Posts Tagged ‘Jack Brabham’

Jack Brabham and Matra…

Posted: October 25, 2025 in Features, Sports Racers
Tags: , , , , , ,
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(unattributed)

Jack Brabham’s screaming Matra MS650 3-litre V12 and the rumbling Henry Greder/Jean-Pierre Rouget Chev Corvette 7-litre V8 (eighth) blast past the Le Mans pits during the 1970 Le Mans 24-Hour on June 13-14.

By all accounts, the triple world champ enjoyed his races with Matra on an all care and no responsibility basis rather than his chief cook and bottle washer responsibilities at Motor Racing Developments and the Brabham Racing Organisation, with all due deference to Ron Tauranac

He shared Le Mans mount with young French thruster, Francois Cevert, who, in addition to his endurance responsibilities, took his GP debut aboard a Tyrrell March 701 Ford that year. They failed to finish at La Sarthe, as did the other MS650s raced by Jean Pierre Jabouille/Francois Cevert and Henri Pescarolo/Jean-Pierre Beltoise; a real who’s-who of French GP winning drivers of the mid-late 1970s.

Up the front, Hans Hermann and Richard Attwood took Porsche’s first outright win aboard a 4.5-litre Porsche Salzburg 917K; the best of the 3-litre cars was the Martini 908/02 raced by Rudy Lins and Helmut Marko.

Brabham and topless Cevert watch as Bruno Morin hand on wing, Philippe Chasselut engine man, in checked shirt standing, Georges Martin crouching, with Guy Prat behind him in the Elf jacket, Gerard Ducarouge also crouching at right, behind him is Dominique Codreanu, with the head leaning in front of the gendarmes Michel Polard (J-P Fabre Collection)
Brabham ahead of Derek Bell’s works Ferrari 512S during the long Le Mans night (LAT)

That year, Brabham and Dan Gurney were the two GP winners on the Equipe Matra-Elf endurance program payroll. It would be fascinating to know what those two senior citizens and noted driver/engineers thought of the Matras overall and especially its two key constituent parts: the chassis and engine. Do any of you Frenchies have anything documented in relation to this? Dan only did Sebring but Jack did the season, enough to have provided input into the development direction of the cars.

Jack on the Daytona banking, just imagine the sound of that fabulous raucous V12 echoing around its vast confines! (unattributed)
That’s the rather talented Gerard Ducarouge and Jack at Daytona, Jack and Francois were tenth in the race won by the Pedro Rodriguez/Leo Kinnunen Gulf-Wyer Porsche 917K

The best results for Matra’s sports car squad that year were wins for the MS630/650 in the 1000 km of Buenos Aires-Beltoise/Pescarolo, for the MS650 in the Tour de France-Beltoise/Depailler/Jean Todt and for the MS660 at the 1000 km Paris at Montlhery-Brabham/Cevert.

Brabham had been under pressure from his wife, Betty, to retire for several years. He would have too, had Jochen Rindt returned to Brabham for the 1970 season, but Chapman offered him the earth, moon and stars to stay at Lotus, so Jack tore up the Austrian’s contract and convinced Betty he had to do one last season. Further proof of Jack’s intent was that he had sold his stakes in BRO and MRD before the end of 1969.

Doug Nye advises that when Jack’s father tapped him on the shoulder and called time, that was decisive…So Jack fitted as much as he could into that final pro-season: F1 with BRO, some F2 – John Coombs Brabham BT30 – and endurance racing with Matra.

Brabham, MS650 during the Brands 1000 km, noting the wing in search of more front bite, and the car’s rear below (M Charles)
(A Damfreville)

Jack opened his Matra racing account at Daytona on February 1, where he and Cevert were 10th at the start of a season of utter domination by Porsche.

Where the 12-cylinder 917Ks didn’t win, the flat-eight 908/03 did, except Sebring, where the Ferrari 512S driven by Ignazio Giunti, Nino Vaccarella and Mario Andretti prevailed. Porsche won the International Championship of Makes, 63 points to Ferrari’s 37, Alfa Romeo’s 10 (T33/3 3-litre V8) and Matra-Simca’s four.

