Even Rolls-Royce was impressed by Brough

by Bill Buys

WAS the Brough Superior the best car in the world?

Brough Superior motorcycles, even today are considered by collectors and knowledgeable enthusiasts as one of the most iconic and legendary brands ever made.

But few people know of the cars because only about 70 were ever built.

But when they first appeared in 1934, some thought they were even better than Rolls-Royce.

George Brough started working with his dad, William, who started building motorbikes bearing his name in 1902.

Seventeen years later George, who had by then made a name for himself as a motorbike racer, including a trio of successive wins in the London to Edinburgh and Back Trials, founded his own company.

He’d carefully planned the way forward and aimed to build more modern, faster and smarter bikes.

But what would he call them? A session with friends in a pub ended with the addition of ‘Superior’ to the already established Brough name.

Brough senior wasn’t impressed, but plodded on with his ‘old school’ machines until he retired in 1926.

George, meanwhile, ignored traditional trends and created what he felt a motorcycle really should be.

He rode them in competition, introduced innovations like the first prop stand, twin headlights, crash bars and interconnected silencers.

Engines were from Matchless and JAP V-twins.

Also, the build quality of his bikes was unmatched.

Then, a review of the first SS80 Brough Superior, published in The Motorcycle magazine, referred to it as ‘the Rolls-Royce of motorcycles,’ a priceless accolade which appeared in all subsequent product ads and catalogues.

Rolls-Royce was not happy and let George know he could not use their name.

George then invited the R-R people to visit his workshop, which they did – and were left in awe.

The place was spotless, the staff immaculate in white coats, the products meticulously manufactured.

So they gave the ‘Rolls-Royce of motorcycles’ tag their blessing.

Every machine that left the factory was road tested by George himself and no two bikes were identical.

Each bike was assembled twice. The first was to fit all the components. Then the motorcycle was disassembled and all the parts painted or plated as needed before being assembled a second time, then inspected, tested and certified by George.

The SS100 model was test-ridden to 100 mph (160km/h) or more while the smaller SS80 was ridden at 80 mph (130km/h) or more before delivery.

Among famous Brough Superior owners was T E Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) who almost had eight of them.

He died when he crashed number seven; the eighth was on order.

They were the world’s most expensive road-going motorcycles.

Prices ranged from £100 (AU$190) to £185 (AU$350) in the 1920s and 1930s at the time when the average annual salary in Britain was about £200 (AU$380).

Production was very low by modern standards, with only some 3000 built in the company’s 22 years – roughly 12 a month - before government work for WWII ended their glorious run.

The final 10 machines were built in 1940. However, the company continued making parts for the classic motorbikes until 1969.

At least 900 are known to still exist, and well maintained examples are now worth a great many times their new price.

A few years ago a 1930 Brough Superior 986cc SS100 sold for US$542,500 (AU$805,400).

1935 Brough Superior 4.2-litre dual purpose coupe

With his bikes finding such favour, George, in 1935, applied a similar ethic to building cars.

He wanted his Brough Superior cars to become as highly regarded as that of Rolls-Royce and planned to go into partnership with Rolls-Royce – but Rolls had already done a deal with Austin to produce engines for the classy Austin Princess.

But George regarded the Princess as an inferior animal and wanted no connection with it, so he scoured the automotive world for a suitable partner and settled on the respected Hudson Terraplane, at that stage a company owned by famed aviators Amelia Earhart and Orville Wright.

On the American brand’s chassis and straight-eight 4.2-litre 125bhp engine he got British coachbuilder W C Atcherley to mount his patented 'dual purpose' body, in which the soft top folded down neatly into the body and made the Brough Superior one of the most beautiful and well-proportioned cars of its day.

George’s design for the grille was inspired by the shape of fuel tank of his motorbikes, while a lot of British fixtures made the car a classic Anglo-American product.

There was Lucas lighting and instrumentation, Luvax shock absorbers, a Smiths Jackall hydraulic jacking system and the electrics were upgraded from 6 to 12 volts.

The car ran beautifully, had a good turn of speed (notorious US gangsters John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson each owned Terraplanes) and most agreed the Hudson chassis gave a smoother, faster and more comfortable ride than any Rolls-Royce of the time.

Some 20 had been built when Noel Macklin, founder of Railton, another respected UK car maker, complained.

He had an earlier agreement in place with Hudson to provide their straight-eight motor in his products and the US company was obliged to stop providing Brough with the big muscle motor.

However, Hudson also made a straight six and there was no problem supplying that powerplant to Brough.

The result was a similar car, but with a smaller, lighter engine and with a slightly shorter chassis it was lighter and more spritely.

Straight line performance of the 3.5-litre car with its six cylinder 107bhp side-valve engine was naturally not as fiery as that of the eight, but it could sprint to 60 mph (100km/h) in 12 seconds.

If that wasn’t fast enough, Brough offered the option of a supercharger which lifted power to 140 bhp which gave the 3.5 litre six-pot car markedly better performance than the muscly straight-eight.

By this time most cars had changed from side-valve to overhead valve engines, but the Hudson engines were still of the side-valve variety.

George Brough addressed that imagined problem by fitting a neat aluminium cover over the motor.

It looked good, and those not in the know assumed it was an OHV.

However, as with his motorcycles, WWII intervened and production came to a halt in 1939.

By then, only 25 eight-cylinder and about 50 six-cylinder Brough Superiors had been made, making them among the rarest of fine quality British sporting cars of the 1930s.

Most had Atcherley’s convertible coachwork, but there were also three with saloon bodies, one was a lightweight sports model, called the Alpine Grand Sports (it could run to 107mph (172km/h) and probably the last one made was called the XII.

Unlike the Hudson-powered models, it had a 4.5-litre V-12 Lincoln Zephyr engine and was the only one ever made.

Unroadworthy and in poor condition, it sold a few years ago for £51,750 (AU$98,000).

George himself drove one of the first series of the eight-cylinder cars made in 1935 and it was still in his ownership when he died in November, 1970.

He called it ‘Old Faithful’ because of its reliability and, with the rear seats removed, used it during the war years to deliver deliver Rolls-Royce Merlin engine crankshafts which his workshop completed for the RAF.

It was later used to compete in several European classic car rallies, and in 1983 was taken to the FIVA World Rally in the US, which it won.

It was sold in 2018 for £79,900 (AU$152,000).

At last count 13 Brough Superior cars were known to six exist, with eight of them still in good running condition.