Brabham BT19
Encyclopedia
The Brabham BT19 is a Formula One
racing car designed by Ron Tauranac
for the British Brabham team. The BT19 competed in the and Formula One World Championships and was used by Australian driver Jack Brabham
to win his third World Championship in 1966. The BT19, which Brabham referred to as his "Old Nail", was the first car bearing its driver's name to win a World Championship race.
The car was initially conceived in 1965 for a 1.5-litre (92-cubic inch) Coventry Climax
engine, but never raced in this form. For the 1966 Formula One season the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile
(FIA) doubled the limit on engine capacity to 3 litres (183 cu in). Australian company Repco
developed a new V8 engine
for Brabham's use in 1966, but a disagreement between Brabham and Tauranac over the latter's role in the racing team left no time to develop a new car to handle it. Instead, the existing BT19 chassis was modified for the job.
Only one BT19 was built. As of 2009, it is owned by Repco and on display in the National Sports Museum in Melbourne, Australia. It is often demonstrated at motorsport events.
for the Brabham Racing Organisation (BRO) to use in the 1965 season
of the Formula One
motor racing World Championship. The BT19, and its contemporary the Lotus 39
, were built to use the new FWMW flat-16
engine from Coventry Climax
. Only one example of the BT19 design was built, and it never raced in its original form. Climax abandoned the FWMW's development before the end of 1965, their existing FWMV V8 engine
s proving powerful enough to propel Jim Clark
's Lotus 33
to seven wins and the drivers' championship. For 1966, the engine capacity limit in Formula One was doubled from 1.5 litres (92 cu in) to 3 litres (183 cu in). It was not feasible to enlarge existing 1.5-litre engines to take full advantage of the higher limit and Climax chose not to develop a new 3-litre motor, leaving many teams without a viable engine for 1966.
The new 3-litre engines under development by other suppliers all had at least 12 cylinders
. All other things being equal, more cylinders allow smaller and lighter moving parts, higher rotational speeds and thus greater peak power. However, more cylinders also mean more moving parts; these can result in greater overall engine weight and reduced reliability. Jack Brabham
, owner and lead driver of BRO, took a different approach to the problem of obtaining a suitable engine. He persuaded Australian company Repco
to develop a new 3-litre eight-cylinder engine for him, largely based on available components; Brabham and Repco were aware that the engine would not compete in terms of outright power, but felt that a lightweight, reliable engine could achieve good championship results while other teams were still making their new designs reliable.
Brabham cars were designed and built by Motor Racing Developments Ltd. (MRD), which was jointly owned by Tauranac and Jack Brabham and built cars for customers in several racing series. The Formula One racing team, BRO, was a separate company wholly owned by Jack Brabham. It bought its cars from MRD but Tauranac had little connection with the race team between 1962 and 1965. At the end of the 1965 season Tauranac was losing interest in this arrangement, reasoning that "it was just a matter of a lot of effort for no real interest because I didn't get to go racing very much" and "I might as well get on with my main line business, which was selling production cars." Although Brabham investigated using chassis
from other manufacturers, the two men eventually agreed that Tauranac would have a greater interest in the Formula One team, which MRD eventually took over completely from BRO. This agreement was not reached until November 1965. Repco delivered the first example of the new engine to the team's headquarters in the United Kingdom in late 1965, just weeks before the first Formula One race to the new regulations, the non-championship South African Grand Prix
on 1 January 1966. Rather than build a new car in the limited time available, BRO pressed chassis number F1-1-1965, the sole and unused BT19, into service.
Tauranac built the BT19 around a mild steel spaceframe chassis similar to those used in his previous Brabham designs. The use of a spaceframe was considered a conservative design decision; by 1966, most of Brabham's competitors were using the theoretically lighter and stiffer monocoque
design, introduced to Formula One by Lotus during the 1962 season
. Tauranac believed that contemporary monocoques were not usefully stiffer than a well-designed spaceframe and were harder to repair and maintain. The latter was a particular concern for Brabham, which was the largest manufacturer of customer single-seater racing cars in the world at the time. The company's reputation rested in part on BRO – effectively the official 'works' team – using the same technology as its customers, for whom ease of repair was a significant consideration. One mildly novel feature was the use of oval-section, rather than round, tubing around the cockpit, where the driver sits. In a spaceframe or monocoque racing car, the cockpit is effectively a hole in the structure, weakening it considerably. For a given cross sectional
area, oval tubing is stiffer in one direction than round tubing. Tauranac happened to have a supply of oval tubing and used it to stiffen the cockpit area. The car weighed around 1250 pounds
(567 kg), around 150 lb (68 kg) over the minimum weight limit for the formula, although it was still one of the lightest cars in the 1966 field. The race starting weight of a 1966 Brabham-Repco with driver and fuel was estimated to be around 1415 lb (642 kg), about 280 lb (127 kg) less than the more powerful rival Cooper T81
-Maserati
s.
The bodywork of the BT19 is glass-reinforced plastic
, finished in Brabham's usual racing colours of green with gold trimming around the nose. Although the science of aerodynamics
would not greatly affect Formula One racing until the 1968 season
, Tauranac had been making use of the Motor Industry Research Association
wind tunnel
since 1963 to refine the shape of his cars. Brabham has attributed the car's "swept-down nose and the upswept rear lip of the engine cowl" to Tauranac's "attention to aerodynamic detail". During the 1967 season, the car appeared with small winglets on the nose, to further reduce lift acting at the front of the car.
Against the trend set by the Lotus 21
in 1961, the BT19's suspension
, which controls the relative motion of the chassis and the wheels, is outboard all round. That is, the bulky springs and dampers
are mounted in the space between the wheels and the bodywork, where they interfere with the airflow and increase unwanted aerodynamic drag
. Tauranac persisted with this apparently conservative approach based on wind tunnel tests he had carried out in the early 1960s, which indicated that a more complicated inboard design, with the springs and dampers concealed under the bodywork, would provide only a 2% improvement in drag. He judged the extra time needed to set up an inboard design at the racetrack to outweigh this small improvement. At the front the suspension consists of unequal length, non-parallel double wishbones
. The front uprights, the solid components upon which the wheels and brakes are mounted, were modified from the Alford & Alder
units used on the British Triumph Herald
saloon. The rear suspension is formed by a single top link, a reversed lower wishbone and two radius rod
s locating cast magnesium alloy uprights. Wheels were initially 13 inches (330 mm) in diameter, but soon upgraded to 15 in (381 mm) at the rear, and later still 15 in at the front as well. These increases enabled the use of larger, more powerful brakes. Steel disc brakes are used on all four wheels and were of 10.5 in (266.7 mm) diameter for the smaller wheels and 11 in (279.4 mm) for the larger ones. The car ran on treaded Goodyear
tyres throughout its racing career.
The BT19 continued Tauranac's reputation for producing cars that handled well. Brabham has since commented that it "was beautifully balanced and I loved its readiness to drift
through fast curves." Brabham referred to the car as his Old Nail; Ron Tauranac has explained this as being "because it was two years old, great to drive and had no vices."
Repco racing engines were designed and built by a small team at a Repco subsidiary, Repco-Brabham engines Pty Ltd, in Maidstone
, Australia. Repco's 620 series engine is a normally aspirated unit with eight cylinders in a 'V' configuration. It uses American engine blocks obtained from Oldsmobile
's aluminium alloy
215 engine. Oldsmobile's 215 engine, used in the F-85 Cutlass compact car
between 1961 and 1963, was abandoned by General Motors
after production problems. Repco fitted their own cast iron
cylinder liners into the Oldsmobile blocks, which were also stiffened with two Repco magnesium
alloy castings and feature Repco-designed cylinder heads with chain-driven single overhead camshafts. The internals of the unit consist of a bespoke Laystall crankshaft
, Daimler
connecting rod
s and specially cast piston
s. The cylinder head design means that the engine's exhaust pipes exit on the outer side of the block, and therefore pass through the spaceframe before tucking inside the rear suspension, a layout which complicated Tauranac's design work considerably. The engine is water-cooled, with oil and water radiators mounted in the nose.