Brabham was pretty chipper at Brands Hatch on April 12 as he had won the South African Grand Prix in early March, showing the new breed – the array of 1970 F1 newbees included Emerson Fittipaldi, Francois Cevert, Ronnie Peterson and Clay Regazzoni – there was life in the old dog yet!

He was paired with JPB in an MS650 in the Brands 1000 km, the pair finishing 12th, 34 laps adrift of Pedro Rodriguez, who blew the minds of onlookers with his handling of the JW Automotive Porsche 917K in the most atrocious weather conditions.

Brabham in the MS650 he shared with JPB at the April 25 Monza 1000 km in 1970. Aerospace company knew a thing or two about aerodynamics. This angle allows a good look at what they thought worked, the only tacked-on ‘appendage’ is the front wing, that seems to be unique to this particular chassis
MS650 at Monza in 1970. The Matra 3-litre V12 in MS12 endurance spec gave about 410 bhp @ 10400 rpm

The same duo were fifth in the Monza 1000 km, then came Le Mans, and that season-ending Paris 1000 Kilometres win for Jack and Cevert at Montlhery on October 18. The Aussie-Franco duo won this non-International Championship of Makes round aboard a new MS660 monocoque by three laps from the Jose Juncadera/Jean-Pierre Jabouille Ferrari 512S and the Larrouse/Chasseuil/Ballot-Lena Porsche 908/02. More about their Montlhery victory here:https://primotipo.com/2016/09/09/jack-and-francois-matra-ms660/

It was Jack’s final pro-race win, as against mucking around in touring cars in Australia in the mid-late 1970s, he ‘retired’ after the Mexican Grand Prix on October 25, so that Montlhery win would always have been memorable as he very soon felt, strolling around his Wagga Wagga paddocks and Bankstown Ford dealership, that he had retired too early…

I’m not so sure about that. He is one of the few who retired at the top of his game; had fortune favoured him, he would have won the Monaco and British Grands Prix, if not one or two others that season. His timing was immaculate…and he was alive.

Beltoise/Pescarolo Matra M630 Ford, Montlhery, Paris 1000 km, October 1967 DNF gearbox (Matra)

Matra M630-MS650…

Matra entered racing with the F3 monocoque MS1 in 1965, the MS3 Djet was their first sports car launched the same year, whereas their first sports-racer, the MS4/620, was built in 1966. More about the MS620 here:https://primotipo.com/2015/11/15/matra-m620-brm-le-mans-1966/

The MS630 spaceframe coupe succeeded it in 1967, and was powered by a 2-litre P60 BRM V8 as a prototype (all three ’66 Le Mans entries DNF) and with a Ford 289/4.7-litre V8 as a sports car. In 1968, it raced as a 3-litre prototype fitted with Matra’s new V12 engine. While both cars again failed to finish the all-important race at Le Mans, Q4 and Q5 were indicative of race pace.

For 1969, chief engineer Bernard Boyer designed and built the MS640 coupe and MS650 spyder around the same key components inclusive of the MS630 spaceframe chassis but fitted with a comprehensive evolution of the V12 engine.

The MS12 had relocated intake ports which had been placed between the camshafts on the 1968 MS9. The MS12 ports were within the 60-degree Vee, a more conventional ‘crossflow’ position. Twin camshafts actuated four valves per cylinder and Lucas fuel injection was retained. The endurance spec engines were slightly detuned in comparison to Matra’s F1 units and produced about 410 bhp at 10,400 rpm. A robust ZF five-speed transaxle was also specified.

The Guichet/Vaccarella M630 Coupe ahead of the Courage/Beltoise MS650 at Tertre Rouge during Le Mans 1969 (unattributed)
MS9 Matra V12 in the Guichet/Vaccarella MS8/M630 at Le Mans in 1969 (A Damfreville)

The MS640 Coupe was ready for the Le Mans test on March 30. The striking car featured a very curvaceous, slippery body, inclusive of a pair of tail-mounted vertical fins and partially enclosed rear wheels.

While Choulet’s body was slippery, it produced bulk lift over 300 km/h, the Matra got away from Henri Pescarolo before he had done many laps. He escaped from a massive accident with ‘only’ serious burns, but that chassis was destroyed, and the other MS640 was probably rebuilt as an MS650 spyder.

