About car puzzle #122: Brasinca 4200 ‘Uirapuru’ (update: added note about RHD)

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A tsunami of answers awaited us after we published last week’s car puzzle. What’s more: all of you recognised the car as the Brasilian beauty Brasinca 4200, or ‘Uirapuru’ as its official nickname is. To quote contender Alan Spencer: “The car took its name from a Brazilian songbird, known in English as the musician wren.” Most of you also mentioned the power plant: a locally produced Chevrolet 4.2-Litre 6-cylinder with or without triple SUs plus the car’s instigator: Spanish professor Rigoberto Soler Gisbert. Thomas Erler added: “He first knocked on the door of Willys but then formed Brasinca.”

For numbers built we’ve seen a multitude of figures come by: 50; 73; 76; 77 and 78. Steve Bousfield wrote: “50 were made by Brasinca and the remainder by a company set up by Soler to continue production. The second batch included some technical improvements and was available in two versions.” Hugo Modderman added that this new company was named STV and built another 20 cars plus three convertibles. He also mentions the three types available: “The 4200, (155bhp), the 4200 S (163bhp) and 4200 GTs with 170bhp.” Reader ‘Vintage’ says there was also an SS-version, delivering 180bhp and continues that the engines were developed originally to power C-1404 and C-1414 to C-1416 trucks. To quote him: “in the November issue of 1965, Four Wheels, published 10.4 seconds for the 0-100 km/h sprint and an estimated 194 km/h maximum with 100 in first.” Herman van Oldeneel added more technical fun facts: “The front suspension is '62 Corvette alike, while wheels are from the Alfa 2600 Berline”

And then there was the link to the British car we briefly mentioned. Many of you referred to that in their answers. ‘Dan’ wrote: “”It looks similar to a TVR Trident and Trident car” and he’s got a point when you look at the front with the round headlights placed on the far corners. However, we were thinking of the Jensen Interceptor and the link is especially clear when seen three quarters from the back. Alan Spencer: “Somebody at Carrozzeria Touring must surely have seen photos of this car before the Jensen Interceptor was drawn.”

Definitely no shortage of information. So who wins? Tony Prebensen was one of our favourites, with even STV fully mentioned as the Technical Society of Vehicles and pointing out the difference between Mk1 and Mk2 Uirapurus with round and square headlights. But it was ‘Vintage’ who managed to squeeze most fun facts into his just over 100-words long answer: “Production ended in ‘67 with 76 cars bing built; a few convertibles and perhaps the best version the Sparrowhawk; a police estate vehicle outfitted with armour plate, twin machine guns in the grill, a stretcher and other firefighting equipment. It is rather apt due to its rarity the legend of the Uirapuru says that whoever hears the Uirapuru bird singing will be happy for the rest of their life.” And that’s it for now. Congratulations!

(Words and archive picture Jeroen Booij)

UPDATE by Editor referring to an e-mail by Hugo Modderman: the car appears to have RHD in the photo, which is odd as all Brasincas were LHD... He wonders if we flipped the photo by accident or worse... on purpose! Not so. We checked with Jeroen Booij who confirms this is the photos as printed in one of the official Brasinca brochures. Yet he agrees on the car NOT being RHD in reality. When you carefully check the script on the wing with the factory logo and add the fact that the wipers have chose another direction for rest, you must conclude that the photo was flipped by the printers. So Hugo and also Steve, it was not an editorial trick to make the puzzle even more tough to chew!
 

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