Broadspeed
A Jaguar XJ12C, race prepared by Broadspeed
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| Private | |
| Industry | Automotive |
| Founded | 1962 |
| Headquarters | United Kingdom |
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Area served
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Europe |
| Products | Automotive parts, Engine tuning, Car dealership |
| Website | broadspeed |
Broadspeed Engineering Ltd was a British automobile tuning and engineering company that operated from Sparkbrook, Birmingham, England, principally during the 1960s and 1970s. It was started and run by Ralph Broad, and first became well known for its success in campaigning MkI BMC Minis during the early 1960s. The company also offered a variety of different road- and race-tuning packages for BMC and Ford engines.
Now an independent car dealer, Broadspeed offers multiple brands of cars from very large range of authorized dealers at a discounted price.
Ralph Broad began racing in 1955, when he was in his late twenties. In 1959, he bought an early BMC Mini and immediately began to see success racing it, which helped him to sell racing conversion packages to other Mini owners. This arrangement developed into the 1962 establishment of Team Broadspeed, for which Broad himself remained one of the drivers. The Broadspeed cars were often seen as being competitive with the factory works Coopers, especially at the hands of John Fitzpatrick, who had become the team's top driver.
In 1965, Broadspeed began to transition its support from BMC to Ford products after Broad was approached by Ford with an offer to begin campaigning the Ford Anglia, and later the Escort. In 1971, John Fitzpatrick would win four British Touring Car Championship races in a Broadspeed Anglia. Eventually, the company was also offering engineering consultancy work that led to such creations as a turbocharged version of the Essex V6 engine, which appeared in the TVR M Series. This turbocharged engine was also used in the Broadspeed Bullitt, which was a modified Ford Capri Mk I. Broadspeed became reacquainted with BMC in 1974, by which time the manufacturer had become part of British Leyland. Driver Andy Rouse then won the manufacturer's title in a Triumph Dolomite Sprint.
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Wikipedia