Matra MS20/640, early test with Henri Pescarolo in 1969, venue folks? (F Hurel)
Piers Courage looks pretty happy with fourth place at Le Mans in 1969, MS650. Didn’t he have a sensational F1 year with Frank Williams’ Brabham BT26 Ford (Matra)

At Le Mans, Matra entered and raced a 1968 spec M630 Coupe, a pair of M630/650 hybrids and a new MS650. The updated 1968 cars and MS650 were fitted with spyder/roadster bodies that were low, wide, long-tailed and incorporated a small rear spoiler; learnings from Pesca’s accident.

Piers Courage and Jean-Pierre Beltoise raced the MS650 from grid 12, while one of the M630/650s was a bit quicker and started eleventh. The JPB/Courage MS650 was fourth, the Jean Guichet/Nino Vaccarella MS630 fifth, and the surviving Nanni Galli/Robin Widdows M630/650 was seventh.

Following Le Mans, the MS650 and an M630/650 were raced in select rounds of the World Championship, with the first real success at the Paris 1000 km at Montlhéry, where Jean-Pierre Beltoise and Henri Pescarolo drove the MS650 to victory, followed home by the MS630/650 crewed by Pedro Rodriguez and Brian Redman.

Beltoise/Pescarolo MS630/650 winners in the Paris 1000 km Montlhery 1969 (P Vauvert)
Two more Daytona shots help us with the MS650’s (M Lebold)
Brabham chopped and changed his helmets in 1970 between ye-olde-faithful Bell Magnum, as here, a Bell Star, and US military-derived Gentex SPH-4 (L Galanos)

Two further MS650s were produced and campaigned at Sebring, Daytona, Brands Hatch, Monza, and Le Mans during 1970.

Given the pace of other 3-litre prototypes: Porsche 908, Alfa Romeo T33 and Ferrari 312P Matra’s the MS650 raced at Le Mans alongside its replacement MS660 (Beltoise/Pescarolo DNF gearbox). While outwardly similar, it featured an all-new aluminium monocoque chassis. It was a step forward, but it took the 5-litre to 3-litre engine regulation change for the new for 1972 Matra MS670 to deliver the goods at Le Mans from 1972-74.

Henri Pescarolo on the way to 1972 Le Mans victory aboard a Matra MS670 shared with Graham Hill. A great day for France (LAT)

Etcetera…

(A Damfreville)

Matra MS620 (MS620-01) BRM 2-litre V8 during the April 3, 1966 Le Mans test weekend.

Matra Sports Type List and Designations

MS630 and a couple of MS7 Ford FVA F2 cars. Perhaps, thanks to reader, ‘Pete, ‘it looks like the location might be Marigny airport (in the Champagne-Ardenne region of France) where they did testing ahead of Le Mans.’

(Matra)

1970 Le Mans pit panorama.

#32 is the Brabham/Cevert MS650, #31 the Beltoise/Pescarolo MS660 DNF transmission in the seventh hour. The other obscured MS650 was raced by Patrick Depailler/Jean-Pierre Jabouille/Tim Schenken, it too was out in the seventh hour with an engine problem. If my memory of a conversation with Tim serves, he did very few practice laps and didn’t get a steer in the race.

Let’s not forget that Matra – Matra MS80 Ford – were the reigning World F1 Champions in 1970, both Constructors and Drivers.

This Elf PR session at Montlhery in October 1969 shows Jackie Stewart in his 1969 World Championship winning MS80 Ford DFV from Henri Pescarolo’s MS7 Ford FVA F2 car, then Jean-Pierre Beltoise aboard an MS650, then, perhaps Johnny Servoz-Gavin, MS630/650 and finally an MS630…

Matra @ random here:https://primotipo.com/2023/09/19/matra-random/ the early single-seaters here:https://primotipo.com/2019/05/24/surtees-matra-1966-and-thereabouts/ Matra and Stewart’s ’69 World Championship here:https://primotipo.com/2016/07/01/matra-ms80-ford/ Not to forget the F1 MS120 here:https://primotipo.com/2014/07/06/venetia-day-and-the-1970-matra-ms120/ and yes, I am a biased Matra devotee!

