I took a four-day trip to Northern England a couple of weeks ago, primarily to visit one of the only American-style self-service junkyards in the UK. While there, I also dropped by quite a few traditional dismantlers (known as “breaker’s yards” over there), and one of them was Sherburn Motor Spares in Leeds, a business specializing in Italian and French vehicles. While there, I found a special-edition Alfa Romeo that never made it to our side of the Atlantic: a UK-only Brera S, hot-rodded by Prodrive.
While I feel that the ex-Royal Mail Peugeot Bipper we saw last week was a deeply interesting Junkyard Find, some readers with shallower more mainstream tastes in automobiles might have been disappointed by such a machine being considered worthy of admiration. For those readers, we offer this extremely rare Alfa that by all rights never should have met a fate such as this.
First, though, I suggest that you begin playing The Who’s best album at top— and I mean eardrum-slaughtering— volume before starting to read this, because when in Leeds…
Sherburn Motor Spares specialises in Italian and French cars, with a focus on Alfa Romeos. When I arrived, it was a below-freezing Yorkshire morning and the employees were huddled around a barrel full of burning trash to warm up. It was all very Dickensian.
One of the more civilised things about the breaker’s yards around Leeds is that most of them have little cafes in double-wides nearby. You can get a bacon-and-sausage sandwich for just £4.20, and add a hot cup of tea for another £1.70.
Though The Who recorded their finest album in Leeds, they were from way down south in London. Once you’re done with “Live at Leeds,” I suggest that you play some music by Throbbing Gristle, an outfit of genuine Yorkshiremen that came out of Kingston Upon Hull, just to the west of Sherburn Motor Spares.
Most of the inventory at this yard is stacked two or three layers tall, with Fiat Pandas and 500s plus endless commuter-grade Citroëns and Peugeots predominating. But if you poke around a little bit and chat with the very friendly employees, you’ll find the special stuff.
The Brera coupe was on the same platform as the Spider roadster, and was built for the 2005 through 2010 model years.
The Top Gear crew really wet their pants over the Brera, which was a beautiful machine for its price.
This one isn’t just any Brera, however. It’s one of just 500 examples of the Brera S upgraded by Prodrive.
The Brera S was available only in the United Kingdom, and its price tag with the four-cylinder engine was £24,950 (about £38,102 in 2024 pounds, or $48,438 in today’s dollars).
The Prodrive upgrades went into the suspension; the 256-horse 3.2-liter V6 was the most powerful engine you could get in the Brera S. This car has the 182-horsepower 2.2-liter straight-four.
Customers have bought the front grille and bumper, but the rest of the parts remain available for purchase.
2009 Alfa Romeo Brera S in English scrapyard.
2009 Alfa Romeo Brera S in English scrapyard.
2009 Alfa Romeo Brera S in English scrapyard.
2009 Alfa Romeo Brera S in English scrapyard.
2009 Alfa Romeo Brera S in English scrapyard.
2009 Alfa Romeo Brera S in English scrapyard.
2009 Alfa Romeo Brera S in English scrapyard.
2009 Alfa Romeo Brera S in English scrapyard.
2009 Alfa Romeo Brera S in English scrapyard.
[Images: The Author]
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