Strict tax rules, which effectively limited the sale of foreign products in Brazil, resulted in the emergence of a number of beautiful and often bizarre home-grown sports car creations during the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s. Few survive, and even fewer exist in Europe, which means this sleek looking Ventura, which recently sold on ebay, provided UK VW enthusiasts with a rare opportunity to own one…

These Brazilian specials typically sat on the readily available Volkswagen floorpan and featured an air-cooled VW engine and VW running gear. Predictably, the custom built fibreglass bodywork often adopted various European styling influences and while cars like the Puma here, seemed to borrow its front end treatment from the Lamborghini Miura, the SP2 here was a little more idiosyncratic. Meanwhile, the Bianco S Coupe here seemed to inherit its styling cues from something altogether more exotic.

The majority of these Brazilian made vehicles were sold as complete cars to eager Brazilian buyers, which is why so few examples ever left the country. However, some manufacturers offered their products in kit form – and this in due course opened up the possibility of them being sold and assembled further afield, notably in the USA. America has always represented a lucrative potential market for anything vaguely sporty – and because these Brazilian offerings were just a bit different (and probably significantly cheaper) than the more popular import models from Jaguar, Triumph and MG, they sold quite well.

And that’s where this Brazilian Ventura, which sold recently on ebay for £3400, originated from. It was made by the somewhat unimaginatively named L’Automobile Company who started making replicas of 1930s Alfa Romeos, sat on a VW chassis, when it started out in 1976. Having had success with this model, the firm decided to make something a bit more modern looking and in 1978 the Ventura was born.

Looking like something in between an eighties’ Aston Martin (which is perhaps the influence for its bonnet bulge) and a ’70s Celica/Supra, it followed the usual theme of using a VW chassis and by 1980 kits were being exported to the US, Germany and Argentina. Two models were available, the SLE and the RS, the latter featuring a 1.6-litre water-cooled engine instead the more traditional air-cooled powerplant. There was a facelift in 1984 and a swish convertible was also added to the range. At around the same time, a 1.8 water-cooled engine producing 84bhp was made available. The more boxy looking Ventura II appeared in 1988 with a 2.0-litre engine but it never enjoyed anywhere near the same sales success of its predecessors and production ended the same year.

This particular Ventura is an early one, based on a 1967 chassis, and was being sold as an unfinished project. The reluctant vendor, who had owned it for around eight years, states that there could be as few 10 such examples left worldwide – and we wouldn’t like to prove otherwise.

The fibreglass body looks to be in good nick, although according to the description a repair is needed to the nearside front wing. There’s no engine, but that’s not necessarily a negative as it provides the new custodian with the opportunity of starting from scratch with a fresh, reconditioned unit. The underside looks tidy, as does the floorpan.

The interiors of relatively low production cars like this rarely live up to the glamour of their exteriors, and indeed this one looks like it needs a fair bit of work to make it look smart again. It’s all there, apparently, and although there a no pictures of the seats, the seller says they are Porsche derived. The 15in alloy wheels are also Porsche style. The big plus for the lucky new owner, of course, is that it’s already UK registered which saves a lot of aggro later on. We think it’s super cool, and that’s a sentiment that was obviously shared by lots of other people given that there were 40 bids in total.

Look out for it at a VW show sometime soon…

Ian

The opinions expressed here are the personal opinions of the author and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of VW Heritage.

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