BARRETTA-JAGUAR SPECIAL - GAVIN McGUIRE

"CLASSIC OF THE DAY"

GAVIN MCGUIRE FINE CLASSIC VEHICLES

 

 BARRETTA-JAGUAR  SPECIAL

Year	2000
Description	This magnificent single seat hill climb/sprint/track day/concours event car is the ultimate expression of its designer/ builder’s long felt desire to own a Type 59 Bugatti. Realising that acquisition of such a rare and valuable car was always likely to be beyond his means he decided that if he couldn’t buy one he would use his many years of engineering experience to build a car as close in looks and performance to a Type 59 as he possibly could. He was able to borrow copies of original Bugatti engineering drawings which enabled him to make an exact replica of a 59 chassis complete with correct leaf springs and formed tube front axle. He then either manufactured from scratch or modified proprietory steering, brake and drive train components which were developed to take the 260 plus brake horse power of the specially built Jaguar six cylinder twin cam engine. He chose this power unit because its power output was very similar to that of the Type 59’s supercharged eight cylinder engine and he also had previous experience of building XK engines for other high performance cars. To enhance the car’s driveability he fitted a Getrag five speed gearbox which is more than capable of handling the power of the triple-SU-carburetted engine. The chassis is clothed in a beautiful single seat aluminium body handcrafted by Fred Faulkner and Robert Peel of Peels. Amongst other well-known cars, Peels of Kingston had supplied bodies for the 1940s Fraser Nash works built Le Mans replicas and any inspection of this car will demonstrate their superb craftsmanship. It is difficult to describe this car without using superlatives as the build quality is outstanding, its looks can justifiably be described as show stopping and if the noise of the engine on full song doesn’t make your pulse race then you must be very cold hearted indeed. I have so far only driven it on the long private drive of a country house but it is instantly obvious that this is a very fast car indeed with handling and brakes to match.              A nice touch is that he has resisted the temptation to put a Bugatti badge on the radiator, calling it a Barretta instead using his own name as a base and he has also declined to mention Type 59 anywhere in its description. It is exactly what it is, the fulfilment of one man’s ambition to own one of the finest cars in the world which has been achieved by building a superb special using top quality materials and his own very high engineering skills. I don’t think you will find many other individually built vintage style performance cars as good as this one. PS I have a more detailed description of the build process should you want further information.
Price	£70,000.00