Bat-Shit Brabham BT62 race-car now road-legal

There are many ways to pop to the shop of a morning to pick up your milk and newspaper.

If you live near-by, you could be eco-friendly and walk or cycle.

If your local shop isn't so local, you might have to drive, so sense would lead you to take something, small, economical and fuss-free.

Sensible options, for sure, but sensible is boring. Thankfully there are people out there who agree with this sentiment and offer an alternative approach. Like Brabham Automotive, who will now allow you to pop to Tescos in a 700-horsepower, V8 Le Mans race-car.

Brabham Automotive, if you are unaware, is new supercar manufacturer with it's sights set on Le Mans. The company was founded by racing driver David Brabham, son of three-time Formula One champion, Sir Jack Brabham.

David isn't just riding on his late-father's coat-tails either. He has own successes on his CV, three Le Mans wins to his name, including an outright victory with Peugeot in 2009.

With new regulations set to come into effect next year for the World Endurance Championship (which the Le Mans race is the flagship event), David has embarked on the mission to build a hypercar that will compete for victory at the infamous race.

The Brabham family have form with this stuff too. Dad Jack is the only racer in history to win the Formula 1 World Championship in a car he both drove and produced. A feat he achieved in 1966.

Sir Jack in his 1966 BT19

Due to waning interest from the big OEM manufacturers, the new WEC regulations have been simplified to do away with the complex and high cost prototypes that are currently required, allowing smaller outfits to join the party and base their cars on simpler, road-biased variants.

This allows manufacturers to hark-back to the old business model of motor-racing's past. "Win on Sunday, sell on Monday" and that's the approach Brabham has gone for with the BT62.

The race variants have already seen action, with them hitting the track in the Britcar Endurance Championship in 2019, winning the first race they entered.

Now, the outfit has launched it's first road-legal variant of the car ahead of it's WEC programme next year.

The changes from race to road car have been fairly minimal, to put it lightly. The road-going version of the BT62 looks near identical to its racing twin.

The aerodynamic addenda have been toned down ever so slightly, but you'd have to be truly eagle-eyed to notice. The suspension has been softened to make is usable on a bumpy public road and there's even a lift for the nose, so you don't scrape it going over speed bumps.

Some creature comforts have been added, gone is the racing bucket seat for a more traditional and slightly more comfortable chair. You even get air-con and a heated windscreen. To go really lavish, you can option in a stereo, but why would you when the engine sounds like this.

Yes, the engine is the same 5.4 litre, 700bhp Ford V8 as the racer. It's mated to a six-speed sequential gearbox, similar to the race car, but with a more road biased clutch, so you don't stall every-time you leave the M&S car-park.

The cars are already in production and I am not at all jealous of those who will be receiving theirs in the coming months.