feb 3, 1954 - 1954 GTH Automotive is founded

Description:

Geirmundur Þórsson was born in Reykjavík, Iceland, on the 2nd of January 1930. He was by many, including himself, called crazy in the early 50's when he aspired to make his living designing and manufacturing cars while living in a small country of around 150.000 people, semi-isolated on a island in the North Atlantic.

Despite meeting heavy criticism and resistance, he kept on going and eventually founded GTH Automotive in the beginning of 1954. Amazingly, only just over a year later, the first GTH branded car came to be, the 1955 Reflex Sport. It's a sporty two seater that did pretty well for it's time, although by modern standards the safety aspects and braking are subpar.

The GTH comes from Geirmundur's initials. The G obviously from his first name, but the "TH" comes from his last name, as the special Icelandic character "Þ" is often replaced with "TH" internationally.

At first, the plan was to first and foremost market in Iceland, and possibly some of the other nordic countries, but with the very successful '55 Reflex Sport, the news of this eccentric Icelandic car manufacturer quickly spread and international buzz escalated. Before he knew it, GTH Automotive was exporting and selling into most European contries, and later on even into America.

Geirmundur refused to get stuck in a mold and the company has since the very beginning made cars in great variety, ranging from ecoboxes to track-toys to supercars, and pretty much everything in between. After Geirmundur resigned from his post in 2005, then 75 years old, he made sure that the company would hold on to his values, which GTH still does under the firm leadership of a dear family friend, Lárus Kristjánsson (b. 1977).

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