The 620 engine was light for its time, weighing around 340 lb (154 kg), compared to 500 lb (227 kg) for the Maserati V12
, but in 3 litre Formula One form only produced around 300 brake horsepower (220 kW
) at under 8000 revolutions per minute
(rpm), compared to 330–360 bhp (250–270 kW) produced by the Ferrari
and Maserati V12s. However, it produced high levels of torque
over a wide range of engine speeds from 3500 rpm up to peak torque of 233 pound feet
(316 N·m
) at 6500 rpm. Installed in the lightweight BT19 chassis, it was also relatively fuel efficient; on the car's debut Brabham reported that the BT19 achieved 7 miles per gallon (40 L/100 km), against figures of around 4 mpg (70 L/100 km) for its "more exotic rivals". This meant that it could start a Grand Prix with only 35 gallons (160 L) of fuel on board, compared to around 55 gallons (250 L) for the Cooper T81-Maseratis. The engine had one further advantage over bespoke racing engines: parts were cheap. For example, the engine blocks were available for GB£
11 each and the connecting rods cost £7 each.
The 740 series unit used in the three races for which the car was entered in 1967 has a different, lighter, Repco-designed engine block. It also has redesigned cylinder heads which, among other improvements, mean that its exhausts are mounted centrally and do not pass through the spaceframe or rear suspension, unlike those of the 620 series. It produced a maximum of 330 bhp.
The BT19 was initially fitted with a Hewland
HD (Heavy Duty) gearbox, originally designed for use with less powerful 2-litre engines. The greater power of the 3-litre Repco engine was more than the gearbox could reliably transmit when accelerating at full power from rest, with the result that Brabham normally made very gentle starts to avoid gearbox breakages. The HD was later replaced with the sturdier DG (Different Gearbox) design, produced at the request of both Brabham and Dan Gurney
's Anglo American Racers
team. It later became a popular choice for other constructors.
Although regarded by its designer as a "lash-up", BT19 had a very successful Formula One racing career, almost entirely in the hands of Jack Brabham. BT19 was entered in several non-championship Formula One races before the beginning of the 1966 world championship season. At the non-championship South African Grand Prix
at East London on 1 January, BT19 was the only new 3-litre car present. It recorded the fastest time in the qualifying session before the race – therefore taking pole position
for the start of the race – and led the majority of the event before the fuel injection
pump seized. Similar problems stopped the car on the second lap of the Syracuse Grand Prix in Sicily, but at the International Trophy at the Silverstone circuit
, Brabham set pole position, a new lap record, and led the whole race to win ahead of 1964 champion John Surtees
in a 3-litre works Ferrari.
The 1966 world championship season opened with the Monaco Grand Prix
. Brabham was affected by a cold, and qualified poorly before retiring when the BT19's gearbox failed. Surtees led the race in his Ferrari before his differential failed on lap 15; the race was won by Jackie Stewart
in a 2-litre BRM P261
. At the following Belgian Grand Prix
at the Spa circuit
, Brabham survived an enormous 135 miles per hour (215 km/h) slide in the rain on the first lap. The shower eliminated half the field, including Stewart, who would miss the next race with his injuries. The BT19, using Goodyear tyres that were not suited to the conditions, came home fourth of five classified finishers. Surtees won the race for Ferrari, the last before he quit the Italian team.
At the French Grand Prix
, held at the high speed Reims-Gueux
circuit, Brabham followed race leader Lorenzo Bandini
closely from the start of the race, using the slipstream
of Bandini's more powerful Ferrari to tow him to up to 8 mph (13 km/h) faster down the straights than the BT19 could manage on its own. This allowed Brabham to consolidate his lead over Ferrari's second driver, Formula One novice Mike Parkes
. After 12 laps Bandini pulled away from Brabham, eventually by over 30 seconds, but when the Italian car was delayed by a broken throttle cable on lap 32, Brabham cruised to the finish to win from Parkes and become the first man to win a Formula One World Championship race in one of his own cars.
Although the first Brabham BT20, the definitive 1966 car, had been available at Reims, Brabham continued with the BT19 and used it to win the next three championship races. Ferrari, competitive in all three championship races to that point, were not present for the British Grand Prix
. The race was held on the tight and twisting Brands Hatch
circuit, the track made slippery by oil leaking from other cars and by drizzle. Brabham set pole and led the entire race. At the next championship round, the Dutch Grand Prix
, Brabham reported the low speed Zandvoort
circuit to be "even more oily and treacherous than Brands." Brabham won the race after Jim Clark
's less powerful 2 litre Lotus 33
-Climax, which had passed Brabham for the lead mid-race, was delayed by overheating problems. The German Grand Prix
was held at the Nürburgring
Nordschleife, which Brabham described as "Brands Hatch on steroids". On the opening lap Brabham took the lead from Surtees, now driving a Cooper-Maserati. Brabham won after a race-long fight with the Englishman in the rain. With four wins and more finishes than any of his championship rivals, Brabham had a 22 point lead in the drivers championship and could only be caught in the championship by Surtees or Stewart if one of them won all three of the remaining races.
Jack Brabham used BT19 again at the Italian Grand Prix
at Monza
, another high speed circuit. A second BT20 was completed at the Italian track and Brabham tried it in practice for the race, but decided to race his Old Nail, which he felt was fitted with a stronger engine. As at Reims, Brabham successfully slipstreamed the race leaders early on, but an oil leakage stopped the car after 8 laps. Neither Surtees nor Stewart finished the race and Brabham clinched his third world championship.
Brabham used the BT19 once more that season to take pole position and victory at the non-championship Oulton Park Gold Cup, before using a new BT20 for the final two races of the championship season. The BT19 was used again at three of the first four championship races in the 1967 Formula One season
, debuting the new Repco 740 engine at the Monaco Grand Prix
, where it took pole position, and finishing second at the Dutch Grand Prix
.
Commenting on the reasons for the unexpected competitiveness of the 1966 Brabham-Repcos in Formula One, motorsport historian Doug Nye has suggested that they "could score on weight over the more powerful Ferrari, BRM, Cooper-Maserati, Eagle-Weslake and Honda in their undeveloped forms, and on sheer 'grunt' over such interim stop-gap cars as the nimble 2-litre Climax and BRM V8-engined Lotus 33s and BRMs."
BT19 also competed in the final two races of the 1965/66 Tasman Series
in Australia, which was run to the pre-1961 Formula One regulations, including an engine capacity limit of 2.5 litres. Tasman racing was the original purpose of the Repco engine and Brabham's involvement was supposed to promote the 2.5-litre version. Frank Hallam, head of the Repco-Brabham organisation responsible for designing and building the Repco engines, has said that the smaller version "never put out the power per litre that the 3 litre engine produced", which itself was not a powerful unit. Fitted with the 2.5-litre engine BT19 recorded one retirement and a third place in the series.
The BT19 was not raced in serious competition after 1967. Brabham retired and moved back to Australia at the end of 1970. He retained ownership of the car until 1976, when it passed into the hands of Repco and was restored by the Repco Engine Parts Group. In 1986, Automotive Components Ltd. (ACL) was formed by the management buyout
of Engine Parts Group, which included the transfer of the BT19 to the new company. Since its restoration, the car has frequently been demonstrated at events, including the first Australian Grands Prix
to be held on the Adelaide
(1985
) and Melbourne
(1996
) street circuits. It also appeared at the 2004 Goodwood Revival
meeting in the United Kingdom. ACL sold the car back to Repco in 2004. In 2008 the car was installed in the Australian National Sports Museum at the Melbourne Cricket Ground
, on loan from Repco.
In 2002, at the inaugural Speed on Tweed
historic meeting at Murwillumbah, Brabham, then 76, commented: "It's been a wonderful car over the years and it's been very well looked after and it's a pleasure to come and drive it. Coming to Murwillumbah was a really good excuse to get back in the car and drive it again and I'm afraid that's something I'll never ever get tired of."
