COLLECTION: Brian Bruce's Southern Cape Gems

Following a successful career in the corporate world, Brian Bruce never went into retirement. Since leaving the boardroom, he has focused his mind and energy on a number of new projects, one being the running of his car collection. 

Words Wilhelm Lutjeharms

It is fascinating to see what retired professionals set their minds to when they leave the corporate world behind. Brian Bruce trained as a civil engineer and ran the boardroom of one of South Africa’s most notable construction companies. However, he might have entered retirement already a few years ago, but he is definitely not applying it!

• Find a classic car for yourself here.

I quickly sense that the same meticulous manners Brian must have used in his corporate career have been implemented in the way he runs his collection. Officially called the Parnell Bruce Collection, Brian christened it this way to include his mother’s maiden name. 

As we enter the first building, the red single seater with a large “77” painted on the front grille immediately draws my attention.

The Austin

“This was Roddy Turner’s 1953 Austin Special single seater, handbuilt at the time. I bought this in around 2015 and soon realised there is a strong movement around the world for Austin 40 specials, especially in Australia. We eventually traced the original engine and gearbox. The former is unfortunately beyond repair, but the gearbox we are going to put back in the car. We’ve worked on the car extensively, and have everything sorted out except the gearbox. We’ve done some research and it seems this was only the second car in the world to have a tilted engine and the driveshaft down the side to offer a lower centre of gravity. Roddy Turner gleaned this from, I think, a 1936 Cadillac single seater where they did it.”

The car raced in East London in South Africa as well as Cape Town in the 1953 to 1955 period. Under the bonnet is a 1,3-litre, four-cylinder engine. “It has a unique oil sump arrangement, but I don’t think any of this really made a difference to the car. A friend of mine needed some money so I bought this from him.”

It looks pure race car, and peeping into the tight cabin I can see the gearlever situated directly on top of the transmission tunnel and the driveshaft running to the rear of the car.

Ford GT40 recreations

Brian also has a soft spot for selective recreation cars, and the two GT40s are prime examples. “The orange one, a 2003 GT40, was built by Peter Bailey in Johannesburg, designed and manufactured with endurance racing in mind. The previous owner raced it and it was the class champion in the 2000s. 

"The multi-colour example is my hill climb car. It is a KCC GT40 kit car from the Nineties which I had completely modified. I chopped the back-end off, and among a number of things, I installed improved suspension. It had a very bad chassis, basically a Ford Granada at the front and all types of questionable things at the rear. After much work it is now considerably improved. It is now purely a hill climb car. For example, it has no cooling fan, only a water pump.”

British beauties

No car collection focusing on British cars would be complete without an Austin-Healey, in this case a 1953 BN1. With chrome beading, overriders, mirrors and bumpers, as well as that pretty, leather bonnet strap it looks like the perfect car for a Sunday drive.

“It is a left hand drive version from the USA which was brought into South Africa and converted into right-hand drive. They are very hard to find and very rare. It has been nicely restored and has a high-compression ratio, 2.6-litre, four-cylinder engine. These bodies are the original Healey's. They came with three-speed gearboxes plus overdrive.”

We walk past a 1966 Jaguar E-Type and the 1970 Lotus Europa, which has also been raced at previous Simola Hillclimbs. Brian quickly tells me about the Jaguar C-Type racing replica, built by two enthusiasts between 1995 and 2004 here in South Africa, before we make our way to the next building.

This is one of the two workshops where Brian and his team restore and maintain the collection. Present are a rare 1936 AC 16/80 Coupé de Ville undergoing a restoration, kept company by an equally rare 1935 Jensen Ford Drophead Coupé. “We believe this is the AC car that was displayed at the Olympia Motor Show in 1936,” Brian informs me.

However, it’s the recreation of a Jaguar D-Type that really gets my attention. “This is a 1986 Realm Engineering Jaguar D-Type on an Adrian Reynard chassis. It was built in the UK and brought to South Africa by the owner who retired here. It did some racing in the UK, what they call short course racing. It came with the 4.2-litre engine, but we’ve now installed the 3.8-litre with triple Weber carburettors. It has a genuine Jaguar D-Type inlet manifold. We’ve made some upgrades to the front so we can fit a vertical radiator, with expansion and header tank at the back – similar to that of the original D-Type. We have a few complications routing some piping, it is a very tight space, but we are solving those problems.”

We move into the next room, a larger workshop with two big lifts. Under the lifts we find a 1969 Jaguar E-Type Roadster and a 1947 Jaguar Mark IV, with another Mark IV right next to it. “Both Mark IV’s are fitted with the 3.5-litre engine. I spent a lot of time with Pro Auto in George, finding specific rubbers that can work – then we do modifications so we don’t need to import everything. My assistants have rebuilt the instruments and all the chrome work has been redone.” 

We move toward the corner of the workshop where a freshly painted and partially built MG waits. “This MGA Twin Cam left the factory in Abingdon as a CKD (complete knocked down) unit in 1958. It was finally assembled by Motor Assemblies in Durban in August of 1962, the last Twin Cam to be assembled. This was the only factory outside the UK where MGAs were built. It is one of only three factory-manufactured Le Mans specification cars.” It also has an additional modification plate on the car, indicating the engine upgrade to 1 750 cm3 from the standard 1.6-litre engine.

“There were technical problems with these twin cam engines. They suffered from cavitation in the fuel supply and the engine had an unusually high compression ratio. The professional drivers knew how to look after these cars, but the amateurs didn’t. So, often engines failed.

“The last MG TC built at the Abingdon factory in 1960 was painted to special order in an MG TF colour, called Woodland Green. As this is the last MGA assembled in the world, I also chose Woodland Green. After all, it came to South Africa as a CKD, so it had no colour.”

We move to the next building where there is again a number of cars to ogle, most notably a row of four Rolls-Royces. “The most desirable of the four is probably this 1926 Rolls-Royce 20HP Open Tourer. It was rebodied in 1975 by Eric Clough in Krugersdorp here in South Africa. It was originally a Hooper bodied Open Tourer, later converted into a hearse and imported to South Africa where it served in Pretoria for 20 years. Albert Etsebeth bought the car and imported a new Ash Frame and this Barker Barrel body which he sold to Eric Clough.”

Brian leaves no stone unturned when it comes to the research he conducts on his cars. He shares several more anecdotes about these cars following research a fellow journalist did for him. 

The oldest car in the collection

Sitting in the seats of a 1909 De Dion Bouton, the oldest car in the collection, and asking Brian about his family history, I find it is littered with many things engine-related. “My father was an aircraft mechanic. He was first a farmer in Scotland, then he joined the RAF and came out to South Africa as a navigation instructor during World War Two. Later he joined the Ford Motor Company. My grandfather joined Pioneer Motors in Port Elizabeth in 1914. He took the very first Ford Model A that came off the production line in 1928 and made the more than 230-mile trip to Oudtshoorn to deliver it to its new owner, but he caught pneumonia on this trip and died.”

There is notably more to this place than I expected. Restorations, maintenance, research, educating and racing. Brian is a true inspiration when it comes to the art of car collecting.