There still are a few mysteries to be unraveled around the Broadspeed GT: the pretty fast back Mini GT that was built by Ralph Broad. It is believed Broad built 28 between 1966 and 1968 but survivors are rarely seen. For 'Maximum Mini' I photographed one in Japan, and I have only seen two others.
Broad, who passed away in september, is said to have had more orders for the GT, but when his racing team switched from Minis to Escorts, BMC was not amused and immediately stopped the colaboration, killing off the pretty fast back.
Broad, who passed away in september, is said to have had more orders for the GT, but when his racing team switched from Minis to Escorts, BMC was not amused and immediately stopped the colaboration, killing off the pretty fast back.
Now, of the 28 GT’s built quite a few were reputedly exported to Spain. According to one trustworthty source: "Most of the built cars went to Spain, where a Barcelona distributor had created a keen market." I have heard the figure of 16 several times but, strangely, have never heard of a single Broadspeed GT surviving in Spain.
I did find a few advertisements in 1967 Spanish newspapers where a company named 'Automovile Nadal' of Mallorca and another named 'Auto Paris' sold them. Their spelling is rather corny; one calls the car 'Broaspeed'; the other 'Broatepeet'!
Who knows more?
"but when his racing team switched from Minis to Escorts, BMC was not amused and immediately stopped the colaboration"
ReplyDeleteSorry but it was the other way around, the Broadspeed cars won to mutch as opposed to the Cooper team and BMC ended the relationship forcing Broad to go to Ford Anglia's not Escorts
Anglias, of course. But let me quote from an interview Broad gave in 1996: "(...) Then I got pissed off by the BMC team. After we'd won at the Nurburgring they sent me a bonus cheque for 5 pounds. We were out to win the championship at another meeting and we were leading the race by half a lap when suddenly my driver slowed down and started waving to the crowd. The works car won the race and the championship as a result. My driver had been promised a works drive if he threw the race, so he did. I was furious." Ford's Henry Taylor heard all this hoo-hah in the paddock and came over and asked me if I'd like to run Fords in the next year."
ReplyDeleteI came across car 28 in New Zealand in July 2014.
ReplyDeleteThe gentleman who owns it says it is the original colour, can't remember the exact name of the colour, (it looked Burgundy) but he said it was the same as the Rolls Royce colour of the time
Was that the car from this report: http://www.maximummini.blogspot.nl/2014/06/updates-from-antipodes.html , by any chance?
DeleteYes, that's the car, a nice survivor, not a trailer queen, but regularly used.
ReplyDeleteThe seat in the car was from a Broadspeed Anglia.
And no, he is not selling :(