primotipo…

One for the Repco Brabham Engines diehards…

Not that it’s about racing at all. These pages from the Christmas 1964 issue of Repco Record, Repco Ltd’s in-house staff magazine, make it crystal clear exactly when Repco commenced their European operations in London on August 1, 1957.

Mind you, that might not be correct. The History of Repco records that Rob Paddon first hung up a shingle at 59 James Street in the West End in 1954. ‘That started with the bold move of joining the UK’s Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders that year. Membership enabled Repco to exhibit at the earls Court Motor Show from 1957.’

I’d always thought Repco’s arrival in the UK was ‘hand in glove’ at about the time the Repco-Brabham branding of Motor Racing Developments Ltd’s racing cars occurred circa-1963. Not so, Repco popped a stake in the ground much earlier.

The global expansion dealt with on the published pages indicates the good marketing sense of the tie-up with Jack Brabham and Ron Tauranac given the international nature of motor racing and therefore the brand-building available to Repco by hitching themselves to Brabham’s coat-tails.

A little later still, Repco’s engineering skills were laid bare – revealing that they weren’t just a sponsor’s name on the nose of Brabham racing cars – for all to see when Repco’s family of 2.5-5-litre racing V8s took to the circuits from January 1966.

So, this stuff is contextual, not racing as such, and is popped up here to be on the public record.

Credits…

Repco Record courtesy of the Bob King Collection

Tailpiece…

Finito…