Formula One
Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...
racing car designed by Ron Tauranac
Ron Tauranac
Ron Tauranac is the former Australian designer for Formula One driver Jack Brabham from 1962 until Brabham's retirement as a driver at the end of the 1970 season. Tauranac briefly owned and managed the Brabham team in 1971, but he sold the team to Bernie Ecclestone in late 1971...
for the British Brabham team. The BT19 competed in the and Formula One World Championships and was used by Australian driver Jack Brabham
Jack Brabham
Sir John Arthur "Jack" Brabham, AO, OBE is an Australian former racing driver who was Formula One champion in , and . He was a founder of the Brabham racing team and race car constructor that bore his name....
to win his third World Championship in 1966. The BT19, which Brabham referred to as his "Old Nail", was the first car bearing its driver's name to win a World Championship race.
The car was initially conceived in 1965 for a 1.5-litre (92-cubic inch) Coventry Climax
Coventry Climax
Coventry Climax was a British forklift truck, fire pump, and speciality engine manufacturer.-History:The company was started in 1903 as Lee Stroyer, but two years later, following the departure of Stroyer, it was relocated to Paynes Lane, Coventry, and renamed to Coventry-Simplex by H...
engine, but never raced in this form. For the 1966 Formula One season the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile
Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile
The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile is a non-profit association established as the Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus on 20 June 1904 to represent the interests of motoring organisations and motor car users...
(FIA) doubled the limit on engine capacity to 3 litres (183 cu in). Australian company Repco
Repco
Repco is an Australian automotive engineering company. Its name is an abbreviation of Replacement Parts Company and it is best known for spare parts and motor accessories....
developed a new V8 engine
V8 engine
A V8 engine is a V engine with eight cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of four cylinders, in most cases set at a right angle to each other but sometimes at a narrower angle, with all eight pistons driving a common crankshaft....
for Brabham's use in 1966, but a disagreement between Brabham and Tauranac over the latter's role in the racing team left no time to develop a new car to handle it. Instead, the existing BT19 chassis was modified for the job.
Only one BT19 was built. As of 2009, it is owned by Repco and on display in the National Sports Museum in Melbourne, Australia. It is often demonstrated at motorsport events.
Concept
The BT19 was created by Australian designer Ron TauranacRon Tauranac
Ron Tauranac is the former Australian designer for Formula One driver Jack Brabham from 1962 until Brabham's retirement as a driver at the end of the 1970 season. Tauranac briefly owned and managed the Brabham team in 1971, but he sold the team to Bernie Ecclestone in late 1971...
for the Brabham Racing Organisation (BRO) to use in the 1965 season
1965 Formula One season
The 1965 Formula One season, which was the 16th season of FIA Formula One racing, featured the 16th World Championship of Drivers and the 8th International Cup for F1 Manufacturers. The two titles were contested concurrently over a ten round series which commenced on January 1 and ended on October 24...
of the Formula One
Formula One
Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...
motor racing World Championship. The BT19, and its contemporary the Lotus 39
Lotus 39
The Lotus 39 was a single seat racing car produced by Team Lotus. It was originally intended for use in Formula One, to be powered by the Coventry Climax 1.5 litre flat-16 engine...
, were built to use the new FWMW flat-16
Flat-16
A flat-16 is an internal combustion engine in flat configuration, having 16 cylinders.Few examples are known. The British engine manufacturing company Coventry Climax developed a racing flat-16 unit for the 1.5 litre Formula One between the 1963 to 1965 Formula One seasons,the FWMW, but,...
engine from Coventry Climax
Coventry Climax
Coventry Climax was a British forklift truck, fire pump, and speciality engine manufacturer.-History:The company was started in 1903 as Lee Stroyer, but two years later, following the departure of Stroyer, it was relocated to Paynes Lane, Coventry, and renamed to Coventry-Simplex by H...
. Only one example of the BT19 design was built, and it never raced in its original form. Climax abandoned the FWMW's development before the end of 1965, their existing FWMV V8 engine
V8 engine
A V8 engine is a V engine with eight cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of four cylinders, in most cases set at a right angle to each other but sometimes at a narrower angle, with all eight pistons driving a common crankshaft....
s proving powerful enough to propel Jim Clark
Jim Clark
James "Jim" Clark, Jr OBE was a British Formula One racing driver from Scotland, who won two World Championships, in 1963 and 1965....
's Lotus 33
Lotus 33
The Lotus 33 designed by Colin Chapman, was a Formula One car built by Team Lotus. Its development was based on the earlier Lotus 25 model, taking the monocoque chassis design to new development heights. The 33 was again powered by the 1500 cc Climax engine. The 33 was almost identical to the 25,...
to seven wins and the drivers' championship. For 1966, the engine capacity limit in Formula One was doubled from 1.5 litres (92 cu in) to 3 litres (183 cu in). It was not feasible to enlarge existing 1.5-litre engines to take full advantage of the higher limit and Climax chose not to develop a new 3-litre motor, leaving many teams without a viable engine for 1966.
The new 3-litre engines under development by other suppliers all had at least 12 cylinders
Cylinder (engine)
A cylinder is the central working part of a reciprocating engine or pump, the space in which a piston travels. Multiple cylinders are commonly arranged side by side in a bank, or engine block, which is typically cast from aluminum or cast iron before receiving precision machine work...
. All other things being equal, more cylinders allow smaller and lighter moving parts, higher rotational speeds and thus greater peak power. However, more cylinders also mean more moving parts; these can result in greater overall engine weight and reduced reliability. Jack Brabham
Jack Brabham
Sir John Arthur "Jack" Brabham, AO, OBE is an Australian former racing driver who was Formula One champion in , and . He was a founder of the Brabham racing team and race car constructor that bore his name....
, owner and lead driver of BRO, took a different approach to the problem of obtaining a suitable engine. He persuaded Australian company Repco
Repco
Repco is an Australian automotive engineering company. Its name is an abbreviation of Replacement Parts Company and it is best known for spare parts and motor accessories....
to develop a new 3-litre eight-cylinder engine for him, largely based on available components; Brabham and Repco were aware that the engine would not compete in terms of outright power, but felt that a lightweight, reliable engine could achieve good championship results while other teams were still making their new designs reliable.
Brabham cars were designed and built by Motor Racing Developments Ltd. (MRD), which was jointly owned by Tauranac and Jack Brabham and built cars for customers in several racing series. The Formula One racing team, BRO, was a separate company wholly owned by Jack Brabham. It bought its cars from MRD but Tauranac had little connection with the race team between 1962 and 1965. At the end of the 1965 season Tauranac was losing interest in this arrangement, reasoning that "it was just a matter of a lot of effort for no real interest because I didn't get to go racing very much" and "I might as well get on with my main line business, which was selling production cars." Although Brabham investigated using chassis
Chassis
A chassis consists of an internal framework that supports a man-made object. It is analogous to an animal's skeleton. An example of a chassis is the underpart of a motor vehicle, consisting of the frame with the wheels and machinery.- Vehicles :In the case of vehicles, the term chassis means the...
from other manufacturers, the two men eventually agreed that Tauranac would have a greater interest in the Formula One team, which MRD eventually took over completely from BRO. This agreement was not reached until November 1965. Repco delivered the first example of the new engine to the team's headquarters in the United Kingdom in late 1965, just weeks before the first Formula One race to the new regulations, the non-championship South African Grand Prix
1966 South African Grand Prix
The 12th South African Grand Prix was a motor race, run to Formula One rules, held on 1 January 1966 at Prince George Circuit, East London, South Africa. The race was run over 60 laps of the circuit, and was won by British driver Mike Spence in a Lotus 33....
on 1 January 1966. Rather than build a new car in the limited time available, BRO pressed chassis number F1-1-1965, the sole and unused BT19, into service.
Chassis and suspension
Monocoque
Monocoque is a construction technique that supports structural load by using an object's external skin, as opposed to using an internal frame or truss that is then covered with a non-load-bearing skin or coachwork...
design, introduced to Formula One by Lotus during the 1962 season
1962 Formula One season
The 1962 Formula One season was the 13th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1962 World Championship of Drivers and the 1962 International Cup for F1 Manufacturers which were contested concurrently over a nine race series that commenced on May 20 and ended on December 29...
