About the Builder

Denis R Bedford

Denis Bedford built his first car, a three quarter midget at 15 years of age. In 1965 his first road registered car was constructed from marine plywood covered with fibreglass, and filled and sanded prior to painting, this proved to be very strong but a very time consuming process, from that time on all his cars, approximately 500, mainly body chassis units, have been made using fibreglass moulds produced from full-size plugs created from various materials including, wood, plaster, metal mesh, fibreglass, plastic putty, etc, etc.

In 1973 while a partner in the Melbourne (Australia) based SEA TIGER MARINE, manufacturer of high performance marine engines, he constructed his first car produced from fibreglass moulds, this car received rave reviews from the motoring press of the time, for the attention to detail and quality of construction.

Trading under the name DRB sportscars in 1981 he commenced fulltime production of the Volkswagen
based kitcar named the SABRE, this was the first in a range of Volkswagen based cars that
included the Magnum, Marauder, Aztec, and the Sabre Mk 2.

Being a big fan of Jaguar cars, having previously owned an E type and a few XJ6 sedans, he decided in
1990 to build a car very similar to the E type on a chassis of his own design, and powered by an
Australian inline 6 cylinder motor and transmission, this turned out to be a big mistake, no cars were sold,
and a rethink was required, it was at this time he noticed the ever increasing popularity of the Cobra replica
and decided that this was the car to build for the Australian market and in 1992 commenced production
of a Cobra replica that utilised components from Australian production cars, the DRB Cobra was
created and proved to be immensely popular with the home builder, it could be completed quickly, easily,
and cheaply, the unit was sold as a body chassis unit assembly with doors, boot, bonnet, all hinged
and aligned, the owner had only to attach suspension, motor, etc to already fitted chassis
brackets, which made it possible for those with little mechanical aptitude to complete
the car and enjoy its performance.

In 1996 the DRB GT40 was created for the serious car builder, DRB kits have always been sold as
completed body chassis units with all body components fitted and aligned, and the DRB GT40 was no exception, this was well accepted by the owners. The GT40 was a little more complicated than the average kitcar to build, so this pre-assembly allowed a much quicker completion time, Approximately 250 Cobra
replicas and 30 GT40 replicas were sold before Denis retired, both of these cars are still made today
by DRB Sportscars in S.E.Queensland Australia

In retirement, 2003 he built himself a replica of the Jaguar XJ220 a car he sold before completion and then in 2004 went on to construct a replica of the Jaguar XJ13 a very beautiful Le Mans car built by Jaguar in 1964 and powered by the very first Jaguar V12 motor

Retirement was not a suitable decision for someone who has been building cars all his life and it was not long before he started thinking of full time production once again.

There could be a lot of cars still to come from the old guy.

Dave Martin 2006