What car is this?
- Thread starter mjheathcote
- Start date
The Brabini GT was the brainchild of Richard Brabbins from Wakefield; as correctly stated elsewhere sadly deceased in 2010.
Richard was a serial car builder all his life and the Brabini was his attempt at 'out-Davrianing' Davrian. I think the original mock up's for the body tub revolved around a Fiat X1/9 windscreen & front scuttle, Alfasud roof & C pillars and a Fiat 131 front bulkhead!
It's a complete carbon fibre monocoque with carbon panels running Alfa flat 4 drivetrain. The red car was 1.7 16v; the green car was smaller capacity I believe. Finished weight less than 600kg from memory.
I had a lot of hours working with Richard in the development of the original mould-tools spread over about 5 years (if you see the press article in kit car magazine the twin headlamp front end was my concept) and spent a while debugging the finished car after the initial press coverage of the completed cars - Richard was a pal of 25+ years, work colleague of my wife & my best man at my wedding.
The green car is owned by a co-builder and there were only 2 cars ever built & finished. I think the co-builder now owns the mould- tools as well (though my knowledge on that is possibly out of date).
There was a third car under development which was bike-engined (following his build of a bike-engined Mini Minus); I understand from Richard's widow the third car was cut up & scrapped when she moved house a few years ago.
The red car photographed here got redeveloped to run a Subaru boxer turbo drivetrain with the gearbox altered to make it only 2WD (FWD on the gearbox to be RWD when installed in the car). This car was unfinished though back on its wheels as a rolling shell at the time of Richard's passing and I understand it was sold on as an unfinished project. There is a side on photo of it in this configuration when it was advertised on Twitter as an unfinished project.
It's a shame this never got finished. The Alfa boxer was probably the engine to use when he started out, but it took that long to get to the stage of a running car that it was more or less obsolete by the time it ran; so his idea to go Subaru was the right move.
It was great to see Richard finally get some formal recognition for his efforts from the car building and engineering fraternities; it was hard earned and very much deserved.
Cheers!
Richard was a serial car builder all his life and the Brabini was his attempt at 'out-Davrianing' Davrian. I think the original mock up's for the body tub revolved around a Fiat X1/9 windscreen & front scuttle, Alfasud roof & C pillars and a Fiat 131 front bulkhead!
It's a complete carbon fibre monocoque with carbon panels running Alfa flat 4 drivetrain. The red car was 1.7 16v; the green car was smaller capacity I believe. Finished weight less than 600kg from memory.
I had a lot of hours working with Richard in the development of the original mould-tools spread over about 5 years (if you see the press article in kit car magazine the twin headlamp front end was my concept) and spent a while debugging the finished car after the initial press coverage of the completed cars - Richard was a pal of 25+ years, work colleague of my wife & my best man at my wedding.
The green car is owned by a co-builder and there were only 2 cars ever built & finished. I think the co-builder now owns the mould- tools as well (though my knowledge on that is possibly out of date).
There was a third car under development which was bike-engined (following his build of a bike-engined Mini Minus); I understand from Richard's widow the third car was cut up & scrapped when she moved house a few years ago.
The red car photographed here got redeveloped to run a Subaru boxer turbo drivetrain with the gearbox altered to make it only 2WD (FWD on the gearbox to be RWD when installed in the car). This car was unfinished though back on its wheels as a rolling shell at the time of Richard's passing and I understand it was sold on as an unfinished project. There is a side on photo of it in this configuration when it was advertised on Twitter as an unfinished project.
It's a shame this never got finished. The Alfa boxer was probably the engine to use when he started out, but it took that long to get to the stage of a running car that it was more or less obsolete by the time it ran; so his idea to go Subaru was the right move.
It was great to see Richard finally get some formal recognition for his efforts from the car building and engineering fraternities; it was hard earned and very much deserved.
Cheers!
zagatoes30
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Looks like it took inspiration from the old Cox GTMs which were mid engined based around a Mini which were pretty quick in their day
davy83
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That looks unbelievably small!!! Either that or the dudes have been photos shopped and are out of scale
zagatoes30
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Think Mini but smaller, yes small
davy83
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I mean i used to have a Californian IMP which when I see the photos now was quite a small car. Cars have just got bigger over the years I guess with crumple zones and all that.
dickygrace
www.richardgracecars.co.uk
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I went to look at this on Monday, utterly beautiful but so small. Old cars were tiny weren’t they!!
DaveT
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My ultimate Alfa - but in Red or Powder blue.
davy83
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lovely car, and yes older cars were generally quite small. the Imp, Mini, Ford Anglia, MG Midget, the old Healey Sprite, all seriously tiny.
montravia
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Oh, My!, Oh, My!
Vampyrebat
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sionie1
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I've seen this recently for sale - hasn't it had a restoration relatively recently? Looked beautiful, can't for the life of me remember where I saw it though. Will it be 'Gracing' your forecourt next to its younger Cup sibling?
dickygrace
www.richardgracecars.co.uk
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It was offered in the trade which piqued my interest.
It had a €93k restoration in 2007-12, but in my opinion needs significant other works in order to bring it up to my sort of standards. A large part of my interest was the power and brake upgrades it’s had meaning it’s useable albeit less valuable due to its non-original specification. I spoke to a good customer of mine who knows this era of Alfas inside out and he pointed out a number of concerns and also non original parts which was more than enough to dissuade me. Then there’s the size, I’m 6’ and look daft in it, anyone any taller would be sitting on top of the car and peering over the windscreen. Still about as pretty a car as imaginable though.
Alfa Romeo | Classic & Sports Car
www.classicandsportscar.com
zagatoes30
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Mate has one in the same colour but he took it with him when he emigrated to NZ, he was a helicopter engineer and he restored it himself to standard spec although some bits he couldn't find he made himself at work. He use to bring it to Le Mans every year two up with all their camping gear packed in. One year the gearbox got stuck in second so he drove it to the campsite and then stripped the gearbox and repaired in the field using tools the Tom Christensen brought over from his pit garage when he saw him struggling with a adjustable wrench
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You always know the food will be amazing if it says 'Families Welcome' outside.
Doohickey
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Mate of mine has a Davrian in a large number of bits! He binned it on his way to Le Mans about 15 years ago and has never got round to rebuilding it. Every time we go to Le Mans we get the 'I must get round to fixing it' routine.