. Tauranac believed that contemporary monocoques were not usefully stiffer than a well-designed spaceframe and were harder to repair and maintain. The latter was a particular concern for Brabham, which was the largest manufacturer of customer single-seater racing cars in the world at the time. The company's reputation rested in part on BRO – effectively the official 'works' team – using the same technology as its customers, for whom ease of repair was a significant consideration. One mildly novel feature was the use of oval-section, rather than round, tubing around the cockpit, where the driver sits. In a spaceframe or monocoque racing car, the cockpit is effectively a hole in the structure, weakening it considerably. For a given cross sectional
Cross section (geometry)
In geometry, a cross-section is the intersection of a figure in 2-dimensional space with a line, or of a body in 3-dimensional space with a plane, etc...
area, oval tubing is stiffer in one direction than round tubing. Tauranac happened to have a supply of oval tubing and used it to stiffen the cockpit area. The car weighed around 1250 pounds
Pound (mass)
The pound or pound-mass is a unit of mass used in the Imperial, United States customary and other systems of measurement...
(567 kg), around 150 lb (68 kg) over the minimum weight limit for the formula, although it was still one of the lightest cars in the 1966 field. The race starting weight of a 1966 Brabham-Repco with driver and fuel was estimated to be around 1415 lb (642 kg), about 280 lb (127 kg) less than the more powerful rival Cooper T81
Cooper T81
The Cooper T81 was one of the last Formula One racing cars produced by the Cooper Car Company. It was designed ahead of the World Championship season to operate within the new 3 litre engine regulations that came into effect that year...
-Maserati
Maserati
Maserati is an Italian luxury car manufacturer established on December 1, 1914, in Bologna. The company's headquarters is now in Modena, and its emblem is a trident. It has been owned by the Italian car giant Fiat S.p.A. since 1993...
s.
Glass-reinforced plastic
Fiberglass , is a fiber reinforced polymer made of a plastic matrix reinforced by fine fibers of glass. It is also known as GFK ....
, finished in Brabham's usual racing colours of green with gold trimming around the nose. Although the science of aerodynamics
Aerodynamics
Aerodynamics is a branch of dynamics concerned with studying the motion of air, particularly when it interacts with a moving object. Aerodynamics is a subfield of fluid dynamics and gas dynamics, with much theory shared between them. Aerodynamics is often used synonymously with gas dynamics, with...
would not greatly affect Formula One racing until the 1968 season
1968 Formula One season
The 1968 Formula One season included the 19th FIA Formula One World Championship season, which commenced on January 1, 1968, and ended on November 3 after twelve races.-Season summary:...
, Tauranac had been making use of the Motor Industry Research Association
Motor Industry Research Association
MIRA Ltd, formerly known as the Motor Industry Research Association, is a limited company based near Nuneaton in Hinckley and Bosworth, Leicestershire in the United Kingdom, which provides product engineering, research, testing, information and certification services to the automotive...
wind tunnel
Wind tunnel
A wind tunnel is a research tool used in aerodynamic research to study the effects of air moving past solid objects.-Theory of operation:Wind tunnels were first proposed as a means of studying vehicles in free flight...
since 1963 to refine the shape of his cars. Brabham has attributed the car's "swept-down nose and the upswept rear lip of the engine cowl" to Tauranac's "attention to aerodynamic detail". During the 1967 season, the car appeared with small winglets on the nose, to further reduce lift acting at the front of the car.
Against the trend set by the Lotus 21
Lotus 21
The Lotus 21 was a Formula One racing car designed by Colin Chapman. It was a mid-engined design using a tubular spaceframe structure skinned with fibreglass panels, of a more advanced build than seen in the Lotus 18...
in 1961, the BT19's suspension
Suspension (vehicle)
Suspension is the term given to the system of springs, shock absorbers and linkages that connects a vehicle to its wheels. Suspension systems serve a dual purpose — contributing to the car's roadholding/handling and braking for good active safety and driving pleasure, and keeping vehicle occupants...
, which controls the relative motion of the chassis and the wheels, is outboard all round. That is, the bulky springs and dampers
Shock absorber
A shock absorber is a mechanical device designed to smooth out or damp shock impulse, and dissipate kinetic energy. It is a type of dashpot.-Nomenclature:...
are mounted in the space between the wheels and the bodywork, where they interfere with the airflow and increase unwanted aerodynamic drag
Drag (physics)
In fluid dynamics, drag refers to forces which act on a solid object in the direction of the relative fluid flow velocity...
. Tauranac persisted with this apparently conservative approach based on wind tunnel tests he had carried out in the early 1960s, which indicated that a more complicated inboard design, with the springs and dampers concealed under the bodywork, would provide only a 2% improvement in drag. He judged the extra time needed to set up an inboard design at the racetrack to outweigh this small improvement. At the front the suspension consists of unequal length, non-parallel double wishbones
Double wishbone suspension
In automobiles, a double wishbone suspension is an independent suspension design using two wishbone-shaped arms to locate the wheel. Each wishbone or arm has two mounting points to the chassis and one joint at the knuckle. The shock absorber and coil spring mount to the wishbones to control...
. The front uprights, the solid components upon which the wheels and brakes are mounted, were modified from the Alford & Alder
Alford & Alder
Alford and Alder Ltd. was a British automotive engineering company, specializing in suspension, brake and steering gear components...
units used on the British Triumph Herald
Triumph Herald
The Triumph Herald was a small two-door car introduced in 1959 by the Standard-Triumph Company of Coventry. Body design was by the Italian stylist Michelotti and the car was offered in saloon, convertible, coupé, van, and estate models....
saloon. The rear suspension is formed by a single top link, a reversed lower wishbone and two radius rod
Radius rod
A radius rod is a suspension member intended to control wheel motion in the longitudinal plane. The link is connected on one end to the wheel carrier or axle, on the other to the chassis or unibody of the vehicle.Radius rods typically are mounted ahead of the wheel...
s locating cast magnesium alloy uprights. Wheels were initially 13 inches (330 mm) in diameter, but soon upgraded to 15 in (381 mm) at the rear, and later still 15 in at the front as well. These increases enabled the use of larger, more powerful brakes. Steel disc brakes are used on all four wheels and were of 10.5 in (266.7 mm) diameter for the smaller wheels and 11 in (279.4 mm) for the larger ones. The car ran on treaded Goodyear
Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company was founded in 1898 by Frank Seiberling. Goodyear manufactures tires for automobiles, commercial trucks, light trucks, SUVs, race cars, airplanes, farm equipment and heavy earth-mover machinery....
tyres throughout its racing career.
The BT19 continued Tauranac's reputation for producing cars that handled well. Brabham has since commented that it "was beautifully balanced and I loved its readiness to drift
Drifting (motorsport)
Drifting refers to a driving technique and to a motorsport where the driver intentionally over steers, causing loss of traction in the rear wheels through turns, while maintaining vehicle control and a high exit speed...
through fast curves." Brabham referred to the car as his Old Nail; Ron Tauranac has explained this as being "because it was two years old, great to drive and had no vices."
Engine and transmission
Maidstone, Victoria
Maidstone is a suburb 8 km west of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its Local Government Area is the City of Maribyrnong. At the 2006 Census, Maidstone had a population of 6050....
, Australia. Repco's 620 series engine is a normally aspirated unit with eight cylinders in a 'V' configuration. It uses American engine blocks obtained from Oldsmobile
Oldsmobile
Oldsmobile was a brand of American automobile produced for most of its existence by General Motors. It was founded by Ransom E. Olds in 1897. In its 107-year history, it produced 35.2 million cars, including at least 14 million built at its Lansing, Michigan factory...
's aluminium alloy
Aluminium alloy
Aluminium alloys are alloys in which aluminium is the predominant metal. The typical alloying elements are copper, magnesium, manganese, silicon and zinc. There are two principal classifications, namely casting alloys and wrought alloys, both of which are further subdivided into the categories...
