brooke 260 RR cosworth

[carspath]

as far as i know , there has only been one other brooke 260 rr that the factory has sold, that was not brand new
that was a blue car that went for about £25K
they had only produced about 8 or 9 cars(and i am unsure when they will recommence production), and some of these went abroad
so there are not that many in the uk

brooke 260 rr's were last being sold new at a base price of £35k
however, you would almost certainly want/need some of the options, and this would prob add a further 4k

the 260 rr , has the almost identical cosworth=duratec engine, as the caterham 260 csr, and weighs about the same as well
the 260csr has slightly shorter gearing in the lower ratios i understand

[sjc]

I've mailed the chap who was selling the blue Brooke a few months ago to have a look at this thread.Hopefully if he's not too busy he'll be along to share his experiences.

[carspath]

i wonder if the new owner of the blue car is on pistonheads
it was difficult to know where to post this thread
i finally put a short note in the ariel, caterham , general gassing and reader's cars forums---talk about trying to cover all bases

i would have thought that at least one other owner would be sufficiently mad about cars to be on pistonheads, but no takers so far
but it has been just as great talking to all the others who are interested in the brooke

[F1CFO]

I owned the blue one and sold it in September last year. I had It for19 months, but didn't use it a great deal and decided to sell. Having said that the car was fantastic, every time I got in to drive it , it was an occasion. The performance figures and handling speak for themselves. James at Brooke set the car up for me for road use, I.e. a soft setting, which absorbed most bumps and was actually very comfortable to drive on country roads. I had no technical issues with the car, but only did a few hundred miles in it locally. It was a lot of car for the money, it was very well spec'd and had done about 1000 when I sold it. I have to say, when the new owner drove off in it, at night with the pop up lights on(for the first time) it looked fantastic and I wondered why I was selling it. I think that was the real attraction, it is totally unique, and turns more heads than most cars, as well as going like the clappers.

Edited by F1CFO on Tuesday 18th January 22:57

[RobM77]

Thanks for the info Carspath. I would dearly love to own one in the future (I spend all my money on racing now!), so I really do hope they start making them again. In most of the group tests I've read (Autocar and Evo spring to mind), the Brooke was rated higher than the Ariel Atom, and the reviews were very favourable when compared with established lightweight road cars.

Incidentally, it may be of interest to know that yesterday I had a good chat with a respected and well known journalist and racing driver who had driven Carspath's car in its original press car build form, and he said he really liked it.

[Richard Gravelle]

Hi Guys,

Just been reading your threads with great interest, as I am the current owner of the Blue Brooke you have been discussing.

I haven't done many miles since buying it, a mere 250. I am a pure car enthusiast with a reasonable collection of cars from Ferrari, to Audi Ur Quattro, Aston V8 Vantage and a few more... I can honestly say that the Brooke is an outstanding performance car with incredible feedback through the steering. With the power to weight delivery, the car really is instant power and can feel like a dicing with death!! :-)

I live in Farnham Surrey and would love to meet up with any other Brooke owners? I am thinking of booking my self on to a Palmer Sports Track day at Bedford Autodrome. I recently did a Palmer Sport Day there in the Le Mans cars and the single seater Formula-Jaguar and it made me keen to see how the Brooke would do around the same circit!! :-)

Regards

Richard

[RobM77]

You may wish to check the noise regulations at Bedford. Their track days are, in my opinion, the best in the country as the track has been designed to be interesting (by JP himself) and offers huge run-offs (no spectators to protect as it's not licensed for racing), plus the staff and facilities there are top notch. However, when I had the passenger ride in the Brooke at Bedford, the car had to stick to a very low rev limit to avoid upsetting the drive-by noise meters.

[sjc]

Richard,don't wish to appear awkward but I'm sure when you put the advert up 3/4 weeks ago it was for 23 grand, now it's up for 26?, which is more than the previous owner was selling for IIRC?


Edited to add I've just seen your mail Richard, posted the above before I saw it!

Edited by sjc on Thursday 17th November 00:00

[sjc]

Advert's gone now, Richard are you keeping it?

[carspath]

welcome to the fold richard, and thank -you for your e-mail, which i will reply to shortly

nice to catch up again with all who have responded to this thread, whose original intention was to collect togather all those interested in the 260rr, and not just owners

richard , i hope you are not thinking of selling the blue car

i found that :

1) i had to adapt to the car, which takes time and miles
2) you need a good mechanic(and not just someone who can only swap parts) to release the full,well hidden potential of the car
3) there are some things like the lights and reflectors and helmets and goggles and heated jackets that make the car much more suitable for long distance (circa 500miles/day ) and cold weather use( i dont use my car in the winter, as it is a keeper and i worry that salt might damage the coated steel chassis in the long term )

i have driven the formula renault single seater at thruxton a few times now, and the brooke feels much much faster----both in terms of acceleration and braking
i have not driven my car on track, so cant comment on lateral g

do we know of any other owners?
i know that a few cars went off to mainland europe

[mtman]

Hi guys, I was on of the guys who missed out on the blue one that was sale last yr. Anyway circumstances have changed and I'm back on the hunt, so if anyone knows of one for sale please let me know.
I have located and spoken to Toby Sutton who has his original 190E for sale in red at circa £15K. I'd prefer to find a later one with the cosworth engine, but still consider the early one with the vauxhall engine and lower price tag. I'm in surrey thanks. Neil

[sjc]

Love em..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-IWCD5wJqI

[sjc]

It's back, with an an increase in price...
http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/b...

[neillapis]

Hi there, I re-imported this stunning 260 rr number 009 from Italy this year, originally in blue and now in Lotus Jim Clark tribute livery. Here are a couple of pics I will try and load

Edited by neillapis on Saturday 20th September 07:24

[neillapis]

another pic

Edited by neillapis on Saturday 20th September 07:26

[neillapis]

another....seem to be able to do one at a time.

[RobM77]

Very nice! I have my Lotus 2-Eleven in the same colours :-) Your Brooke's closer in look to a Lotus 49, 33 etc though, so the colour scheme looks fantastic on it.

[neillapis]

attached a bigger image for clarity.....thanks for the comments. Have you are image of your Lotus 2 Eleven - thanks

[RobM77]

neillapis said:

Have you are image of your Lotus 2 Eleven - thanks

Sure:





The colour scheme was designed by Bell and Colvill (based on a '67 49B) and then put on the car from new by the factory with blessing from Classic Team Lotus.

[neillapis]

Lovely car Rob and with the red seats very period. I'm due to get the Brooke resprayed this winter... any ideas how one can get the colour codes... classic team lotus? I've never had a lotus but live 5 miles from Bell and Colvill so might swing in there. I quite like the green and gold combo, might consider that - the Brooke had a red steering wheel but that looked abit over the top and bullet mirrors but they pretty useless for vision as they didn't move! Neil