Unknown Brazilian Cars 2: MP Lafer

"edu-petrolhead" (edu-petrolhead)
03/11/2014 at 10:56 • Filed to: Brazilian Cars

Maybe one of the finest examples of the "fora-de-séries", the MP Lafer was a fiberglass replica of the MG TD. Initially thought by Percival Lafer to be exported, it was only sold in Brazil. As the Gurgels, Pumas, Miuras, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and many, many others, the MP Lafer was built over a VW Beetle chassis with its powertrain. However, since the original MG TD is almost the size of the Beetle, it wasn't hard to project a fiberglass body to fit the VW chassis.

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The idea first came in 1971, from the passionated mind of Lafer, and made its debut in brazilian streets in 1974. In the middle, six prototypes were shown in brazilian motor shows. Curious thing is that the replica was actually authorized by MG, and the MP Lafer received an award of best MG TD Replica of the World. Apart from looking great, what greatly helped the popularity in Brazil of the MP Lafer was the closure of our borders in 1976 (and the fact that it basically a classy VW Beetle with fiberglass body, which wouldn't pass the mandatory crash and emission tests of european and american markets).

The MP factory produced one or two vehicles per day, and they only underwent minor modifications through their life. In the first two years, the tail lights came from a VW Super Beetle, and after a while, they swapped the 1,500 cc air-cooled VW engine by a 1,600 cc engine of the same type, but with two carburettors. Since it was built over a Beetle, it was rear engined, but the fuel tank was in the front, very close to the (fake) radiator grill.

The performance numbers were very appropriated for strolling around. When Quatro Rodas (a major car magazine with more than 50 years in Brazil) road tested it in 1976, the 1,600 cc version achieved a maximum speed of 129 km/h (80 mph) and accelerated from 0 to 100 km/h (0-60 mph) in a lazy 18.8 seconds.

MP produced the Lafer until 1988, and made something around 4300 cars. From those, more than 1000 were sold in the United States, Europe and the Middle East. So, if you want a brazilian fiberglass rare car and can't find a Gurgel, maybe the MP Lafer is the right car for you!

Bonus! A MP Lafer was featured in James Bond's film For Your Eyes Only, and you can find diecast models of it!

DISCUSSION (8)

edu-petrolhead > edu-petrolhead
03/11/2014 at 11:17

Kinja put the related article and messed up my text... Sorry.

JR1 > edu-petrolhead
03/11/2014 at 11:17

I might have to drop a small block in there because the performance is laughable.

edu-petrolhead > JR1
03/11/2014 at 11:20

You can't do much with a VW Brasilia engine...

JR1 > edu-petrolhead
03/11/2014 at 11:35

Yes I know it is a little upsetting.

DasWauto > edu-petrolhead
03/12/2014 at 20:05

You can eliminate those related articles by running the links through a link shortener like bit.ly . That'll keep them from messing up your formatting.

Hermann > edu-petrolhead
03/27/2014 at 18:47

I think MP Lafer is still making cars, or at least they have an authorised restorer. I studied mechanical Engineering in FEI in São Bernardo and used to see THIS sort of thing every day. But since I studied at night, I never had time to catch them open to investigate, though.

edu-petrolhead > Hermann
03/27/2014 at 20:09

Nice! FEI made some awesome concepts I plan to cover in the future!

pumapreto > edu-petrolhead
09/19/2016 at 07:24

Yes you can. I own a 1977 Puma Gte with a 1600cc. block which was modified to 2180cc by the California importer at the time.