215 engine. Oldsmobile's 215 engine, used in the F-85 Cutlass compact car
Compact car
A compact car , or small family car , is a classification of cars which are larger than a supermini but smaller than or equal to a mid-size car...
between 1961 and 1963, was abandoned by General Motors
General Motors
General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...
after production problems. Repco fitted their own cast iron
Cast iron
Cast iron is derived from pig iron, and while it usually refers to gray iron, it also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys which solidify with a eutectic. The color of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due...
cylinder liners into the Oldsmobile blocks, which were also stiffened with two Repco magnesium
Magnesium
Magnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg, atomic number 12, and common oxidation number +2. It is an alkaline earth metal and the eighth most abundant element in the Earth's crust and ninth in the known universe as a whole...
alloy castings and feature Repco-designed cylinder heads with chain-driven single overhead camshafts. The internals of the unit consist of a bespoke Laystall crankshaft
Crankshaft
The crankshaft, sometimes casually abbreviated to crank, is the part of an engine which translates reciprocating linear piston motion into rotation...
, Daimler
Daimler Motor Company
The Daimler Motor Company Limited was an independent British motor vehicle manufacturer founded in London by H J Lawson in 1896, which set up its manufacturing base in Coventry. The right to the use of the name Daimler had been purchased simultaneously from Gottlieb Daimler and Daimler Motoren...
connecting rod
Connecting rod
In a reciprocating piston engine, the connecting rod or conrod connects the piston to the crank or crankshaft. Together with the crank, they form a simple mechanism that converts linear motion into rotating motion....
s and specially cast piston
Piston
A piston is a component of reciprocating engines, reciprocating pumps, gas compressors and pneumatic cylinders, among other similar mechanisms. It is the moving component that is contained by a cylinder and is made gas-tight by piston rings. In an engine, its purpose is to transfer force from...
s. The cylinder head design means that the engine's exhaust pipes exit on the outer side of the block, and therefore pass through the spaceframe before tucking inside the rear suspension, a layout which complicated Tauranac's design work considerably. The engine is water-cooled, with oil and water radiators mounted in the nose.
The 620 engine was light for its time, weighing around 340 lb (154 kg), compared to 500 lb (227 kg) for the Maserati V12
V12 engine
A V12 engine is a V engine with 12 cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of six cylinders, usually but not always at a 60° angle to each other, with all 12 pistons driving a common crankshaft....
, but in 3 litre Formula One form only produced around 300 brake horsepower (220 kW
Watt
The watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units , named after the Scottish engineer James Watt . The unit, defined as one joule per second, measures the rate of energy conversion.-Definition:...
) at under 8000 revolutions per minute
Revolutions per minute
Revolutions per minute is a measure of the frequency of a rotation. It annotates the number of full rotations completed in one minute around a fixed axis...
(rpm), compared to 330–360 bhp (250–270 kW) produced by the Ferrari
Scuderia Ferrari
Scuderia Ferrari is the racing team division of the Ferrari automobile marque. The team currently only races in Formula One but has competed in numerous classes of motorsport since its formation in 1929, including sportscar racing....
and Maserati V12s. However, it produced high levels of torque
Torque
Torque, moment or moment of force , is the tendency of a force to rotate an object about an axis, fulcrum, or pivot. Just as a force is a push or a pull, a torque can be thought of as a twist....
over a wide range of engine speeds from 3500 rpm up to peak torque of 233 pound feet
Pound-foot (torque)
A pound-foot is a unit of torque . One pound-foot is the torque created by one pound force acting at a perpendicular distance of one foot from a pivot point....
(316 N·m
Newton metre
A newton metre is a unit of torque in the SI system. The symbolic form is N m or N·m, and sometimes hyphenated newton-metre...
) at 6500 rpm. Installed in the lightweight BT19 chassis, it was also relatively fuel efficient; on the car's debut Brabham reported that the BT19 achieved 7 miles per gallon (40 L/100 km), against figures of around 4 mpg (70 L/100 km) for its "more exotic rivals". This meant that it could start a Grand Prix with only 35 gallons (160 L) of fuel on board, compared to around 55 gallons (250 L) for the Cooper T81-Maseratis. The engine had one further advantage over bespoke racing engines: parts were cheap. For example, the engine blocks were available for GB£
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
11 each and the connecting rods cost £7 each.
The 740 series unit used in the three races for which the car was entered in 1967 has a different, lighter, Repco-designed engine block. It also has redesigned cylinder heads which, among other improvements, mean that its exhausts are mounted centrally and do not pass through the spaceframe or rear suspension, unlike those of the 620 series. It produced a maximum of 330 bhp.
The BT19 was initially fitted with a Hewland
Hewland
Founded by Mike Hewland in 1957, Hewland is a British engineering company specialising in racing-car gearboxes. Hewland was the first company to manufacture a bespoke racing-car gearbox....
HD (Heavy Duty) gearbox, originally designed for use with less powerful 2-litre engines. The greater power of the 3-litre Repco engine was more than the gearbox could reliably transmit when accelerating at full power from rest, with the result that Brabham normally made very gentle starts to avoid gearbox breakages. The HD was later replaced with the sturdier DG (Different Gearbox) design, produced at the request of both Brabham and Dan Gurney
Dan Gurney
Daniel Sexton Gurney is an American racing driver, race car constructor, and team owner.The son of a Metropolitan Opera star, he was born in Port Jefferson, New York, but moved to California as a teenager...
's Anglo American Racers
Anglo American Racers
All American Racers was an American auto racing team and constructor based in Santa Ana, California. Founded by Dan Gurney and Carroll Shelby in 1964, All American Racers initially participated in American sports car and Champ Car races as well as international Formula One events with cars named...
team. It later became a popular choice for other constructors.
Racing history
1966 South African Grand Prix
The 12th South African Grand Prix was a motor race, run to Formula One rules, held on 1 January 1966 at Prince George Circuit, East London, South Africa. The race was run over 60 laps of the circuit, and was won by British driver Mike Spence in a Lotus 33....
at East London on 1 January, BT19 was the only new 3-litre car present. It recorded the fastest time in the qualifying session before the race – therefore taking pole position
Pole position
The term "pole position", as used in motorsports, comes from the horse racing term where the number one starter starts on the inside next to the inside pole. The term made its way, along with several other customs, to auto racing. In circuit motorsports, a driver has pole position when he or she...
for the start of the race – and led the majority of the event before the fuel injection
Fuel injection
Fuel injection is a system for admitting fuel into an internal combustion engine. It has become the primary fuel delivery system used in automotive petrol engines, having almost completely replaced carburetors in the late 1980s....
pump seized. Similar problems stopped the car on the second lap of the Syracuse Grand Prix in Sicily, but at the International Trophy at the Silverstone circuit
Silverstone Circuit
Silverstone Circuit is an English motor racing circuit next to the Northamptonshire villages of Silverstone and Whittlebury. The circuit straddles the Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire border, with the current main circuit entry on the Buckinghamshire side...
, Brabham set pole position, a new lap record, and led the whole race to win ahead of 1964 champion John Surtees
John Surtees
John Surtees, OBE is a British former Grand Prix motorcycle road racer and Formula One driver from England. He was 500cc motorcycle World Champion in 1956 and 1958–60, Formula One World Champion in 1964, and remains the only person to have won World Championships on both two and four wheels...
in a 3-litre works Ferrari.
The 1966 world championship season opened with the Monaco Grand Prix
1966 Monaco Grand Prix
The 1966 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Circuit de Monaco on May 22, 1966. It was the opening round of the 1966 Formula One season, the first of a new era for Formula One, the 'return to power' as engine regulations were altered from 1.5 litres of maximum engine...
. Brabham was affected by a cold, and qualified poorly before retiring when the BT19's gearbox failed. Surtees led the race in his Ferrari before his differential failed on lap 15; the race was won by Jackie Stewart
Jackie Stewart
Sir John Young Stewart, OBE , better known as Jackie Stewart, and nicknamed The Flying Scotsman, is a Scottish former racing driver and team owner. He competed in Formula One between 1965 and 1973, winning three World Drivers' Championships. He also competed in Can-Am...
in a 2-litre BRM P261
BRM P261
The BRM P261, also known as the BRM P61 Mark II, is a Formula One motor racing car, designed and built by the British Racing Motors team in Bourne, Lincolnshire, England. The BRM P261 was introduced for the 1964 Formula One season, and its design was an evolution of Tony Rudd's one-off BRM P61 car of...
