Tiny in stature, much bigger in reputation and ability, the timber-structured Costin-Nathan GT defied convention to be a giant-killing racer
Words John Barker Photography Matthew Howell
It’s a quietly jaw-dropping track-day here at Silverstone. A stroll along the pit lane, peering into the garages, reveals an abundance of amazing machinery, including a number of instantly recognisable historic race cars and some fantastic modern road and race cars, too. But we’re meeting up with one of the smallest and lightest cars here, perhaps the rarest and certainly one of the most intriguing. It’s such a rarity that the only pictures I could find on the web were a couple of fuzzy, low-quality images of a dark red car, so I’m knocked sideways by the machine we find in garage 32.
It’s stunning. So small, so low, so crisply tailored and immaculately finished. Light blue is an unusual colour for a British racing car, unless it’s set off by an orange stripe, but this tiny GT wears it well and looks quite fabulous. I reckon it could carry off Gulf livery every bit as well as a Porsche 917. It’s so sleek and ground-hugging it makes a nearby Caterham 7 look chunky, and, when the boys from Rawlson Racing open it up to check it over, you can see that it’s as comprehensively engineered as any other period GT racer, only on a smaller scale. At the front are wide-spaced double wishbones, dinky aluminium hubs and teeny disc brakes, and a subframe made from small-diameter steel tubes is bolted to the tub. And it’s the material the tub is made from that makes this little ’60s racer so unusual, because it’s wood.
This is the Costin-Nathan GT, sister model to the open sports car featured in these pages before (Octane 194). The GT shares much of its engineering with the open car but has a quite different style, the bubble cockpit with its streamlined rear cover accentuating the long, low nose that, with its mouth-like radiator intake and faired-in lights, has a slightly surprised look. I imagine that back in 1968 it was an expression frequently seen on the faces of rivals driving Ginetta G12s, Lotus 23s and Marcos GTs as the eponymous Roger Nathan drove this wooden car to victory in both the Motoring News and Tootal (men’s clothing) GT championships. He also took a class win, set a new lap record and finished eighth overall in the Nürburgring 500km.
He’s just been back behind the wheel of a Costin-Nathan GT for the first time in over 50 years, running a few shakedown laps to check all is as it should be. He gives the car the