Credits…

Eric della Faille, Jean-Pierre Fabre Collection, Francois Hurel, Michel Charles, Marc Lebold, Revs Institute, Antoine Damfreville, Louis Galanos, Patrick Vauvert, Matra Sports Facebook group, F2Index-Fastlane, racingsportscars.com

Finito…

Brabham’s Cooper Bristol Take 5…

Posted: January 17, 2025 in Features
Tags: , , , , ,
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Jack and Betty Brabham during the 1954 Australian Grand Prix weekend in the Southport paddock attending to the needs of Jack’s Cooper T23 Bristol.

I’ve done Cooper Bristols to death but these two colour shots of Jack are the earliest I’ve seen – Kodachrome at its best – so I thought I’d pop them up rather than add them to an existing post and effectively lose them.

Brabham had a lousy weekend in Southport, out with engine troubles on lap 2. Lex Davison won the race in his HWM Jaguar after Stan Jones suffered a chassis weld failure that pitched him off the road and through the undergrowth, killing the car but thankfully not its intrepid driver.

Brabham at Mount Druitt, the youngster is a youthful Pete Geoghegan (D Willis)
(LAT)

CB/Mk2/1/53 was pretty trick by this stage, where is the photo above folks?

Jack had been racing it for a couple of years and made some modifications – some suggested by British mechanic/engineer Frank Ashby who was then living at Whale Beach on Sydney’s Barrenjoey Peninsula – including fitment of triple Stromberg carbs instead of the usual trio of Zeniths and taking bulk weight off the Bristol engine’s flywheel by adapting a Harley Davidson type clutch as used on his speedcar, and extensive machining. The Stromberg BXOV-1 carbs were lightly modified units of examples fitted as standard to the Holden 48-215.

Jack sold the car to Stan Jones when he left to chance his hand in the UK in early 1955 and famously regretted it. The Cooper Alta he bought from Peter Whitehead when he got to Mother England wasn’t a patch on his own car, see here: https://primotipo.com/2016/06/24/jacks-altona-grand-prix-and-cooper-t23-bristol/

Stan didn’t have it for long before selling it to Tom Hawkes in time for the 1955 Australian Grand Prix at Port Wakefield.

The rare shot below shows Hawkes in Jack’s old Cooper Bristol #8, with Brabham looking on from car #6, the monoposto Cooper T40 Bobtail Jack built at Coopers for his championship Grand Prix debut at Aintree in the British GP that July. He then brought it home and scored a lucky win at Port Wakefield after top-guns, Reg Hunt, #5 Maserati A6GCM-250 and Stan Jones, #4 Maybach 3 retired.

(E Steet)
Hawkes on the way to a DNF in the 1957 AGP at Caversham in the ex-Brabham Cooper T23, now fitted with a Repco-Holden engine (E Steet)

The ultimate spec of CB/Mk2/1/53 was created when Tom Hawkes got his hands on it. He raced it initially as was and then made changes to the suspension, replacing the transverse leaf suspension with wishbones and coil springs, added a slimline body, fitted wider Lukey alloy wheels, and critically, replacing the 2-litre Bristol six with a 2.3-litre pushrod Holden Grey six topped by a crossflow Repco Hi-Power cylinder head and a pair of SU carbs.

Hawkes in the Albert Park paddock, 1956 AGP weekend. Repco-Holden engine, car still fitted with transverse-leaf IFS (NAA)
Hawkes ascends Mount Panorama during the ‘58 AGP weekend, note the stance of the car and Lukey alloy wheels (T Martin)

Tom was third in the 1958 AGP at Bathurst – the ultimate Australian power circuit – with the Cooper in this spec behind Lex Davison’s 3-litre Ferrari 500/625 and Ern Seeliger’s 4.6-litre Maybach 4 Chev V8. Sure, Ted Gray, Tornado 2 Chev and Stan Jones, Maserati 250F retired from the lead, but was the best ever AGP finish for a Holden six, a great achievement.

