No such excuses needed with the G56. While it follows essentially the same template it’s bigger and bristling with muscular intent, huge wing and more meaningful 3.7-litre Ford V6 tucked up against its front bulkhead. Full-fat versions of this car compete in the Ginetta SuperCup and in GT4-level championships the world over. The Porsches, McLarens, Aston Martins and other customer GT4 cars they compete against may be glitzier. But are still converted road cars.
True, Ginetta has fitted street-spec Michelin PS4s and dialled the aero back a little to make the GTA easier for road car drivers to get to grips with. But this is still a proper, factory-built racing car through and through. As you realise the first time you strap in. Thankfully I’ve got Ginetta coach Max Coates alongside me. We’re at Blyton Park, now under Ginetta ownership, and the perfect place to find the limits (or, as it turns out, safely exceed them) in a car designed to help drivers develop their skills.
Where GT4 versions of McLaren 570S and Porsche Caymans use adapted street-spec dual-clutch transmissions the savage PSSSST-clack of a Quaife race sequential slotting ups the ante before a wheel even turns. Thankfully there’s no embarrassing stall and, once under way, you can forget the clutch pedal, auto-blipped shifts from the paddles freeing your left foot for braking to better balance the car through the corners.