. At the following Belgian Grand Prix
1966 Belgian Grand Prix
The 1966 Belgian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Spa-Francorchamps on 12 June 1966. It was the second round of the 1966 Formula One season. The race was the 26th Belgian Grand Prix which to this point had only been held at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit...
at the Spa circuit
Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
The Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps is the venue of the Formula One Belgian Grand Prix and the Spa 24 Hours endurance race. It is also home to the all Volkswagen club event, 25 Hours of Spa, run by the Uniroyal Fun Cup. It is one of the most challenging race tracks in the world, mainly due to its...
, Brabham survived an enormous 135 miles per hour (215 km/h) slide in the rain on the first lap. The shower eliminated half the field, including Stewart, who would miss the next race with his injuries. The BT19, using Goodyear tyres that were not suited to the conditions, came home fourth of five classified finishers. Surtees won the race for Ferrari, the last before he quit the Italian team.
At the French Grand Prix
1966 French Grand Prix
The 1966 French Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Reims-Gueux on July 3, 1966. It was the '60th Anniversary race' of Grand Prix racing, which had started with the GP of France in 1906. It was the third round of the 1966 World Championship...
, held at the high speed Reims-Gueux
Reims-Gueux
Reims-Gueux was a triangular motor racing road course near Reims, France, which hosted 14 French Grands Prix.Reims-Gueux was first established in 1926 on the public roads between the small French villages of Thillois and Gueux. The circuit had two very long straights between the towns, and teams...
circuit, Brabham followed race leader Lorenzo Bandini
Lorenzo Bandini
Lorenzo Bandini was an Italian motor racing driver who raced in Formula One for the Scuderia Centro Sud and Ferrari teams.-Career:...
closely from the start of the race, using the slipstream
Drafting (racing)
Drafting or slipstreaming is a technique where two vehicles or other moving objects are caused to align in a close group reducing the overall effect of drag due to exploiting the lead object's slipstream...
of Bandini's more powerful Ferrari to tow him to up to 8 mph (13 km/h) faster down the straights than the BT19 could manage on its own. This allowed Brabham to consolidate his lead over Ferrari's second driver, Formula One novice Mike Parkes
Mike Parkes
Michael Johnson Parkes was an English racing driver.He participated in 7 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on July 18, 1959. He achieved two podiums, and scored a total of 14 championship points. He also secured one pole position...
. After 12 laps Bandini pulled away from Brabham, eventually by over 30 seconds, but when the Italian car was delayed by a broken throttle cable on lap 32, Brabham cruised to the finish to win from Parkes and become the first man to win a Formula One World Championship race in one of his own cars.
Although the first Brabham BT20, the definitive 1966 car, had been available at Reims, Brabham continued with the BT19 and used it to win the next three championship races. Ferrari, competitive in all three championship races to that point, were not present for the British Grand Prix
1966 British Grand Prix
The 1966 British Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Brands Hatch on July 16, 1966. It was the fourth round of the 1966 World Championship. It was the 21st British Grand Prix and the second to be held at Brands Hatch...
. The race was held on the tight and twisting Brands Hatch
Brands Hatch
Brands Hatch is a motor racing circuit near West Kingsdown in Kent, England. First used as a dirt track motorcycle circuit on farmland, it hosted 12 runnings of the British Grand Prix between 1964 and 1986 and currently holds many British and international racing events...
circuit, the track made slippery by oil leaking from other cars and by drizzle. Brabham set pole and led the entire race. At the next championship round, the Dutch Grand Prix
1966 Dutch Grand Prix
The 1966 Dutch Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Zandvoort on July 24, 1966. It was the fifth round of the 1966 World Championship. The race was the 16th Dutch Grand Prix since it was first held in 1948...
, Brabham reported the low speed Zandvoort
Zandvoort
Zandvoort is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland.Zandvoort is one of the major beach resorts of the Netherlands; it has a long sandy beach, bordered by coastal dunes...
circuit to be "even more oily and treacherous than Brands." Brabham won the race after Jim Clark
Jim Clark
James "Jim" Clark, Jr OBE was a British Formula One racing driver from Scotland, who won two World Championships, in 1963 and 1965....
's less powerful 2 litre Lotus 33
Lotus 33
The Lotus 33 designed by Colin Chapman, was a Formula One car built by Team Lotus. Its development was based on the earlier Lotus 25 model, taking the monocoque chassis design to new development heights. The 33 was again powered by the 1500 cc Climax engine. The 33 was almost identical to the 25,...
-Climax, which had passed Brabham for the lead mid-race, was delayed by overheating problems. The German Grand Prix
1966 German Grand Prix
The 1966 German Grand Prix was a mixed Formula One and Formula Two motor race held at the Nürburgring Nordschleife on August 7, 1966. It was the sixth round of the 1966 World Championship. It was the 28th German Grand Prix and the 22nd to be held at the Nordschleife...
was held at the Nürburgring
Nürburgring
The Nürburgring is a motorsport complex around the village of Nürburg, Germany. It features a modern Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a much longer old North loop track which was built in the 1920s around the village and medieval castle of Nürburg in the Eifel mountains. It is located about...
Nordschleife, which Brabham described as "Brands Hatch on steroids". On the opening lap Brabham took the lead from Surtees, now driving a Cooper-Maserati. Brabham won after a race-long fight with the Englishman in the rain. With four wins and more finishes than any of his championship rivals, Brabham had a 22 point lead in the drivers championship and could only be caught in the championship by Surtees or Stewart if one of them won all three of the remaining races.
Jack Brabham used BT19 again at the Italian Grand Prix
1966 Italian Grand Prix
The 1966 Italian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Monza on September 4, 1966. It was the seventh round of the 1966 World Championship. The race was the 36th Italian Grand Prix and the 32nd to be held at Monza...
at Monza
Autodromo Nazionale Monza
The Autodromo Nazionale Monza is a race track located near the town of Monza, north of Milan, in Italy. The circuit's biggest event is the Formula One Italian Grand Prix, which has been hosted there since the sport's inception....
, another high speed circuit. A second BT20 was completed at the Italian track and Brabham tried it in practice for the race, but decided to race his Old Nail, which he felt was fitted with a stronger engine. As at Reims, Brabham successfully slipstreamed the race leaders early on, but an oil leakage stopped the car after 8 laps. Neither Surtees nor Stewart finished the race and Brabham clinched his third world championship.
Brabham used the BT19 once more that season to take pole position and victory at the non-championship Oulton Park Gold Cup, before using a new BT20 for the final two races of the championship season. The BT19 was used again at three of the first four championship races in the 1967 Formula One season
1967 Formula One season
The 1967 Formula One season was the 18th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1967 World Championship of Drivers and the 1967 International Cup for F1 Manufacturers, contested concurrently over an eleven race series which commenced on January 2, 1967, and ended on October 22...
, debuting the new Repco 740 engine at the Monaco Grand Prix
1967 Monaco Grand Prix
The 1967 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One race held at Monaco on May 7, 1967.- Race report :The opening few laps were eventful - Jack Brabham spun in front of Bruce McLaren and Jo Siffert who collided taking avoiding action, whilst Jim Clark had to take to the escape road.Jackie Stewart swept...
, where it took pole position, and finishing second at the Dutch Grand Prix
1967 Dutch Grand Prix
The 1967 Dutch Grand Prix was a Formula One race held at Zandvoort on June 4, 1967.The race saw the debut of the Ford Cosworth DFV engine, in Jim Clark and Graham Hill's Lotuses.- Classification :-Notes:*Pole position: Graham Hill - 1:24.6...
.
Commenting on the reasons for the unexpected competitiveness of the 1966 Brabham-Repcos in Formula One, motorsport historian Doug Nye has suggested that they "could score on weight over the more powerful Ferrari, BRM, Cooper-Maserati, Eagle-Weslake and Honda in their undeveloped forms, and on sheer 'grunt' over such interim stop-gap cars as the nimble 2-litre Climax and BRM V8-engined Lotus 33s and BRMs."