Etcetera…

Brabham and crew at Mount Druitt circa 1953, names folks? (A Cox)
(A Patterson Collection)
(A Patterson Collection)

John Sherwood and Jack Brabham, perhaps at one of the send-off functions for Jack when he left for the UK in early 1955

Brabham chats to Doug Whiteford on the Australian Grand Prix-Port Wakefield grid in 1955. Cooper T40 Bristol and Talbot Lago T26C.

(unattributed)

This pair of shots show Jack aboard the Cooper T40 Bristol during the January 30, 1956 South Pacific Championship meeting at Gnoo Blas. Brabham was second behind Reg Hunt’s new F1 Maserati 250F with Kevin Neale third in, you guessed it, a Cooper T23 Bristol.

These cars – Type 20 and Type 23 or Cooper Bristol Marks 1 and 2 if you like – were hugely important machines in Australian racing for a decent chunk of the 1950s in original spec and modified from mild to wild…

(unattributed)

Credits…

Old Motor Racing Photographs Australia, Dick Willis, Allen Cox, LAT photographic, Ed Steet shots via David Zeunert, Lex Denniston shot via Tony Johns, Tony Martin, Adrian Patterson Collection

Tailpiece…

Three of the 1954 AGP protagonists on the cover of Wheels magazine in January 1955. Lex Davison’s HWM Jaguar, an ex-Moss F2 chassis fitted with a C-Type engine, Dick Cobden’s ex-Whitehead Ferrari 125 s/c and Jack Brabham’s RedeX Special Cooper T23 Bristol.

Quite why yerd’ put the winner, Davison, on the cover and two DNFs I know not…the answer is probably the timelines in hand-colouring the photographs for a race held on November 7, 1954.

Finito…

Brabham’s 1957 F2 Season…

Posted: November 4, 2024 in Who,What,Where & When...?
Tags: , , , , , ,
1

By 1957 Jack Brabham was getting the hang of this European racing caper, he was the winningest Formula 2 driver in in the winningest car that year.

Cooper’s Type 43 was powered by the brand-new 1475cc Coventry Climax twin-cam, two-valve FPF four-cylinder engine.

Coopers entered Jack in nine F2 races that year and he won five of them, most were blue-riband events too: the London Trophy at Crystal Palace, Prix de Paris, Montlhery, the Rochester Trophy at Brands and Oulton Park’s Gold Cup.

Motor Racing’s fantastic cover shot – very well-used down-the-decades and perhaps taken by Geoff Goddard – above was taken at Goodwood during the Woodcote Cup on September 28, where Jack’s teammate, Roy Salvadori triumphed in another works T43. Roy also won the BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone a fortnight before, other 1957 Cooper T43 winners were George Wicken and Tony Marsh.

The Haves in 1957 used a Cooper chassis and a Climax FPF engine, the rest made do with a Climax single-cam FWA or FWB engine and another chassis.

Funnily enough Lotus’ best ‘F2 result’ for the year was Tom Dickson’s victory at Snetterton on May 19 aboard a Lotus 11 FWA during a combined F2/sportscar race. The much vaunted, light, clever, gorgeous, front-engined, and fragile F2 Lotus 12 FPF (below) flattered to deceive: its best results were a second and a third placing for Cliff Allison in the Gold Cup, and Woodcote Cup respectively.

Lotus 12 Coventry Climax FPF to be precise

Other F2 winners in ’57 were Maurice Trintignant aboard a works Ferrari Dino 156 in the Coupe Internationale de Vitesse at Reims in July and Edgar Barth’s victory in the F2 race within a race, at the GermanGrand Prix at the Nurburgring in August aboard a Porsche 500RS.

That Dino spawned a series of V6 cars, race and rally engines that were still winning well into the mid-1970s.

By mid-1959 Brabham was looking a fairly complete professional…

Jack and (the works team) Cooper had just taken their first Grand Epreuve wins at Monaco on May 10, while Motor Racing’s cover above shows Jack on the way to victory in the BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone on May 2.

By then Brabham’s Cooper is a Type 51 and the engine a 2.5-litre FPF. The F2 youth of 1957 had grown into a dominant adult by 1959. It may have been a simple motor but it was oh-so-sweet.

