Gordon-Keeble

thumb|right|Gordon-Keeble bonnet emblem Gordon-Keeble was a British car marque, conceived in Slough, then constructed in Eastleigh, and finally in Southampton (all in England), between 1964 and 1967. The marque's badge was unusual in featuring a tortoise — a pet tortoise walked into the frame of an inaugural photo-shoot, taken in the grounds of the makers. Because of the irony (the slowness of tortoises) the animal was chosen as the emblem.

==Design== The Gordon-Keeble came about when John Gordon (formerly of the struggling Peerless company) and Jim Keeble got together in 1959 to make the Gordon GT car – initially by fitting a Chevrolet Corvette V8 engine into a chassis by Peerless – for a USAF pilot named Nielsen. The concept proved impressive, and subsequently a 4.6 litre Chevrolet (283 c.i.) V8 was fitted into a specially designed square-tube steel spaceframe chassis, with independent front suspension and all-round disc brakes. The complete chassis was then taken to Turin, Italy, where Bertone built a body made of steel panels, designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro. The car's four five-inch headlights featured the rare, slightly angled "slanted" arrangement also used for a few other European marques, generally for high-speed cars such as Lagonda Rapide, Lancia Flaminia and Triumphs, as well as for Rolls-Royce. The interior had an old luxury-jet feel, with white-on-black gauges, toggle switches, and quilted aircraft PVC.