The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Susan Boyle’ s brother has a jobs dream for Dundee
It’s the ostentatious car that’s been driven by Hollywood royalty Dean Martin, Tony Curtis and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Now the legendary luxury car Excalibur could return to production for the first time in 30 years – in Dundee.
That’s the dream of Scots singer Susan Boyle’s brother Gerry who is leading an effort to bring a luxury car firm to Dundee.
He has an agreement with the American owners of Excalibur to start manufacturing the headturning vehicle again.
Mr Boyle, pictured, chief executive of Burlington Motor Cars, has visited the Michelin Scotland Innovation Parc (MSIP) in Dundee and identified it as his preferred site.
MSIP is in the process of finding tenants to replace the 850 jobs lost when the Michelin tyre factory closed.
Mr Boyle said he is backed by a handful of extremely high net worth individuals. He said their wealth could be counted in the billions.
He said: “It started with a conversation I had about a year ago with my lawyer.
“We were talking about cars. I mentioned the car I thought was a real stand out wasn’t a Ferrari or Bentley but the Excalibur.
“Around 3,500 of the beautiful cars were made and they were owned by everyone from Dean Martin to Roy Orbison.
“From that conversation, we made contact with Excalibur in America to inquire what was happening with the cars.
“Long story short, is we started to trust each other and have a shared vision of bringing the cars back to be manufactured in the UK.”
The cars would be made to order, a process that could take around nine months.
The Burlington Excalibur cars will retail for £295,000 and he expects the majority to have electric engines.
There is no agreement in place with MSIP which hopes to land two major tenants this year.
Mr Boyle said the collection of similar companies was one of the appeals of the Dundee site. The close proximity of Dundee Airport is another key factor.
“We will be flying millionaires in from China, Japan, America to observe their car as it is made,” he said.
He also plans a Burlington television channel, based in Dundee, which will promote the vehicles with footage of their production.