See here for a long feature on Cooper Types 41/43/45/51/53: https://primotipo.com/2019/10/04/cooper-t41-43-45-51-53/ More about Jack in ’57: https://primotipo.com/2020/01/28/cooper-t39-climax-le-mans-1957-brabham-raby/

Motor Racing magazine, as the covers note, was the official organ of the British Racing and Sports Car Club. It succeeded Iota and was published from January 1954 to February 1970…bloody good too!

Credits…

Motor Racing magazines – fantastic they are too – many thanks to Bob King

Finito…

1960 Portuguese Grand Prix…

Posted: August 14, 2024 in F1
Tags: , , ,
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Jack Brabham on his way to winning the 1960 Portuguese Grand Prix on the Circuito da Boavista, Oporto on August 14. Cooper T53 Climax, Bruce McLaren was second in the other team T53 while Jim Clark was third in a Lotus 18 Climax.

He won his second drivers world championship that day – round seven of nine qualifying rounds – while Cooper bagged their second manufacturer’s championship too. Jack would collect another F1 title or two, Cooper did not. Sadly.

More about Boavista in this article about the 1958 race: https://primotipo.com/2014/09/24/circuito-da-boavista-portuguese-gp-1958/

When flicking through old mags the ads are often as interesting as the editorial material.

At that stage ‘yerd be taking your Lotus 7 with the A-series I guess, the release of Ford’s 105E rather shifted the balance of course, especially once Messrs Duckworth and Costin did their thing thereon.

The BRM P48 is a favourite, what’s not to like, here: https://primotipo.com/2018/03/16/bourne-to-ballarat-brm-p48-part-2/ and here :https://primotipo.com/2015/03/26/tony-marsh-boness-hillclimb-scotland-brm-p48-part-1/

Who did the drawing do you think?

Credits…

MotorSport November 1960

Finito…

Coopers ahoy…

Posted: January 12, 2024 in F1, Features
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
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(P&O Heritage)

Jack Brabham’s Cooper T45 Climax (F2-10-58) enroute to the hold of P&O Line’s 30,000 ton SS Arcadia while Stirling Moss’ similar Rob Walker car (F2-9-58) awaits its turn at Tilbury Docks.

It’s October 20, 1958, seven weeks before the Melbourne Grand Prix at Albert Park on November 30 where this pair of drivers and cars were the star attractions in a 19 car field. The Arcadia arrived 11 days before the race allowing plenty of pre-event promotion.

I was contacted by P&O Heritage in June last year requesting assistance in identifying the cars and the event to which they were travelling, with the assistance of my good friend, Cooper expert Stephen Dalton, that wasn’t a drama. With their exhibition now well over we can share the shots.

(P&O Heritage)

Arfur Daley! was my first reaction, look at them all with their peaked-caps to ward off the brisk River Thames air. It’s Stirling’s Rob Walker owned T45, chassis F2-9-58, no less than the car in which Maurice Trintignant won the ’58 Monaco GP, and with which Moss was victorious in the non-championship F1 Aintree 200 and Caen GP that year.

Brabham’s F2-10-45 was acquired from the British Racing Partnership: Alfred Moss and Ken Gregory. It had been raced in 1.5-litre F2 events continuously throughout 1958 by Stuart Lewis-Evans in between his Vanwall F1 commitments and Tommy Bridger otherwise. Lewis-Evans had many top-5 placings and one win at Brands in June.

Maurice Trintignant during the 1958 Monaco GP. The Walker T45 F2-9-58 won from the two works Ferrari Dino 246s of Luigi Musso and Peter Collins (MotorSport)
Stuart Lewis-Evans on the hop at Goodwood during the April 1958 Lavant Cup. He was fourth in BRP’s T45 F2-10-58 behind Brabham’s works Cooper T43 and Graham Hill and Cliff Allison’s works Lotus 12s; all cars 1475cc Coventry Climax FPF powered (unattributed)

Still fitted with 1.5-litre Climax FPF, BRP entered Bridger in the Moroccan Grand Prix at Ain Diab. His only GP start, in a six-Cooper F2 race within a race, ended in tears after Tommy spun and crashed on oil dropped by Tony Brooks’ Vanwall the lap before, Bridger completing 30 of the 53 laps. He wasn’t badly hurt, but poor Lewis-Evans died from burns sustained after a separate accident caused by his Vanwall’s engine seizure.

