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A Brief History The Bradley Automobile In the 1970's, Bradley Automotive was the leading producer of kit cars in the USA. Their main claim was the high quality of their products. They produced and sold over 6,000 of the original G/T kit's throughout the 70's. The company was successful until the early 80's. The rapid growth of the company prompted their designers to develop and produce a completely new kit, which was called the G/T II. Unfortunately, only about 500 of these newly designed kits were produced and sold before the company stopped production. Bradley G/T's and G/T II's are some of the most visible kit cars on the road. They still can be seen at swap meets and custom car shows all over the country, due to the volume of cars made. Based on a standard VW pan, the G/T II was a refined version of the G/T. It had a much more production car like quality. Attention to detail and trim improved dramatically over the early G/T's. The G/T II featured gas strut actuated, fully framed, gull wing doors, which featured sliding side glass and removable Plexiglas panels on the top part of the doors. The engine cover, hood, and hatchback had remote releases operated from the cockpit, an unusual feature for a kit car. It had a steel reinforced roof and 5mph bumpers front and rear. It's probably one of the few kit's that met DOT safety standards at the time, a testament to the quality of it's engineering. In addition to the VW engine, the Bradley also used Porsche 914, 911 and even Mazda rotary engines. Some current owners have even shoe-horned in Chevy V8's. Around the mid 80's, Bradley Automotive was sold to a
unknown company. The new owners of Bradley, supposedly, purchased the
company and let the business die. A number of die-hard Bradley fans have become dedicated to the preservation and restoration of these cars. As the days go on, we are finding long forgotten kits in fields, garages, and barns - given up on by their owners for a variety of reasons.
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