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Thread: Breckland Beira

  1. #1
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    Breckland Beira

    For immediate release
    June 2, 2008

    NEW BRITISH SPORTSCAR POISED TO SET PULSES RACING

    Breckland Beira breaks cover at Motorexpo, Canary Wharf

    - A new, 400bhp British-built two-seat roadster
    - Supercar performance at a fraction of supercar cost
    - Dual-fuel, for environmental benefit and reduced running costs
    - On sale from November 2008

    London’s Canary Wharf is the stage for the show debut of a stunning new British sportscar on June 9, as Breckland Technology removes the wraps from its exclusive two-seat V8 soft top, the Beira, at London Motorexpo.

    Norfolk-based Breckland - part of Hong Kong-based multi-national, Riche Holdings - is vastly experienced in the development and production of high-quality, low volume specialist cars and prototypes for an array of prestigious international clients, including Mosler, and has now employed its substantial skills in the making of its own limited-production supercar.

    The Beira is a hand-built, two-seat roadster with unique styling cues, based on proven GM architecture and powered by GM’s LS2, 6-litre V8 engine, tuned to produce just a whisper short of 400bhp.

    Tipping the scales at some 1,400kg, the Beira’s impressive power-to-weight ratio ensures invigorating performance, with the promise of a sub-five second sprint to 100kph, coupled with tremendous torque and a governed top speed of 155mph.

    “Beira carries on from where Marcos and TVR left off in terms of providing maximum performance for money spent, and real individuality”, says Breckland Director, Mike Rawlings.

    “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,” he added.

    “We also looked seriously at environmental concerns and, as a result, Beira is designed to run on Liquefied 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 refuelling stops - that’s the equivalent of travelling non-stop from the north to the south coast of France.

    Beira dynamics

    Beira is based on the well-developed General Motors Kappa platform, on sale in the North American market.

    Beira differs in many significant respects from the GM products however, the most radical departure being the installation of the 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 Engineering Director, Mark Easton. “The Kappa platform offers a highly competent chassis, which has been subject to intensive crash and safety tests, and is readily available.

    “Since all of the hard work has been done, it has enabled us to keep development costs low. Over the years, and through our own experience, we’ve seen many supercars come and go, due in part to their massive development costs, and we were adamant that we would not fall into the same trap. That’s why we developed the Beira where we needed to, not for the sake of it. It has also enabled us to bring the project to fruition in less than 12 months.”

    The mighty, fuel-injected, aluminium V8 and Tremec six-speed manual gearbox are neatly packaged under the Beira’s swooping bonnet, with a bespoke wiring harness and ECU, the latter being reprogrammed to allow the V8 to deliver close to 400bhp, combined with a dual-fuel capability.

    Other key considerations involved significant attention to chassis dynamics, to ensure the car corners, steers and brakes effectively with the significant increase in engine output.

    To satisfy this requirement, the fully independent suspension was entirely re-engineered by Breckland in association with KW Suspension, with uprated springs, dampers and bushes, plus thicker anti-roll bars front and rear. The result is slightly less suspension compliance, but a more focused ride and handling.

    Stopping power is provided by impressive, 325mm ventilated discs on all four corners, the fronts being grasped by six-pot callipers, with four-pot at the rear, both from UK specialists, HiSpec.

    Steering is via power-assisted rack and pinion, whilst the dramatically styled 18” cast alloy wheels are 8.5” front and 9.5” rears, shod with Bridgestone ultra-low profile tyres. Customer options include an upgrade to 19” diameter rims and tyres.

    Exterior packaging

    In order to make the Beira eye-catchingly different, save weight and liberate additional luggage space behind the passenger compartment, Breckland’s design engineers have totally re-modelled both the front and rear body sections in-house, using lightweight composites instead of steel, the result being a highly distinctive nose section and pronounced fastback rear.

    Despite the inclusion of an additional 70-litre LPG reservoir to go with the existing, 13-gallon petrol tank, the Beira features a significant increase in usable luggage space with the hood down, thanks to some clever packaging solutions.

    GM steel doors are used to ensure excellent side-impact protection and good sealing properties, while crash protection front and rear is provided by transverse aluminium crush structures attached to the hydro-formed steel chassis. Both front and rear bulkheads are steel to provide rigidity to the windscreen and hood.

    Bespoke interior

    Beira features a custom-built interior, including electric windows, air conditioning, twin airbags - in the steering wheel and in the passenger dash - combined with clear, concise instrumentation, and hand-stitched leather/Alcantara seats and trim.

