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Gillet Vertigo .5 - coupe body - manufactured in 2008
Though Belgium, the small Western European country bordering on the North Sea, still produces the most cars per inhabitant in all of Europe there's little that remains from its once rich and varied automotive history. While the major international makes like Ford an GM have production facilities in Belgium, attracted by the vicinity of the large Antwerp harbor and the ore and steel industry, there are practically no original Belgian manufacturers left. Officially there's actually only one: Gillet from Gembloux in the French speaking Walloon region of Belgium.
Manufacturer is perhaps too large a word to describe Gillet since production hasn't surpassed one and a half car annually but the cars themselves are pretty special. The history of Gillet started in 1991 when Tony Gillet, a racing driver and importer of the Dutch Donkervoort sports car, set out to create a new car. He utilized his experience with carbon composite material and the lightweight Lotus 7 derivation made by Donkervoort to develop an ultra fast accelerating performance car dubbed the Vertigo by his cinema loving daughter. In 1992 the first prototype was shown on the Brussels Motor Show but it took another two years to turn it into a street legal car. The car presented in 1994 was styled by Charles van den Bosch and had peculiar looks with cycle winged front wheels behind a wide front spoiler with pop-up headlights, an open top and a wide rear end covering broad rear wheels. Yet its low square stance expressed the car's serious dynamic abilities.
Powered by a 2.2-litre 4-cylinder Ford Cosworth turbo engine with up to 300 hp the 2-seater proved to be scorching fast. Its Formula 1 type carbon and alloy honeycomb chassis weighed only 58 kg while giving it incredible strength and rigidity. Top speed was somewhere around 250 kph but what made the Vertigo stand out was its acceleration; a specially tuned Vertigo set a 0 to 100 kph acceleration time in a record 3.27 seconds in 1994 which ensured an entry in the Guiness Book of Records. Other publicity stunts were making a Gillet Vertigo the official pace-car for the 1995 Belgian Pro Car championship races and it also acted as a pace-car in the 1995 Monaco Grand Prix, attracting even more attention. From then the hand-built performance car was continuously under development though actually selling it was not high on Gillet's list of priorities.
A competition version of the Vertigo was entered in the Belgian Pro Car championship in 1996 which featured a revised (closed) body design. This lead to the Mk 2 Vertigo which appeared in 1997 and had slightly more elegant looks with front wheels covered by the body, traditional twin headlights and transparent "gull wing" doors both with or without roof section. A year later the Cosworth engine was replaced by an Alfa Romeo 3-litre V6 unit, offering similar horsepower but more torque. The body was retouched again and now the car was in its Mk 3 phase.
An important step followed in 2001 when former F1 racing driver Philippe Streiff took an interest in the Vertigo. He added to the development of the racing version which gained competitiveness with each season. To underline this relation his last name was added to the model name of the fastest version of the Mk 4 Vertigo presented in 2002. Design had been improved resulting in only a closed coupe version to be had but more importantly the Alfa V6 engine was now available in racing trim, offering 3.6 litre displacement and around 360 hp for the production car. In 2006 a Gillet Vertigo Streiff also managed to clinch the first FIA GT2 championship which truly established the small manufacturer as a serious contender.
The most recent iteration of the Vertigo is the Mk 5 (or .5 as it is indicated on the car) introduced in 2008. Again the revisions of Charles van den Bosch make it look more mature than before though the portholes on the side are maybe a bit too much. Almost traditionally the new model has benefitted from experiences and expertise acquired in competition and now its Alfa engine measures 4 litres and offers 400 hp. Weighing only 900 kg the Vertigo Mk 5 still accelerates true to form: 0 to 100 kph is dealt with in just 3.3 seconds while maximum speed remains around 250 kph. The next step is already active on the circuits in the form of the Maserati 4.2-litre V8 powered Vertigo GT racing car. In subsequent Vertigo roadcars the Maserati engine will replace the old Alfa unit, making it even more potent and perhaps explaining the portholes on the sides which also feature on Maserati bodies.
So, you may wonder: how many Gillet Vertigos did actually leave the factory? Well, apparently only 26 were made in the last 18 years and only 10 with the Alfa Romeo engine. This must make the Vertigo one of the rarest production cars on the market. Oddly enough a fair amount of computer game fans have had the virtual pleasure of owning a Gillet Vertigo since the car appears in games like Need for Speed, Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport.
If you want something brutally fast and almost unique and don't mind waiting for it for a year or so then you may want to pay Tony Gillet a visit. Mind you, there are no Gillet dealers or representatives whatsoever so you do actually have to go to Belgium. Meanwhile Tony makes his living developing all sorts of high-tech carbon fibre parts and prototypes, restoring classics and selling Donkervoort cars. What a great character...
© André Ritzinger, Amsterdam, Holland
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