It looks pretty good to me, not exactly Margaret River, but hey, what’s all this nonsense about the grim North Sea?
Jack Brabham was never the life of the party, seemingly, but he had a pretty good sense of humour, here making his way to the grid for the 1966 Dutch Grand Prix and addressing head-on media comments about his advancing years, complete with ‘walking stick’ and beard. He had turned 40 on April 2, like a fine wine he got better really, not too many of the over-40s won races in their final season, 1970 in Jack’s case. Ignoring the occasional touring car outings back in Australia.
He had the last laugh too, he had won the previous two Grands Prix in France and the UK and was on the-roll that delivered his third World Drivers Championship that year. He beat Graham Hill, BRM P261, and Jim Clark, Lotus 33 Climax to win at Zandvoort, then repeated the victorious dose at the Nurburgring a fortnight later. See here for a piece on his ’66 championship year; https://primotipo.com/2014/11/13/winning-the-1966-world-f1-championships-rodways-repco-recollections-episode-3/
BT19 F1-1-65 defines simplicity.
Spaceframe chassis, and a repurposed one at that, Alford and Alder (Triumph) front uprights and povvo Repco RB620 290-310bhp, SOHC two-valve, Lucas injected V8 with a block donated by an Oldsmobile roadie. Can’t be true, surely? It’s an unusual angle of Jack’s weapon of war for 95% of 1966 in Tasman 2.5 and F1 3-litre Repco guises, it raced on towards the end of ‘67 too, no rest for the wicked, World Champ or otherwise.
Credits…
wfooshee, Bernard Cahier-Getty Images, MotorSport Images
Tailpiece…
Brabham rounding up Guy Ligier’s Cooper T81 Maserati V12, he was ninth and last, six laps adrift of the winner. At the end of the season Jack sold Guy one of BRO’s Brabham BT20 Repcos (Denny’s F1-2-66), so impressed was the rugby-international watching them go past at close quarters that season.
Finito…
primotipo... 