    Breckland stresses that the Beira’s interior can be customised to specific buyer requirements in terms of materials and equipment - one significant benefit of the company’s inherent flexibility as a low-volume producer.

    The stylish central instrument cluster incorporates a double DIN showcase of mobile entertainment from in-car specialists, Clarion. Its immense specification includes a 7” TFT colour touch screen, DVD player, direct iPod and Bluetooth connectivity, and an in-built 30Gb hard disk drive (HDD) navigation system with full European mapping. Beira buyers can also opt for the rear reversing camera, which relays the view behind onto the same in-dash display.

    A GM manual cloth hood with heated rear screen is retained on the Beira and, when folded down, stows quickly and neatly out of sight under the deck lid for a smooth,
    integrated appearance. This is further accentuated by the sculpted deck lid, incorporating individual fairings behind driver and passenger.

    Affordability

    The Breckland Beira is designed very much as a high-quality low-volume, affordable sportscar for enthusiasts, and follows the highly appealing tradition of installing an easily available, American-designed V8 engine in a small, nimble, two-seater chassis to produce an exhilarating, high-performance package. Although using a tried and trusted concept, however, Beira is very much a vehicle for the 21st century, and accomplishes this with both environmental and fuel efficiency concerns in mind.

    “We have received tremendous interest, and orders, for Beira already,” says Mike Rawlings. “The car debuts in left-hand drive form, underlining its appeal to enthusiasts in Europe and well beyond, and will be available in the UK and internationally via our appointed agent network from November 2008.”

    The Breckland Beira on-the-road price will be confirmed shortly but is expected to be in the region of £55,000 in the UK.

    ends
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    source:newspess.co.uk
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  2. #2
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    Beira is designed to run on Liquefied Petroleum Gas as well as petrol
    not ground-breaking, but i like this. even if it's not a real problem for someone who can spend 55k pounds, it's good for the "environmental concerns" as they say, and also, you don't need a petrol 400 bhp engine all the time, so if you can use it with LPG when you don't need the whole power, torque and immediate response, it's only a good thing.
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  3. #3
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    So, is it just a rebadged Opel GT?? I mean the major idea, I know the engine is different etc...

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    Quote Originally Posted by faksta View Post
    So, is it just a rebadged Opel GT?? I mean the major idea, I know the engine is different etc...
    tunned sounds better
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  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by faksta View Post
    So, is it just a rebadged Opel GT?? I mean the major idea, I know the engine is different etc...
    Yep, they've taken GM Kappa platrom, stuff a big V8 into engine bay, replaced some body panels and interior and voilà - new sportscar without massive development costs.

    Rather clever for a small time manufacturer, don't you think?

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Revo View Post
    Yep, they've taken GM Kappa platrom, stuff a big V8 into engine bay, replaced some body panels and interior and voilà - new sportscar without massive development costs.

    Rather clever for a small time manufacturer, don't you think?
    Very clever. And gonna be a successful turn. At least for me this car would be much more desirable than Opel/Daewoo/Pontiac/Vauxhall (did I forget something? ).

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by faksta View Post
    Very clever. And gonna be a successful turn. At least for me this car would be much more desirable than Opel/Daewoo/Pontiac/Vauxhall (did I forget something? ).
    Saturn
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  8. #8
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    It's better looking and more desirable than anything the Opel/Saturn/Pontiac have.

  9. #9
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    Reminds me of an old sniff petrol article with little fill in slips on how to make a press release for a british sports car. its scary how true it is.

  10. #10
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    The problem is the name. Breckland just isn't cool.
    Lack of charisma can be fatal.
    Visca Catalunya!

  11. #11
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    imo, the problems are the headlights, but more the front grill. the rear lights remind me of the Tesla, in some way, but I think i could like them.
    KFL Racing Enterprises - Kicking your ass since 2008

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  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Spastik_Roach View Post
    Reminds me of an old sniff petrol article with little fill in slips on how to make a press release for a british sports car. its scary how true it is.
    I believe this is what you're looking for...
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    uәʞoɹq spɹɐoqʎәʞ ʎɯ

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jack_Bauer View Post
    I believe this is what you're looking for...
    Gold.
    Lack of charisma can be fatal.
    Visca Catalunya!

  14. #14
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    haha, that form is so true.
    Andreas Preuninger, Manager of Porsche High Performance Cars: "Grandmas can use paddles. They aren't challenging."

  15. #15
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    Wonderful, excellent, brilliant, another wonderful british car. Except that it's only available in left hand drive. Something tells me that that may negatively affect sales...

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