The British Motor Museum is delighted to announce that a 1969 Hillman GT from the Bangers & Cash: Restoring Classics TV show has proudly gone on display. It was bought by the show in 2022 as a restoration project at auction for £5.3K and is believed to be the only Hillman GT left in existence. The third series of the TV show begins on the Yesterday channel on Thursday 12 October. The Hillman GT and the British Motor Museum are featured in episode 5 which will be broadcast on Thursday 9 November.
This high-performance saloon was unveiled at the Paris Motor Show in 1969 but was only called the Hillman GT in its first year of production. It was the sporty offering of the Rootes Group Arrow range before being replaced by the Hillman Hunter GT. The car has a top speed of 94 mph, a 1725 cc engine and 94 bhp. Its price from new was £962.
With a tuned Rootes engine and twin Stromberg CD150 carburettors, it was primarily marketed towards “the married man who still remembers fun, free, fast, bachelor GT days”! The car included high-backed seats with moulded head restraints which were seen by many as restricting vision for both the rear passengers and driver. The Hillman GT also had two bands of peelable stripes to enhance the sporty look that Rootes preferred to call “Virile GT stripes”.
Cat Boxall, Curator at the British Motor Museum, who appears in the programme, said “We are absolutely delighted to have this fabulous iconic motor on display. The Hillman GT is arguably the rarest car from the Rootes Group manufacturer and it is believed that this vehicle, built in Linwood, Renfrewshire, is the only surviving example”.
Andy Joynson, Executive Producer of Bangers & Cash: Restoring Classics, said, “We couldn’t think of a better place for the car to go on display than the British Motor Museum. It isn’t flash, it isn’t expensive, it isn’t even an iconic car - but it is part of our motoring history at a very particular moment in the important story of the Rootes group. I hope people enjoy the story of a humble and very British car”.
The Hillman GT is now on display in the Museum’s Welcome Gallery until Autumn 2024 when it will be re-auctioned to try and find the vehicle a new home and loving owner.