That's a Solstice? Breckland unveils Kappa-based Beira V8
Click above for high-res gallery of the Breckland Technology Beira V8
UK-based Breckland Technology is no stranger to building fast cars, as the low-volume producer of niche sports cars includes Mosler as one of its clients. For the first vehicle branded with its own name, however, the company has introduced the Beira V8 soft-top roadster. The Beira is built on General Motors' Kappa platform, the same one that underpins the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky roadsters, but uses a 6.0L LS V8 producing 400bhp for go duties instead of an Ecotec four-cylinder. Weighing a bit over 3,000 lbs., the conservative though elegantly styled Beira will get to 62 mph in just under five seconds according to Brecklands. It's back by a Tremec six-speed manual transmission, HiSpec braking hardware at all four corners and 18-inch or 19-inch wheels that are 9.5-inches wide in the rear and 8.5 up front. Brecklands claims that it only developed the Beira where it needed to in order to save development cost and time, but it did completely revamp the Solstice suspension with help from KW suspension, and as you can see, the interior is (thankfully) completely different from the Solstice and Sky and can be built to order. The Beira will cost around £55,000, which would be a dear price to pay for a Solstice or Sky, but the Beira V8 is clearly much more than those vehicles. The closest thing you can get to one in the U.S. is something like a Mallet Solstice V8, but we don't see why Breckland couldn't export the Beira to the U.S. considering the platform and engine its using already meet U.S. safety and emissions standards. Check out Brecklands' official press release with more details and specs after the jump while perusing the Beira's design in our gallery below.
Gallery: Brecklands Technology Beira V8
[Source: Brecklands Technology]
PRESS RELEASE
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.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
johnny 5:03PM (6/02/2008)
DAMN!!
GM needs to hire this guy ASAP. Very nice design.
And the new Magnum PI show needs to get a hold of this car. The back reminds me of the Ferrari 308.
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User 8:41PM (6/02/2008)
I AGREE!
If GM made this... WOW!
Even the car's logo is great!
Mobius_1 11:22PM (6/02/2008)
The car-illiterate are already asking "what Ferrari is this?"
Randy 9:07AM (6/03/2008)
Mobius.... Is that really what you were thinking?
ML 5:09PM (6/02/2008)
I love it(!). I reminds me of my 1967 Sunbeam Tiger. Same idea (take a small sports car and shove a V8 under the hood). My Tiger performed well, was comfortable and looked nice. This car is the same. If I had the money, I'd buy this thing in a heart-beat. Come on GM, do the same thing and give us a less expensive alternative to the Corvette. It won't hurt the Vette's sales because those who can AFFORD a Corvette will still buy one. But those of use with less income, will buy this over anything else on the market.
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Derek 6:22PM (6/02/2008)
Article says it runs 55,000 British pounds, or $107K. That's ZR1 money for base Corvette performance.
Ford Wannup 7:11PM (6/02/2008)
The sad thing about this is it confirms a lot of enthusiasts' frustrations with GM. They have several options and platforms to build multiple of capable, exciting, wet-your-pants kinds of sports cars, but they can't because of the Corvette firewall: i.e. do not build anything that takes away from the Corvette performance and value proposition.
why not the LS2LS7? 7:50PM (6/02/2008)
This is more expensive than a Corvette and performs worse. It's no threat at all.
Aprime 11:03PM (6/02/2008)
But which is more exclusive, this or a Corvette?
Yeah, gtfo.
wormyguy 11:08PM (6/02/2008)
Aprime,
All "exclusive" means is a whole lot more likely to break down, and a whole lot more expensive when it does.
Yeah. GTFO.
nolan 5:15PM (6/02/2008)
did they put a proper trunk (boot) in this version?
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jurm 6:01PM (6/02/2008)
Probably not. And in my opinion, that's probably a good thing.
As soon as you start requesting that a car do a dozen other things it wasn't originally meant to do, (haul a boat, seat a soccer team, carry 6 shopping carts worth of groceries, fly, go 0-60 in 3 seconds, lap the nurburgring in 5 minutes, get 150 mpg and cost $0.42) then you bland the whole thing up.
Seriously; just let it be a sports car. 2 doors and 2 seats are just right. I won't use a swiss army knife to eat my breakfast, and I won't use a camcordaminabu to go around the track.
