Brabham  was a British racing car manufacturer and Formula One racing team founded in 1960 by Australian driver Jack Brabham.

Motor Racing Developments Ltd., commonly known as Brabham, was a British racing car manufacturer and Formula One racing team founded in 1960 by Australian driver Jack Brabham and British-Australian designer Ron Tauranac. The team won four FIA Formula One Drivers' and two Constructors' World Championships in its 30-year history, starting out with back-to-back wins of both in 1966 and 1967. Jack Brabham's 1966 Drivers' Championship remains the only such achievement using a car bearing the driver's own name.

In the 1960s, Brabham was the world's largest manufacturer of open-wheel racing cars for sale to customer teams; by 1970 it had built more than 500 cars. During this period, teams using Brabham cars won championships in Formula Two and Formula Three. Brabham cars also competed in the Indianapolis 500 and in Formula 5000 racing. In the 1970s and 1980s, Brabham introduced such innovations as carbon brakes and hydropneumatic suspension, and reintroduced in-race refuelling. Its unique Gordon Murray-designed 'fan car' won its only race before being withdrawn.

 

Headquarters;  Chessington (1962–1989) and Milton Keynes (1990–1992), United Kingdom

bt24 1969

The Repco Brabham BT24 was a Formula One racing car design. It was one of three cars used by the Brabham racing team during their championship-winning 1967 Formula One season. Only three BT24 chassis were ever raced.

Designed by Ron Tauranac, the BT24 was based on the BT23 Formula Two car and was notably light and compact. Tauranac continued to adhere to the space frame chassis, alone of Formula One designers.

The BT24 was designed to take the new Repco 740 V-8 engine, which was an all new design entirely built by Repco, unlike the previous years Oldsmobile based 620 series engines. Tauranac had requested that Repco build the engine with in vee exhausts to reduce frontal area and ease the problem of threading exhaust pipes through the rear suspension links. Like the Lotus 49 the BT24 made its first appearance during practice for the Dutch Grand Prix, and in comparison the Brabham seemed almost obsolete, but as the season progressed, its better reliability made it the tortoise to Lotus's hare.

Brabham decided to run its proven 1966 cars in the Dutch race (although by this time Jack Brabham's BT19 was equipped with the centre exhaust 740 engine) and the BT24 made its race debut one race later at the Belgian Grand Prix.

With reigning champion Jack Brabham and Denny Hulme at the wheel, the BT24 took 3 wins to Jim Clark's 4 in the Lotus, but with six 2nd places, two 3rds, a 4th and a 5th the Brabham team comfortably took the Constructors' Championship, while Hulme pipped team-owner Brabham to the Drivers' Championship by 5 points.

In addition to its three championship race wins the BT24 also won the prestigious 1967 International Gold Cup at Oulton Park in the hands of Jack Brabham.

Brabham BT24 1969 (youtube.com)

bt49c 1981

The Brabham BT49 is a Formula One racing car designed by South African Gordon Murray for the British Brabham team. The BT49 competed in the 1979 to 1982 Formula One World Championships and was used by Brazilian driver Nelson Piquet to win his first World Championship in 1981.

The car was initially designed in 1979 as a short notice replacement for the team's Alfa Romeo-engined BT48, after Brabham team owner Bernie Ecclestone decided to end his relationship with the Italian engine manufacturer. The BT49 was created in only six weeks using elements of the BT48 chassis together with the widely used Cosworth DFV engine. The monocoque chassis is made from aluminium alloy and carbon fibre composites. The car was fitted with controversial hydropneumatic suspension and water-cooled brakes at different points in its life.

The BT49 was updated over four seasons taking a total of seven wins, six poles and 135 points. Seventeen were eventually built, most of which survive today. Some are used successfully in historic motorsport; Christian Glaesel won the 2005 FIA Historic Formula One Championship driving a BT49D.

Like all of its Formula One contemporaries, the BT49 chassis is a monocoque structure. It is built from sheet aluminium alloy with reinforcement from carbon fibre composite panels and is one of the first Formula One chassis to incorporate this material structurally.

For the 1981 season, a BT49C specification was produced with a chassis lightened through increased use of carbon composite materials. Five of this variant were built and two of the previous year's cars converted to this specification. 

That year a minimum ride height of 60 millimetres was introduced and sliding skirts were banned, with the intention of limiting ground effect and slowing the cars. The BT49C regained its front wings to compensate in part for the downforce lost. More significantly, Murray devised a hydropneumatic suspension system for the BT49C in which soft air springs supported the car at the regulation height for checks while stationary. At speed, where the ride height could not be measured, downforce compressed the air and the car settled to a much lower height, creating more downforce. 

Because the skirts now had to be fixed, the suspension had to be very stiff to allow them to consistently seal around the sides of the car: by the end of the 1981 season, total suspension movement was only 38 mm, half of which came from the compression of the tyres. A lightweight qualifying chassis was produced, featuring a small fuel tank and lighter reinforced carbon-carbon brake discs and pads.

Brabham BT49C 1981 (youtube.com)

bt60y 1991

The Brabham BT60 was the final series of Formula One racing cars built for the Brabham Formula One motor racing team. Designed by Sergio Rinland, they raced in the 1991 and 1992 Formula One World Championships. The car brought to a close Brabham's 30 years of construction of purpose-built racing cars, which began with Jack Brabham and Ron Tauranac and the Brabham BT1 Formula Junior design in 1961.

BT60y

The first car, the BT60Y, was powered by the Yamaha OX99 V12 engine. It was driven by Martin Brundle, who was returning to Brabham and Formula One again after driving for Jaguar in the 1990 World Sportscar Championship. The team's second car was driven by Formula One rookie Mark Blundell.

Brabham only scored three points in 1991, with one 5th-place for Brundle, and Blundell scoring one 6th-place finish. The team finished 10th in the Constructors' Championship.

BT60b

For the 1992 Formula One season the team used a modified version of the car, dubbed the BT60B, which was powered by the Judd GV V10 engine. The cars were driven by Eric van de Poele from Belgium and Italian rookie Giovanna Amati. Part way through the year Amati was replaced by another Formula One rookie, future World Drivers' Champion Damon Hill. The BT60B was the last Formula One car produced by Brabham.

The 1992 season was a complete disaster for the once great Brabham team. After van de Poele qualified 26th and last and finished 13th (again last) at the opening race in South Africa, neither car qualified for a race until round nine, the 1992 British Grand Prix, where Hill qualified 26th.

Two races later the team had its last race meeting in Formula One, at the Hungarian Grand Prix, where Hill gave the team its highest finish of the season finishing 11th, some four laps down on race winner Ayrton Senna.

BT61

Brabham fell into administration and attempts were made by RM Motorsports to buy the team. During this time, the company engaged Galmer Engineering to build a successor for the BT60B. The BT61 would have competed in the 1993 season, but development of the car was never completed after RM Motorsport failed to name what engine would be used or pay Galmer Engineering for their work. The company never completed the purchase of the team and the team was eventually liquidated.

Brabham BT60Y 1991 (youtube.com)

1962-1968

1969-1974

1975-1977

1978-1982

1983

1984/1990-1992

1985-1989

Create Your Own Website With JouwWeb