David Brown Automotive Archives

Mini Remastered, Oselli Edition by David Brown Automotive

*Visit www.bhpetrol.com.my for more information.*

If you have always loved the original Mini, the Mini Remastered, Oselli Edition by David Brown Automotive will delight you. The British coachbuilder that uses modern as well as traditional methods to create contemporary luxury models has used its expertise to create this version of the iconic city car.

Only 60 bespoke units of the Mini Remastered, Oselli Edition will be offered and they can be lefthand drive or righthand drive. Pricing starts from £98,000 (about RM575,000) and personalisation, which most customers would want, would add extra cost.

Made in partnership with race powertrain specialists, Oselli, the new car from David Brown Automotive is the most performance-focused version of the Mini Remastered series created to date by the company. Hand-made to order, it comes with a 1450 cc twin-carb engine with an output of 125 bhp/153 Nm and gets to 100 km/h from standstill in a claimed 7.8 seconds.

Key performance enhancements to make Mini Remastered, Oselli Edition ready for the track include a number of technical changes overseen by Oselli, including a hand-ported and polished cylinder head, strengthened crankshaft, high-torque performance orientated camshaft, and a limited-slip differential. There is a remastered 5-speed gearbox, while an automatic version is also available (offered as a 4-speed set-up, with a 1380 cc engine).

Other sports-centric tuning around the car including high-performance brakes by AP Racing, sports-orientated suspension by Bilstein and a free-flowing sports exhaust system. The car is provided with larger 13-inch wheels fitted with high speed-approved tyres.

Unique exterior colour themes are available with contrasting stripes that carry through to the interior design. All exterior graphics are hand-painted while hand-enameled badging adorns the exterior with full black chrome brightware. A choice of ‘Carbon Grey’ and ‘Old English White’ base colours match the accents in either ‘Competition Red’, ‘Royal Blue’ or ‘Heritage Green’.

The grille of the car shows the number ‘60’ in contrasting hues as a nod not only to the race numbers that show on cars taking to the track, but also to the 60 years since the original Mini first rolled off the production line.

For a performance-orientated sporty look and classic car feel. The Mini Remastered, Oselli Edition can be ordered in either a 2-sea or 4-seat configuration, with the 2-seater featuring bucket seats and a rear hand-trimmed roll-cage, plus a 4-point seatbelt harness. There is also the option to order the car with twin fuel tanks for extra range on longer journeys or race events.

For those who plan on not using the car for racing, there is an interior lined with hand-trimmed luxury leather and Alcantara materials which give a premium look to what was originally a basic classless city car.

The Mini Moke makes a comeback in Britain

Latest Speedback GT by David Brown Automotive

David Brown Automotive (DBA) started off in 2013 to offer exclusive cars that took the classic, timeless, elegant looks of previous decades combined with modern, state-of-the-art engineering, production methods, technology and performance. Using predominantly British-sourced premium materials and traditional artisan craftsmanship, each of the company’s vehicles is uniquely produced by hand in Great Britain.

It recently completed a striking Speedback GT for a customer in Germany. Described as ‘a true example of personal expression’, the grand tourer showcases of DBA’s ability to offer bespoke solutions for any style, with this car custom-built with a number of exclusive accessories and bespoke options. Every customer obviously pays considerably more than the base price which, in the UK, is over £600,000 (about RM3.3 million).

This particular Speedback GT model has a bespoke brilliant ‘Blue Moon’ hand-painted finish. It is the mainstay of the company’s range of products and took some 8,000 hours to build. This latest Speedback GT order was entirely bespoke, with a completely unique combination of handcrafted leathers, wood veneers, bespoke brightware plating and unique picnic seat feature.

Every Speedback GT is a unique masterpiece, with this newest car distinguished not only by its blue hue but also with its bespoke build extras. A black mesh satin grille is fitted, complete with inset auxiliary LED lighting.

The car is fitted with 19-inch polished stainless steel wire wheels for use in the summer, surrounded by David Brown-branded tyres, developed specially for this wheel option by Avon Tyres. The owner also receives a set of bespoke Union Flag-inspired alloy wheels for the winter months.

Inside the Speedback GT, the car has a one-of-a-kind look and feel with hand-crafted Elm Burr satin lacquered wood veneers and a ‘Tabak’ tan leather interior that gives light colour shades to complement the tint of the extensive wood materials used throughout. All of the brightware has been milled from solid billets of aluminium and then plated in nickel chrome to give additional warmth to the cabin.

DBA is especially proud of the custom drinks set that holds the owner’s preferred gin and tonic and two crystal highball glasses, along with a bespoke woollen picnic blanket, situated underneath the picnic seat that extends out of the boot of the car, a feature made famous by Speedback GT.

This bespoke addition can be specially designed for customers who want to serve passengers drinks, or to park up for the night and enjoy a G&T. This customer spent a day at DBA’s headquarters to refine their bespoke specification, settling on the drinks set as a ‘quintessentially British’ signature of the car.

“We’re very proud of our entire product range and while much of our volume comes from Mini Remastered models, enquiries and sales of Speedback GT have remained consistent since its launch. Thanks to its timeless styling and superb build quality, the model remains a mainstay of our portfolio,” said Michelle Gay, Sales and Marketing Director at David Brown Automotive.

*MINI REMASTERED is the other model in the David Brown Automotive range.*

Mini Remastered to debut at London Motor Show

Have you ever contemplated buying an original Mini but was a little skeptical about relaibility? Well, David Brown Automotive may have something thing of interest to you. The UK based coach-builder has taken apart the original Mini, reworked the body panels and internals as well as the various wiring and electronics and resembled it to create a remastered vehicle that resembles the original but features modern technology.

The company even reconditioned the 1,275cc 78bhp engine and four-speed gearbox. The chassis and body panels are reworked and de-seamed to provide that new car fit and finish. The Mini has been fitted with modern niceties such as an in-built infortainment and navigation system that offers a host of connectivity features for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

It also has a four-speaker sound system, USB connectivity and charging ports for your phone. Unlike the antic it is based on, the new reworked car called the Mini Remastered, features keyless entry, push-button ignition system and remote central locking.

Every Mini Remastered produced comes with a bespoke leather-lined luggage space and a petrol tank painted in each car’s contrasting roof colour. Every Mini Remastered come with an exceptional paint finish, with a full four-week paint process applied to every car.

David Brown automotive uses a combination of engineering, state-of-the-art technology and old fashioned coach-building techniques to build the car. The Mini isn’t its first project though because a year ago, the company unveiled the Speedback GT. It’s a bespoke car powered by a 5.0-litre supercharged V8 engine that puts out 510bhp.

The boutique British coach-builder takes pride in its modernized coach-building approach to manufacturing fully engineered, limited-edition vehicles that are made from hand-formed aluminium with entirely hand crafted interiors.

The Mini Remastered will be on display at the Confused.con London Motor Show from 4-7 May 2017 where it will make its public debut.

Michelle Gay, Brand & Business Manager at David Brown Automotive: “We are delighted to be exhibiting at The London Motor Show for a second year. We received a fantastic response to Speedback GT last year and are hugely excited to be making the first public debut in the UK of our second model, Mini Remastered, which is the ultimate modern classic for city driving.”

The company has done some excellent work with the Mini, we hope that these techniques catch on and allow other builders to restore former classic cars to their original glory.

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