Our Racing Heritage.

BBR originated in 1983 to run the Mitsubishi UK works RAC Touring Car team. The founding partners of the company are life time pals David Brodie and Ken Brittain. Dave Brodie has competed in over 700 races world wide and Ken Brittain has a lifetime of race engineering and development experience, together they form a formidable partnership.

The racing development of the Mitsubishi Starion was ground breaking as race turbo charging in Europe was in its infancy. Our job was to electronically manage the 2 litre fuel injected engine. 

During this period, the team developed its own car-to-pit telemetry system (even F1 didn't have this ability) which was shown on BBC's global Tomorrow's World.

When Mitsubishi pulled out of racing in 1986, the team decided to put their hard won circuit knowledge to good use by marketing a world-wide range of conversions for Mitsubishi vehicles. These ranged from electronic and re-boost modifications for the production turbo vehicles right up to the Shogun Turbo kit, creating the mighty Mogul 240 Shogun, an off-roader with a performance better than most contemporary 'sports' cars! Over 400 of these vehicles were built and they are still sought after today. Later versions of the turbo kit were fitted to the V6 models and the technology was also applied to the Isuzu Trooper.

In 1985 came the mighty road going Ford  Sierra Cosworth and RS500 we developed these 2 ltr turbo charged engines to a staggering 565 BHP. Even today we still have a huge number of these amazing cars on the roads of England and Europe. In 1988 the Cosworth running gear and engine was transplanted into a new range of Cosworth sapphires both 2 & 4 wheel drive.

The most memorable 2wd now resides in Malaysia as pride of a member of the royal families fleet. This car hit 186 MPH at which speed the doors try to open making an horrendous noise! but we doubt our respected Malaysian client would achieve this speed on the jungle roads.

Then the most memorable 4wd with 500 BHP hit 60 MPH in 3.2 seconds 100 MPH in 7.2 seconds, 130 MPH in 11 seconds dead and hit 129 MPH from a standing quarter mile! Sitting inside this missile was not for the faint hearted.

Our RS500 race car won many races during 1989-91 on English circuits, the engine gave 565 BHP with an amazing 470 lbs/ft of torque. These were quite the most spectacular saloon cars to watch and took a special ability to drive to their full potential. For instances Dave Brodie in 1989 went from Complex to Chicane flat at Thruxton race circuit to achieve a lap time that took five years to beat!

After nine years under a dust cover we race-preped the 1989 RS500 and took it to a open saloon event at Germanys notorious Hockenheim circuit. The RS500 was clocked at over 170 MPH between chicanes, running third in the first race and second in the second race, it showed up every modern day touring car. Brodie quoted "It felt like I'd never been out off the RS500".

The replacement 2 litre formula for Touring Cars (still in use today) also brought new opportunities. We built the world’s first 2 litre 4 wheel drive Touring Car (a long time before Audi). Everything was BBR on this car; we built the shell, designed and cast new suspension units, designing and making all new engine components - including an all magnesium throttle slide assembly - plus all the electronics. The engine management system was also designed and built by us and incorporated data logging at a time when only F1 had such things. The car had no instruments; drivers never look at them so what's the point? - it had a warning display for the driver who also had warning lights built into his helmet. All he had to do was look straight ahead and drive, we collected all data in the pits for processing.

When it comes too race cars and race engines we all come alive at BBR, so if you're contemplating anything to do with motor racing contact us.