BRP returned the car to Coopers for repair, Brabham then bought it and installed a 2.2-litre Coventry Climax FPF to race in the Antipodes, while the Moss car was fitted with an Alf Francis built 2015cc Climax.

(AC Green)

The trip from Tilbury to Port Melbourne back then took on average, four-six weeks, here the new Arcadia (b1953-d1979) is tied up at Station Pier, Port Melbourne in late March 1954. The trailer leg to transport the cars to Albert Park is a short 6km.

(B King Collection)

The 32 lap, 100 mile Melbourne GP was the eighth of nine Gold Star rounds that year, Stan Jones in the #12 Maserati 250F won the ‘58 title.

Brabham is in #8, #7 is Moss, while another Jones, young Alan is the small white clad figure leaning on the nose of the Ford Zephyr. Moss won the race from Brabham with the very quick Doug Whiteford, Maserati 300S in third

Bib Stillwell was fourth in another 250F with Len Lukey fifth in a Lukey Bristol – Len’s evolution of a Cooper T23. Car #10 is Tom Clark’s 3.4-litre Ferrari 555, the car alongside him is Ted Gray, Tornado 2 Chev.

Moss and mechanic, name please? and T45 F2-9-58 on the Albert Park grid. That November 30, 1958 event was the last at Albert Park until the modern AGP era commenced in 1996 (S Dalton Collection)
NZGP, Ardmore, January 10 1959. The Schell, Bonnier and Shelby Maserati 250Fs used their 2.5-litre torque to lead for a bit on lap one. #4 is Brabham’s Cooper, with Moss #7 behind and between Jack and Carrol – and the rest (LibNZ)

Both cars were then shipped across the Tasman to contest the Kiwi Internationals. Moss won the New Zealand Grand Prix at Ardmore from Brabham in a big field that included Bruce McLaren, Carroll Shelby, Jo Bonnier and Harry Schell on Maserati 250Fs, and Ron Flockhart’s works-BRM P25.

Brabham aboard F2-10-58 at Ardmore in 1959, second to Moss (T Marshall)

Moss (and the Cooper) then returned to Europe for his other commitments while Brabham did the Lady Wigram Trophy and Teretonga International for second/third, then returned home to New South Wales where he won the South Pacific Trophy at Gnoo Blas.

Jack then travelled to Cordoba to begin his F1 season with the February 16 Buenos Aires GP, but not before selling F2-10-58 to Len Lukey. The Melbourne Lukey Mufflers manufacturer used it to good effect to win the 1959 Gold Star, the highlight of which was an epic dice between Len and Stan Jones’ 250F in the AGP at Longford (AMS cover below) which was resolved in Stan’s favour.

The T45 remained in Australia forever, and in a nice bit of Cooper T45/Albert Park symmetry, Stirling Moss drove his Dad, and Jack’s old car in the historic car demonstrations during an Australian Grand Prix carnival in the early 2000s. Both cars are extant…

Etcetera…

(MotorSport)

An unmistakable Aintree shot of Stirling Moss aboard Walker’s T45 F2-9-58 on the way to victory in the BARC 200, April 1958.

(unattributed)

Tommy Bridger holding off Bruce McLaren’s works Cooper T45 Climax and Ivor Bueb’s Lotus 12 Climax aboard the BRP T45 F2-10-58 during the May ’58 Crystal Palace Trophy. He was second, bested only by Ian Burgess’ works Cooper T45, in a great performance.

Credits…

P&O Heritage, Allan C Green-State Library of Victoria, Bob King Collection, Stephen Dalton Collection, sergent.com.au, MotorSport Images, unattributed shots via Bonhams photographers unidentified, Terry Marshall, National Library of New Zealand

Tailpiece…

(MotorSport)

Tommy Bridger in the 1.5-litre F2 BRP Cooper T45 Climax F2-10-58 chasing Gerino Gerini’s Centro Sud Maserati 250F at Ain Diab during the October 19, 1958 Moroccan Grand Prix. Gerini was 11th from Q17 and Bridger DNF from Q22 after the accident described earlier.

