Tuesday, June 3, 2008

That's a Solstice? Breckland unveils Kappa-based 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.

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