Today’s Rare Ride hails from an auto manufacturer you may have never heard of before: Gurgel. Made in Brazil, the conservative little XEF was an interesting side note in automotive history.
Gurgel Motores was founded in Brazil in 1969. Named after founder João do Amaral Gurgel, the brand focused on small off-road cars and buggies, initially all made of fiberglass. Not a large enough business to create its own platforms at the start, Gurgel attached its fiberglass body designs to Volkswagen Beetle chassis and engines.
In the early Seventies, Gurgel developed a new method of blending together fiberglass and steel to make Plasteel. The technology was designed and patented at Gurgel, and went into production on the Xavante off-roader in 1973. In addition to its Plasteel construction, the Xavante was fitted with individual hand brakes for each rear wheel installed next to the driver, a feature called Selectraction. The brakes stopped the wheel that lacked traction and moved power to the other rear wheel at the driver’s request. A manual limited-slip differential, if you will.
In addition to its off-road cars and buggies, Gurgel worked on urban electric cars in the early Seventies (the Itaipu). It also released a larger seven-passenger van called the X-15 in 1979. Entering into the city car space, development on the XEF began in 1981. The XEF was to be a new subcompact city car solution from Gurgel. It’s unclear when the car actually launched.
Shaped like a tiny Mercedes of the period, the XEF maintained a two-door sedan shape. It might be called a coupe except for the fact it had three-abreast seating at the front. Not in need of much power, the XEF used the air-cooled 1.6-liter engine from a Beetle. By that time Volkswagen had developed the engine to its final iteration, and it produced 60 horsepower.
The formal city car idea was not a successful one for Gurgel, and the company produced between 100 and 140 examples before it moved onto its most successful offering, the BR-800 city car. BR-800 held the distinction of being the first fully Brazilian-designed and manufactured car, as it did not use Volkswagen parts. We’ll save more BR-800 detail for another day, as it’s worth its own Rare Rides entry.
Today’s gold XEF is number 92 in the run, and its Plasteel construction has held up well. It’s yours for $21,500, and you’re sure never to see another one.
[Images: Gurgel]
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