Brooke 190ME 1994 - World Of Classic Cars -

Brooke 190ME 1994

The Brooke 190ME was designed by successful furniture manufacturer Toby Sutton who founded Brooke Cars in the early 90's. The company was named after his home village in Norfolk, with the ME standing for mid-engine and 190, the brake horsepower. Despite the early rave reviews, the company folded after around eight cars were produced due to financing issues and most cars went to Europe and Japan. Early reviews suggested that the Brooke had copied the 'racing car for the road' concept coined by Gordon Murray's 'Rocket' of the same period; however, Toby Sutton's design drawings - copy of which can be found in the history file - show this car pre-dated Murray's 'Rocket'. Furthermore, the Brooke 245 (the car prior to the 190ME) had the 'Rocket' tandem sitting position, so that idea was also said to be originally conceived by Brooke Cars. Designed to be a modern version of the 1950/60's single seater racers such as the Maserati 250F but with the added advantage of two seats, critical to the look are the concealed headlights and oval front radiator intake. Years later another company purchased the rights to the Brooke 190ME and re-launched a Mk. II version known as the 'Double R'. Unfortunately the Mk. II also went out of production after only a slightly longer production run.