It had a tortoise as a logo, a 5.4 Litre Chevy V8 and one of the greatest automotive pensmen of the 20th century as a designer.

Still, you probably won’t have spotted many Gordon Keeble cars on the streets. Only 99 of the Anglo-Italian hybrid were made and so are rare as Hen’s teeth these days. John Gordon and Jim Keeble, who came together to create the idea of the car, had been working for a variety of struggling English auto companies when they forged an alliance over a G&T, setting up shop in Eastleigh near Southampton at the end of the fifties.

Giugiaro’s quirky design, with that acreage of glass and the cambered headlamp setup, recalls only the most elusive mid-sixties Lancias.

Launched at Geneva in 1960, the Gordon was the central attraction of the Bertone stand that year.

There’s no doubt that the Gordon Keeble will be remembered as a highlight of a great designer’s juvenilia.