This one-of-a-kind Gilby returns to its debut track to race at Revival

Syd Greene was the mastermind behind the Gilby. His team, Gilby Engineering, initially raced with a Maserati 250F until the dawn of the sixties, when Greene turned his attention to building a car for his son, Keith, to race. The Gilby Type B is that very car.

“It raced in Formula 1, in grands prix all the way through the sixties,” explained Tilley, “eventually having a BRM V8 in it. Then, it was turned into a sand racer down in Jersey with a Buick engine. It was restored by Peter Denty back in the nineties and then sat in a collection for a while, didn't really do much, and then I purchased it about a year ago and here it is.”

Tilley is here at Revival with his team, Era Motorsport, who have found the car relatively easy to manage, which is just as well considering they have found themselves under pressing time constraints. “Engines and gearboxes on these [cars] are the fussy bit. The rest of the car is very, very straightforward. The gearbox is a Colotti six-speed, so that requires a bit of staying on top of, but overall it’s a fairly simple car. We'll go through it and we'll rebuild it in between events, but nothing outrageous.

“This time last week it was still just a bare chassis, so it's been eventful getting it here. For me, it's just cool to see it here and have it running. It's a cool little thing.”

The crowds seem to agree. Tilley is “super thankful” for the attention the Gilby has received, both on the track and as it slumbers in its paddock. “It’s been quite the draw. It’s a slightly unusual looking thing. To me it resembles a bit of a duck-billed platypus rather than some of the conventional cigar-shaped tubes of the competitors of the era. It's such a cool car, it’s a privilege to own it and a privilege to have it invited to the Revival.”

The competition in question is the line-up of fellow early 1960s F1 cars in the Glover Trophy, celebrating a golden period when the Goodwood Motor Circuit hosted F1 races. Official Practice took place on Friday afternoon, and saw the Gilby qualify 12^th on a grid of 30 cars.

That drive becomes even more impressive after Tilley reveals that “the first time I sat in it was qualifying, so not ideal! But it's here and it's still running, still going. Ultimately, we were very happy with it.

“We had a gearbox issue with the car, we only had two gears so that wasn't ideal. We had the gearbox apart and gone through but usually you would do a shakedown, and you'd have found all that. Unfortunately, our shakedown was qualifying.”

Prioritisation of other restoration projects and customer work meant that the Gilby had to take a backseat in the run up to Revival, but Tilley and his team were determined to make it nonetheless. “We really wanted this one here and it made it, so mission accomplished! Now it has to just run around [on Sunday].”

And on Sunday, the Gilby, just like every car racing at the 2024 Revival, will be running solely on sustainable fuel. The Gilby has a 1950s 1,500cc Coventry-Climax four-cylinder engine which produces 177PS (130kW), and Tilley initially had his doubts around the new fuel. “Honestly, we weren't sure how the sustainable fuel was going to go in this engine, but to be fair we've had zero issues. We ran them back-to-back on the dyno with conventional 110 leaded octane racing fuel and [there was] no difference.

“The car runs great. I will admit I was slightly sceptical to start with, but I can't argue with it, performance has been great and if we're doing our part to prolong historic racing for many years to come, then I'm all for it.”

Regardless of how the Gilby performs in the Glover Trophy, Tilley is already looking to the future with hopes to bring the car back again next year. “There's no other event like the Revival. I first came to Goodwood when I was eight years old for the Festival of Speed in 1997, so to be here with a couple of my own cars, a couple of customer cars as well, there's no other historic event like it anywhere in the world. It's always a privilege to be invited to the Revival, and hopefully long may it continue.”

That being said, Tilley does have a tentative target in mind for his and the Gilby’s race performance. Finishing is the main objective, but “top eight is the goal with this car, which for us will feel like a win given that we haven't run it previously. But ultimately, I just want to finish, drive around with no issues, and then we go from there.”

Tilley and the Gilby will be on the grid for the Glover Trophy, one of the last races of the 2024 Revival scheduled to take place at 15:55 on Sunday.

The 2024 Goodwood Revival takes place on 6^th-8^th September. You can watch every moment of the historic motorsport action right here on our live stream!

Photography by Toby Whales.