The GT was perhaps the best-known kit car built by the troubled Bradley Automotive back in its heyday during the 1970s. Most, if not all, were fiberglass bodies attached to a VW Beetle chassis and engine. This example is the evolved version known as the GT II which has been out of circulation since 2014. It’s a one-owner fun machine that could be a blast to drive, once you got it going again. From Fairview, Oregon, this “Bradley Bug” is available here on craigslist for $5,000. Kudos to MattR for this discovery!
Bradley cooked up the original GT in 1970 and would produce them until 1981. We understand that about 6,000 were ordered and delivered (not something that Bradley was necessarily good at, according to pundits). These earlier GTs weren’t production gems, with a pair of crude plastic panels serving as the gullwing doors, and a C2 Corvette windshield. Bradley stepped up their game in 1975 with the GT II which sported proper, framed-in gullwing doors with sliding safety glass, reinforced body panels, a roomier interior, an improved cockpit, and retractable headlights. Despite all these changes for the good, supposedly only 500 of the GT IIs ever saw the light of day.
The company got itself into financial and legal trouble and went out of business in the early 1980s, deeply in debt. Before going belly-up, they tried their hand at early electrical vehicles (EV), but it was too little too late. The seller lists this vehicle as a 1973 GT II on a 1970 Beetle platform, but that’s two years ahead of when the GT II was introduced. We’re told the kit comes with a salvage title, so we don’t know how much trouble you’ll have straightening things out with your DMV.
No mention is made of the mechanical health of this Bradley. But since it’s been idle for the better part of a decade, the Volkswagen drivetrain will likely need some attention. We’re told it has a “new rotary 13b” but I have no idea what that is or what value that adds. If you’ve been wanting one of these things, the seller has documentation on the vehicle since new. And offers an old video for your review as well.
Rotary 13b is a Mazda Wankel engine
Mazda rotary engine. Should be a lot of fun powering this.
Title Status: Salvage.
Probably applies to the donor Beetle that this was built from.
The 13B would seem to provide a significant boost in performance, while requiring a radiator and other cooling system components that the original VW did not. I wonder if the Volkswagen transaxle was retained?
Looks like they installed a radiator (or meant to) behind and under the engine somehow, going by that large coolant hose coming off the driver’s side that’s routed under the custom-fabbed shrouding. Would be interesting to see just how that was set up under there.
Wow a rotary with at least 2-3 times the power of a VW engine, that also doesn’t weigh an awful lot more, that is packaged correctly would help weight distribution.
A ¨cheap¨ Bradley is very expensive.
Silly amount of fun for the buy in cost. Steal
I had to look elsewhere to find a full picture of this one, and I think it definitely fit a small segment of folks, but still looks like it would have been fun to drive it….
That’s got to be the nicest Bradley I’ve ever seen. Plus it’s rotary powered. And only 5 grand? Call me crazy but I’m not really seeing the downside on this one.
xrotaryguy, you will when you go to the DMV, it has a salvage title.
You don’t think that means the donor beetle was a salvaged car? I wouldn’t be concerned about that. Seems like a perfectly reasonable way to start a kit.
Who the heck cares on a $5K car?? Duh
I agree that this looks like a bargain… Buuut an eight year old video showing the car looking good and running well, speaks very little to how things are today… There is no mention of the car being operational in the current advertisement…
Salvage title turns me off!!! Trying to get title straightened out would be a major pain and nightmare. I don’t care how unusual a car is, a salvage title cuts the value 75-80%.
A title is a title. If it says salvage that’s exactly it. It says salvaged on it. Otherwise it’s no different than any other title. If it said non-rebuildable then that would be a different matter. Maybe your insurance company would balk if you want full coverage but most won’t. There are a dozen reasons cars end up with a salvage title the number one is that the insurance company felt it wasn’t in their best interest to pay to repair rather than simply pay the current value of the car. My wife’s Audi was totaled for a dent in the rear quarter panel that’s it a football sized dent. Bought it back for $400 sold it for $4000. Perfect car with exception of a dent.
Also note there’s a difference between a Salvage vs. Salvaged title brand, the latter being used in some states equivalent to Restored Salvage in other states, indicating the vehicle was once totaled by insurance — i.e., written off as a total loss rather than repaired (Salvage title brand) — but later returned to roadworthiness and passed inspection as such (Salvaged / Restored Salvage title brand).
At any rate, none of that means the vehicle is unsafe or can’t be driven or titled or have the title transferred to a new owner; it just means the salvage-related brand will remain on all subsequent titles issued for that vehicle, as an alert to potential future buyers.
Waaaaait a minute! The ad makes no mention of a salvage title. The video shows a document stating the title is clear.
title status: salvage
it’s in the ad on the right.
Shoot, now I see it. The ad is probably correct while the 8 year old video is out of date.
FWIW, the term “salvage title” in Oregon, at least when I lived there, was shorthand for a salvege/reconstructed title.
But as others have mentioned, It’s a $5k car. The car looks fine. I wouldn’t worry much about the title.
Just go and buy a junk Beetle with a good title and transfer everything over to the new chassis. Title problem solved.