BT19 also competed in the final two races of the 1965/66 Tasman Series
Tasman Series
The Tasman Series was a motor racing series held from 1964 to 1975, in Australia and New Zealand, and named after the Tasman Sea between the two countries...
in Australia, which was run to the pre-1961 Formula One regulations, including an engine capacity limit of 2.5 litres. Tasman racing was the original purpose of the Repco engine and Brabham's involvement was supposed to promote the 2.5-litre version. Frank Hallam, head of the Repco-Brabham organisation responsible for designing and building the Repco engines, has said that the smaller version "never put out the power per litre that the 3 litre engine produced", which itself was not a powerful unit. Fitted with the 2.5-litre engine BT19 recorded one retirement and a third place in the series.
Demonstrations
Management buyout
A management buyout is a form of acquisition where a company's existing managers acquire a large part or all of the company.- Overview :Management buyouts are similar in all major legal aspects to any other acquisition of a company...
of Engine Parts Group, which included the transfer of the BT19 to the new company. Since its restoration, the car has frequently been demonstrated at events, including the first Australian Grands Prix
Australian Grand Prix
The Australian Grand Prix is a motor race held annually and is held to be the pinnacle of motor racing in Australia. The Grand Prix is the oldest surviving motor racing competition held in Australia having been held 76 times since it was first run at Phillip Island in 1928. Since 1985 the race has...
to be held on the Adelaide
Adelaide Street Circuit
The Adelaide Street Circuit is a temporary street circuit in the East Parklands adjacent to the central business district of the city of Adelaide in South Australia....
(1985
1985 Australian Grand Prix
The 1985 Australian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held in Adelaide on November 3, 1985. It was the sixteenth and final race of the 1985 Formula One season....
) and Melbourne
Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit
The Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit is a street circuit around Albert Park Lake, only a few kilometres south of central Melbourne. It is used annually as a racetrack for the Australian Grand Prix and associated support races.-Design:...
(1996
1996 Australian Grand Prix
The 1996 Australian Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on 10 March 1996 at Melbourne. It was the first time this race was held in Melbourne since 1984, taking over from Adelaide as the host of the Australian Grand Prix...
) street circuits. It also appeared at the 2004 Goodwood Revival
Goodwood Revival
The Goodwood Revival is a three-day festival held each September since 1998 for the types of road racing cars and motorcycle that would have competed during the circuit's original period—1948-1966. It is one of the world’s most popular motor race meetings and the only UK event which recreates the...
meeting in the United Kingdom. ACL sold the car back to Repco in 2004. In 2008 the car was installed in the Australian National Sports Museum at the Melbourne Cricket Ground
Melbourne Cricket Ground
The Melbourne Cricket Ground is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne and is home to the Melbourne Cricket Club. It is the tenth largest stadium in the world, the largest in Australia, the largest stadium for playing cricket, and holds the world record for the highest light...
, on loan from Repco.
In 2002, at the inaugural Speed on Tweed
Speed on Tweed
Speed on Tweed is an annual historic motor racing festival held in the Northern Rivers town of Murwillumbah in New South Wales, Australia. The event is modelled on Goodwood Festival of Speed and has consistently attracted the best historic racing cars in Australia and from overseas to visit the...
historic meeting at Murwillumbah, Brabham, then 76, commented: "It's been a wonderful car over the years and it's been very well looked after and it's a pleasure to come and drive it. Coming to Murwillumbah was a really good excuse to get back in the car and drive it again and I'm afraid that's something I'll never ever get tired of."
Formula One World Championship
(results in bold indicate pole position)| Year | Team | Engine | Tyres | Drivers | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | Points | WCC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brabham Racing Organisation | Repco Repco Repco is an Australian automotive engineering company. Its name is an abbreviation of Replacement Parts Company and it is best known for spare parts and motor accessories.... V8 V8 engine A V8 engine is a V engine with eight cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of four cylinders, in most cases set at a right angle to each other but sometimes at a narrower angle, with all eight pistons driving a common crankshaft.... |
MON 1966 Monaco Grand Prix The 1966 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Circuit de Monaco on May 22, 1966. It was the opening round of the 1966 Formula One season, the first of a new era for Formula One, the 'return to power' as engine regulations were altered from 1.5 litres of maximum engine... |
BEL 1966 Belgian Grand Prix The 1966 Belgian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Spa-Francorchamps on 12 June 1966. It was the second round of the 1966 Formula One season. The race was the 26th Belgian Grand Prix which to this point had only been held at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit... |
FRA 1966 French Grand Prix The 1966 French Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Reims-Gueux on July 3, 1966. It was the '60th Anniversary race' of Grand Prix racing, which had started with the GP of France in 1906. It was the third round of the 1966 World Championship... |
GBR 1966 British Grand Prix The 1966 British Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Brands Hatch on July 16, 1966. It was the fourth round of the 1966 World Championship. It was the 21st British Grand Prix and the second to be held at Brands Hatch... |
NED 1966 Dutch Grand Prix The 1966 Dutch Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Zandvoort on July 24, 1966. It was the fifth round of the 1966 World Championship. The race was the 16th Dutch Grand Prix since it was first held in 1948... |
GER 1966 German Grand Prix The 1966 German Grand Prix was a mixed Formula One and Formula Two motor race held at the Nürburgring Nordschleife on August 7, 1966. It was the sixth round of the 1966 World Championship. It was the 28th German Grand Prix and the 22nd to be held at the Nordschleife... |
ITA 1966 Italian Grand Prix The 1966 Italian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Monza on September 4, 1966. It was the seventh round of the 1966 World Championship. The race was the 36th Italian Grand Prix and the 32nd to be held at Monza... |
USA 1966 United States Grand Prix The 1966 United States Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on October 2, 1966 at the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course in Watkins Glen, New York.__FORCETOC__-Summary:... |
MEX 1966 Mexican Grand Prix The 1966 Mexican Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on October 23, 1966. It was the ninth and final round of the 1966 World Championship. The race was the fifth Mexican Grand Prix... |
39 | 1st | |||||
| Jack Brabham Jack Brabham Sir John Arthur "Jack" Brabham, AO, OBE is an Australian former racing driver who was Formula One champion in , and . He was a founder of the Brabham racing team and race car constructor that bore his name.... |
Ret | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Ret | ||||||||||
| Brabham Racing Organisation | Repco Repco Repco is an Australian automotive engineering company. Its name is an abbreviation of Replacement Parts Company and it is best known for spare parts and motor accessories.... V8 V8 engine A V8 engine is a V engine with eight cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of four cylinders, in most cases set at a right angle to each other but sometimes at a narrower angle, with all eight pistons driving a common crankshaft.... |
RSA 1967 South African Grand Prix The 1967 South African Grand Prix was a Formula One race held at Kyalami on January 2, 1967.- Race report :For the first time, the Kyalami circuit near Johannesburg was being used. There were some changes in the driver line-ups: John Surtees was driving for Honda, Mike Spence signed for BRM whilst... |
MON 1967 Monaco Grand Prix The 1967 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One race held at Monaco on May 7, 1967.- Race report :The opening few laps were eventful - Jack Brabham spun in front of Bruce McLaren and Jo Siffert who collided taking avoiding action, whilst Jim Clark had to take to the escape road.Jackie Stewart swept... |
NED 1967 Dutch Grand Prix The 1967 Dutch Grand Prix was a Formula One race held at Zandvoort on June 4, 1967.The race saw the debut of the Ford Cosworth DFV engine, in Jim Clark and Graham Hill's Lotuses.- Classification :-Notes:*Pole position: Graham Hill - 1:24.6... |
BEL 1967 Belgian Grand Prix The 1967 Belgian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Spa-Francorchamps on June 18, 1967.- Race report :Jim Clark led off the grid from pole position and maintained that position for the first 11 laps and was 20 seconds ahead of Jackie Stewart and Dan Gurney when he had to come into the... |
FRA 1967 French Grand Prix The 1967 French Grand Prix was a Formula One race held at the Bugatti Circuit, Le Mans on July 2, 1967.- Race report :The new Bugatti circuit used the main pit straight at Le Mans, but then used an infield section comprising several second and third gear corners, which was universally unpopular... |
