as a fully finished car taking just 4 months from start to finish, a remarkable achievement. At the Geneva Motor Show, the car was well received internationally. Autocar road tested the car favourably as a prototype on 29th April 1960 and again in October 1960 by which time it had covered 14,000 miles in 6 months. Later that year, John Gordon took the prototype to Detroit for a test-drive by Chevrolet President, Ed Cole and Zora Duntov. They were so impressed that they agreed to supply 1000, engine/gearbox units annually as well as full access to the Chevrolet distribution network in the USA. Unfortunately failure of third party manufacturers and cash flow problems resulted in the company collapse.

Visit the Gordon Keeble Owner's Club

In Titchfield Jim was involved in Crucial Motors which specialised in automatic gearboxes and continued offering Jims skills with exotic cars. He would be seen on the village streets testing some vintage Jaguar or Lamborhni.

When they moved from the corner of Southampton Hill to make way for the Village Gate development his drawing office above the workshop was full of computer aided design programs and other technology.

But he wasn't letting the grass grow under his feet; in the back of the workshop under a sheet was his new creation. The K3 was small engined, space saving and economical, but it was very fast, safe and a lot of fun. Having been let down by suppliers, he tried to sell it as a complete project, unfortunately without success.