The Beira

Recently, I had the pleasure of meeting a certain Keith G Davidson.  This gentleman is none other than the Chief Executive of Breckland Technology, a company specialising in low volume, specialist sports vehicles.  You’ll be familiar with a couple of their models I’d guess, namely the Tommy Kaira ZZ (if you’re of the Playstation generation that is) and the Mosler MT900 (if you like sports/high performance vehicles).

Here’s some information on the company:

“The long-term goal for Breckland Technology is to establish a robust, high quality, low volume, manufacturing facility in the UK with worldwide clients.  This has so far been achieved with clients in Japan, UK and the USA.”

Given the obvious quality of their products, this frankly doesn’t surprise me.  This isn’t just every day run-of-the-mill kit here – it’s rare stuff that is well put together and can probably burn off most other cars on the road.  But let’s return to my run-in with Mr Davidson.  I met him at the Scottish Motor Show, where the Beira was on display.  I then took the opportunity to send him a few questions exclusively for CarArticles.co.uk.  The Beira I say?

That’s right, the Beira.  Let’s have a little bit of information about this beauty then shall we?

The Beira (whose name derives from a species of wild deer) is a hand-built, two-seat roadster, with unique styling cues, and powered by GM’s LS2 V8 engine, tuned to produce just a whisper short of 400hp.

Tipping the scales at 1,450kg, the Beira’s impressive power to weight ratio ensures invigorating performance, with a sub-4 second sprint to 100kph, coupled to tremendous torque, and a governed top speed of 155mph.

“It’s the ultimate in affordable boys’ toys,” says Breckland Director, Mike Rawlings. “Beira carries on from where TVR left off in terms of providing maximum performance for money spent, and real individuality.  We wanted to showcase Breckland’s design and engineering capabilities and produce an exciting driver’s car, with excellent handling dynamics, terrific performance and great looks, and importantly, priced well within the grasp of real sportscar enthusiasts,” he added.

“We also looked seriously at environmental concerns and, as a result, Beira is designed to run on Liquid Petroleum Gas as well as petrol.  This not only helps to reduce running costs and emissions, but also means Beira is capable of a range of some 700 miles between refueling stops – that’s the equivalent of travelling non-stop from the North to the South coast of France.”

Of course, building a car from scratch isn’t easy – so that’s not what Breckland set out to do.  Instead, they took the well-established Kappa platform of General Motors (think the Opel GT) and naturally put their own unique twist on it.

“Beira differs in many significant respects from the GM products however, the most radical departure being the installation of General Motors’ potent, 6.0-litre, LS2 V8 engine, more commonly found in Corvette and Pontiac GTO models.  It replaces the four-cylinder Ecotec engine and, by comparison, produces more than twice the power of the original unit.

“We didn’t set out to reinvent the wheel with Beira,” says Rawlings. “The Kappa platform offers a highly competent chassis, which has been subject to intensive crash and safety tests, and is readily available.”

Naturally, I’m sure you’re thinking that this new British racer is looking pretty fancy – but you’re wondering when you’ll get to see it.  Well, you missed it in Scotland didn’t you?  What about Monaco?  Well sadly I wasn’t there.  Not all is lost however.  I’d recommend going to the Moto Expo Show in London’s Canary Wharf from June 9th to 15th.

Apart from seeing the Beira, there are some other good reasons to go to the Moto Expo in June (starting next weekend actually).  First, it’s free to visit.  Second, there are features, car launches and even test drives.  Lastly, the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione is going to be there.  Will this be Car Articles 2008 Car of the Year?  It just might be.

Returning to the Beira, I’m sure you want to know the full facts and figures.  So, without further ado, here they are:

Engine             Breckland-modified GM LS2 6.0 litre V8.  397bhp on petrol and LPG

Performance    Top Speed: 155mph (governed); Acceleration: 0-100kph 3.9 secs (estimate)

Equipment:      Air-conditioning; Cruise control; Electrically-operated side
windows and exterior mirrors; Manually-operated cloth hood with electrically-heated rear glass; Leather/alcantara reclining sports seats with manual fore and aft adjustment; Heated driver’s seat; Driver and passenger air bags; Back-lit analogue speedometer and tachometer and fuel gauge; Digital driver information system; Halogen lighting with automatic on/off; Clarion hard-drive navigation and full entertainment system; Clarion reversing camera

Dimensions    Length 3992mm; Width 1810mm; Wheelbase 2415mm; Height 1272mm; Kerb Weight 1450kg

Options        19” road wheels; Tonneau cover. Interior to customer specifications

I know that you want one – especially in the tasty colour that it’ll appear in at the Moto Expo.  Sadly I can’t give any more information about that – nor the price in fact.  However I can say that for a nice GT like this it is less than you’d think.  Keep watching this space for more exclusive information on this soon-to-be-available British sportscar.