GBR 1967 British Grand Prix The 1967 British Grand Prix was a Formula One race held at Silverstone on July 15, 1967.- Classification :-Standings after the race:Drivers' Championship standingsConstructors' Championship standings... |
GER 1967 German Grand Prix The 1967 German Grand Prix was a Formula One race held at the Nürburgring on August 6, 1967.- Classification :Note: The race was run with both Formula One and Formula Two cars running together... |
CAN 1967 Canadian Grand Prix The 1967 Canadian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Mosport Park on August 27, 1967. The race was won by Jack Brabham driving for his own Brabham team.... |
ITA 1967 Italian Grand Prix The 1967 Italian Grand Prix was a Formula One race held at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza on September 10, 1967. It was won by British driver John Surtees driving a Honda RA300. Jim Clark led the race until a little after the half way point when he picked up a puncture and lost an entire lap. He... |
USA 1967 United States Grand Prix The 1967 United States Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on October 1, 1967 at the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course in Watkins Glen, New York.__FORCETOC__-Summary:... |
MEX 1967 Mexican Grand Prix The 1967 Mexican Grand Prix was a Formula One held at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on October 22, 1967.- Classification :- Notes :* Pole position: Jim Clark - 1:47.56* Fastest Lap: Jim Clark - 1:48.13... |
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| Jack Brabham Jack Brabham Sir John Arthur "Jack" Brabham, AO, OBE is an Australian former racing driver who was Formula One champion in , and . He was a founder of the Brabham racing team and race car constructor that bore his name.... |
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| Denny Hulme Denny Hulme Denis Clive "Denny" Hulme, OBE was a New Zealand racing driver, the 1967 Formula One World Champion for the Brabham team.... |
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Non Championship results
| Year | Event | Venue | Driver | Result | Category | Report |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1966 | South African Grand Prix South African Grand Prix The South African Grand Prix was first run as a Grand Prix motor racing handicap race in 1934 at the Prince George Circuit at East London, Eastern Cape Province... |
East London Prince George Circuit Prince George Circuit is a race circuit in East London in Eastern Cape Province, South Africa.Opened in the 1930s, it hosted the South African Grand Prix in 1934, and 1936 to 1939 when racing was halted due to World War II. Modified to meet Formula One regulations in 1959, the track was built into... |
Jack Brabham Jack Brabham Sir John Arthur "Jack" Brabham, AO, OBE is an Australian former racing driver who was Formula One champion in , and . He was a founder of the Brabham racing team and race car constructor that bore his name.... |
Ret | Formula One Formula One Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which... |
Report 1966 South African Grand Prix The 12th South African Grand Prix was a motor race, run to Formula One rules, held on 1 January 1966 at Prince George Circuit, East London, South Africa. The race was run over 60 laps of the circuit, and was won by British driver Mike Spence in a Lotus 33.... |
| 1966 | Sandown Park Cup | Sandown Sandown Raceway Sandown International Raceway is a motor racing circuit in Melbourne, Victoria, approximately south east of the city centre. It is considered a power circuit with its front straight being 899m long and back straight 910m long.-History:... |
Jack Brabham Jack Brabham Sir John Arthur "Jack" Brabham, AO, OBE is an Australian former racing driver who was Formula One champion in , and . He was a founder of the Brabham racing team and race car constructor that bore his name.... |
Ret | Tasman Series Tasman Series The Tasman Series was a motor racing series held from 1964 to 1975, in Australia and New Zealand, and named after the Tasman Sea between the two countries... |
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| 1966 | South Pacific Trophy | Longford Longford Circuit The Longford Circuit was a temporary motor racing course laid out on public roads at Longford, south-west of Launceston in Tasmania, Australia... |
Jack Brabham Jack Brabham Sir John Arthur "Jack" Brabham, AO, OBE is an Australian former racing driver who was Formula One champion in , and . He was a founder of the Brabham racing team and race car constructor that bore his name.... |
3 | Tasman Series Tasman Series The Tasman Series was a motor racing series held from 1964 to 1975, in Australia and New Zealand, and named after the Tasman Sea between the two countries... |
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| 1966 | Syracuse Grand Prix 1966 Syracuse Grand Prix The 15th Syracuse Grand Prix was a motor race, run to Formula One rules, held on 1 May 1966 at Syracuse Circuit, Sicily. The race was run over 56 laps of the circuit, and was won by British driver John Surtees in a Ferrari 312.... |
Syracuse Circuit | Jack Brabham Jack Brabham Sir John Arthur "Jack" Brabham, AO, OBE is an Australian former racing driver who was Formula One champion in , and . He was a founder of the Brabham racing team and race car constructor that bore his name.... |
Ret | Formula One Formula One Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which... |
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| 1966 | BRDC International Trophy BRDC International Trophy The International Trophy is a prize awarded annually by the British Racing Drivers' Club to the winner of a motor race held at the Silverstone Circuit, England... |
Silverstone Silverstone Circuit Silverstone Circuit is an English motor racing circuit next to the Northamptonshire villages of Silverstone and Whittlebury. The circuit straddles the Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire border, with the current main circuit entry on the Buckinghamshire side... |
Jack Brabham Jack Brabham Sir John Arthur "Jack" Brabham, AO, OBE is an Australian former racing driver who was Formula One champion in , and . He was a founder of the Brabham racing team and race car constructor that bore his name.... |
1 | Formula One Formula One Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which... |
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| 1966 | 10 Lap Racing Car Event | Surfers Paradise | Jack Brabham Jack Brabham Sir John Arthur "Jack" Brabham, AO, OBE is an Australian former racing driver who was Formula One champion in , and . He was a founder of the Brabham racing team and race car constructor that bore his name.... |
DNF | Formula Libre Formula Libre Formula Libre is a form of automobile racing allowing a wide variety of types, ages and makes of purpose-built racing cars to compete "head to head". This can make for some interesting matchups, and provides the opportunity for some compelling driving performances against superior machinery... † |
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| 1966 | Oulton Park Gold Cup | Oulton Park Oulton Park Oulton Park Circuit is a motor racing track in the small village of Little Budworth, Cheshire, England. It is about from Winsford, from Chester city centre, from Northwich and from Warrington with a nearby rail connection along the Mid-Cheshire Line. It occupies much of the area which was... |
Jack Brabham Jack Brabham Sir John Arthur "Jack" Brabham, AO, OBE is an Australian former racing driver who was Formula One champion in , and . He was a founder of the Brabham racing team and race car constructor that bore his name.... |
1 | Formula One Formula One Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which... |
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| 1967 | Oulton Park Gold Cup | Oulton Park Oulton Park Oulton Park Circuit is a motor racing track in the small village of Little Budworth, Cheshire, England. It is about from Winsford, from Chester city centre, from Northwich and from Warrington with a nearby rail connection along the Mid-Cheshire Line. It occupies much of the area which was... |
Frank Gardner Frank Gardner (driver) Frank Gardner OAM was a racing driver from Australia. He was best known as a Touring car racing and Sports car racing driver. He also participated in nine World Championship Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on 11 July 1964. He scored no championship points... |
Ret | Formula One Formula One Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which... |
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| 1967 | Spanish Grand Prix Spanish Grand Prix The Spanish Grand Prix is a Formula One race currently held at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain, as part of the annual Formula One championship season.-History:... |
Jarama Circuito Permanente Del Jarama The Circuito del Jarama , formerly known as Circuito Permanente del Jarama is a race course in Madrid, Spain which has hosted nine Formula One Spanish Grand Prix.... |
Jack Brabham Jack Brabham Sir John Arthur "Jack" Brabham, AO, OBE is an Australian former racing driver who was Formula One champion in , and . He was a founder of the Brabham racing team and race car constructor that bore his name.... |
3 | Formula One Formula One Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which... |
Report 1967 Spanish Grand Prix The 1967 Spanish Grand Prix was a Formula One non-championship race held at Jarama on November 12, 1967.This race was held because at that time the FIA regulations required a demonstration race to be held as a quality check, before a Grand Prix was admitted as a championship race.- Classification... |
† This race was a support to the 1966 Surfers Paradise Trophy, 14 August 1966
External links
- www.abc.com.au ABC interview with Jack Brabham on his championship win with the BT19.
- www.flickr.com Recent pictures of the BT19.