Ford Wannup 7:16PM (6/02/2008)
@jurm:
I could be wrong...but I think what Nolan meant with the proper boot is to fix the current Soltice/Sky's "bump" right smack in the center of the trunk. Even with the top up, you couldn't fit a standard Travelpro carry-on bag inside that trunk. I've gotten Soltice/Sky from Avis several times now during my travels, and I end up putting my carry-on bag in the passenger seat.
why not the LS2LS7? 7:52PM (6/02/2008)
An S2000 has the same bump in there.
Ford Wannup 8:16PM (6/02/2008)
@ls
huh? That's another relevant comment coming from you.....s2000? Are we even talking about that? I'll indulge you, though: my carry-on fits into s2000, but not into the Soltice/Sky. Soltice/Sky's bump bulge UP, taking up huge trunk space. On the s2000, it bumps down, creating an extra rectangular space.
why not the LS2LS7? 10:18PM (6/02/2008)
You're right. It does go down, creating additional space that isn't useful because it's such a small area. You could fit perhaps two small hardcover books in the space.
How thin is your carryon? I'm not saying the Sky/Solstice trunk is large, but the S2000 one is about 6 inches deep (not counting the "bonus" space you refer to).
Honestly, forget the size of the trunk in the two of them. The fact that the Solstice/Sky trunk is hinged backwards makes it less useful. But oh, so sexy when open...
Ford Wannup 10:35PM (6/02/2008)
@ls
it's not the size of the bump in s2000 that matters, it's the shape: i.e. the fact that it goes down makes it non-intrusive to other useful space. I can put my carry-on on its side, and it would fit in.
Compare that to the Soltice, where the shape of the bump, and the fact that it takes up most of the center space, makes it useless for anything but gym bags. In any case, after reading Brecklands' design philosophy, I highly doubt that they re-engineer the trunk/the bump, which, I could be wrong here, was dictated by the fuel tank.
jurm 10:52PM (6/02/2008)
@Ford Wannup
If that was the intent in nolan's post, then I'll admit that my reply was too much of an over-the-top knee-jerk reaction. Personally, I'm a fan of the solstice, and plan on buying one after I finish my degree (in December, the hard top version will be out by then). Yes, I am well aware that the solstice has a trunk (boot) that borderlines on being useless. No, it will not stop me from buying one. Frankly, I think the Biera is a beautiful car that helps to demonstrate the versatility and unrealized potential of the kappa platform.
If you look at the Biera and your first thought is, "the trunk is too small," then this really isn't the car for you. Go look at some mini vans. It's the equivalent of turning down a chance at sex with a supermodel because you think her toes are a little too long.
If you're waiting for a perfect car that lacks any discernible shortcoming, then you'll wait forever. Even if one was available, some here would complain because everybody and their grandma would be driving one, and the complainer would want something unique. Is liking a car despite its shortcomings really too much to ask?
I guess I'm just a little tired of people who think their replies are insightful when all they do is to point out a vehicle's shortcomings. Name any car and I can name one that gets better gas mileage, or can haul more, or can accelerate faster etc... But really, who cares? None of that type of comment really constitutes a meaningful contribution to the discussion.
Okay, I'm done ranting now.
why not the LS2LS7? 1:46AM (6/03/2008)
Well, I don't think Ford's post is useless.
I do agree that most people who buy this probably won't be looking at the trunk. But if they do, his points are valid.
I still do wonder how small his carryon is. The S2000 trunk is far from large.
If you are looking for a sports car with a big trunk, you're pretty much looking at a Corvette. Which, while having a big trunk, also has a case of huge ass going on. It's not worth the tradeoff, IMHO. I mean, I do like the Corvette, but I'd like it better if they gave up on the "two golf bags" trunk.
Steve 5:14PM (6/02/2008)
Its a nice car and it does look like a Ferrari from the side and back but not the 308. Maybe 328 or 355.
If there are two guys that over the last 30 years have barely changed it would be Harrison Ford and Tom Selleck
and I dont get why they are not doing the Indiana Jones thing and using Selleck for the upcoming movie.
Mathew and his moustache are hideious and a joke:
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/04/03/matthew-mcconaughey-may-star-in-magnum-p-i-movie/
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