A NEWPORT pastor is to sell a classic sports car to raise money for three charities.

Clive Owen, of the Wellspring Christian Fellowship Church in Langstone, purchased a 1971 Gilbern Invader Mark II in Bournemouth last year.

Mr Owen waited 20 years to buy the car and vowed never to sell it, but following a recent visit to a hospital in Israel, he has decided to put the car up for auction.

The sale of the car will be independently audited and it has its MOT in place.

Only 287 models of the Invader Mark II were made at Gilbern’s factory in Llantwit Fardre in Pontypridd. Launched at the 1970 British Motor Show, the Mark II featured an improved front chassis design, with modified suspension locations, and the Watt’s linkages were replaced with Panhard rods.

The name, Gilbern, was a combination of the first three letters of the name of co-founder Giles Smith, a local butcher from Church Village near Pontypridd, and the first four letters of the name of fellow co-founder Bernard Friese, a German engineer and former prisoner of war.

The company was founded in 1959 and the cars were expensive for the time.

Owing to taxation changes that added value-added tax to kit cars, they increased in price and production at the factory ceased in 1973.

Following recent renovations to the car, Mr Owen is looking for an opening bid of £10,000.

All money raised will be donated to charity: locally, with the Eden Gate charity, which helps with homelessness and substance abuse; in Uganda, with Life Ministries Trust Kampala, which provides medical services to the poor; and in Israel, with the Shevet Achim charity, which is dedicated to saving the lives of children with congenital heart defects.

Mr Owen said that the car is of little value in the grand scheme of things.

He said: “When the Antiques Roadshow was in Newport last summer, John Foster asked me if I would ever sell the car.

“I vowed that I wouldn’t. I had restored the interior and the exterior, with new wheels, and it required more hours than money really.

“But, after visiting Israel seven weeks ago and seeing a Syrian baby with major heart problems smile at me, I thought to myself, ‘How can I enjoy it when there’s so much suffering our there?’ “My granddaughter, Phoebe, had major heart problems after she was born in the Heath and these families do not have access to the same life-saving treatment that she did.

He added: “The car is just a means and there are people in need out there. What could possibly be more important than a child’s life?”

l For more information or to make a bid, contact Mr Owen on clive-owen@wellspring.fsbusiness.co.uk or call 075 99484872.