The race-within-a-race of six Cooper F2 cars comprised T45s raced by Salvadori, Brabham, McLaren, Bridger and Andre Guelfi, plus Francois Picard’s older T43. Bridger qualified behind the works-Coopers of Roy, Jack and Bruce…he was pretty handy. See more about him here: https://500race.org/people/tommy-bridger/

Finito…

Brabham BT7 Climax…

Posted: November 26, 2023 in F1
Tags: , , ,
2
(MotorSport)

Dan Gurney’s – Brabham Racing Organisation – Coventry Climax FWMV 1.5-litre V8 during the 1963 Monaco Grand Prix weekend. F1-1-63’s second race.

The car is a Brabham BT7, the second type of GP Brabham, Jack having debuted the BT3 Climax in 1962. Two F1 BT7s – there was also two BT7A Intercontinental/Tasman Formula cars – were built. Dan debuted BT7 F1-1-63 at the International Trophy, Silverstone on May 11, 63, and Jack first raced F1-2-63 at Zandvoort on June 23, 1963.

(LAT)

Dan in front of Tony Maggs (fifth) and Willy Mairesse (DNF final drive) at Monaco that year: Brabham BT7 Climax, Cooper T66 Climax and Ferrari Dino 156. Gurney was out with crown wheel and pinion failure in the race won by Graham Hill’s BRM P57 from teammate Richie Ginther’s P57. Bruce McLaren’s Cooper T66 was third.

(MotorSport)

Gurney on the way to an historic first Championship Grand Prix win for the Brabham marque aboard his BT7 at Rouen-les- Essarts, France in June 1964. Dan also won the non-championship 1964 Mexican GP with this F1-1-63, while Jack’s best in F1-2-63 was a pair of wins in in the Aintree 200 and the Silverstone International Trophy in April/May 1964.

Somewhat incredibly, Allen Brown records the last of 48 in-period race meetings for this (Jack’s) car was at Indianapolis, where Dave Rines won the SCCA Regional at Indianapolis Raceway Park in May 1968, at which point the car was powered by a 3-litre Coventry Climax FPF-four.

Dutch GP: second, Clark won in a Lotus 25 (MotorSport)

Credits…

MotorSport Images, LAT Photographic, oldracingcars.com: https://www.oldracingcars.com/brabham/bt7/

Tailpiece…

(MotorSport)

Coventry Climax FWMV 1.5-litre Mk3 V8: Lucas fuel injected, DOHC, two-valve, 195bhp @ 9500rpm. Early five speed Hewland HD gearbox with distinctive upside-down VW Beetle case, but not yet with neato, bespoke side-entry rear housing. The ‘vertical bomb’ is Lucas’ hi-pressure fuel pump. Rear end comprises mag alloy uprights, inverted wishbones at the top, single links at the bottom plus two radius rods doing fore-aft locational duties. Ron changed his mind about the respective locations of the wishbones and links pretty soon after this.

Finito…

Jack’s lids…

Posted: November 18, 2023 in F1, Obscurities, Rodways Repco Recollections
Tags: , ,
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(I Smith)

Small things amuse small minds, mine that is.

Jack Brabham being pestered by Frank Matich before the start of the Tasman Series Sandown Park Cup on February 16, 1969. Frank is after some tips on how to extract the best sponsorship deal from Repco Ltd management.

It’s intrigued me that Jack clearly forgot to bring his nice modern Bell Magnum helmet home with him when he jumped on his Qantas 707 at Heathrow for Sydney in December 1969.

When his Brabham BT31 Repco was finally offloaded at Port Melbourne and had its nice new RBE 830 V8 fitted at Repco Brabham Engines in Maidstone, he cast around for a skid-lid and – seemingly – this circa 1960 helmet and pair of goggles were the only ones available to head off to Calder to test the car two days before the Sandown race. See here for a BT31 epic: https://primotipo.com/2015/02/26/rodways-repco-recollections-brabham-bt31-repco-jacks-69-tasman-car-episode-4/

The lovely shot above seems to be the helmet in question sitting atop Jack’s noggin on the grid of the BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone nine years before, May 14, 1960: second in his works-Cooper T53 Climax behind Innes Ireland’s Lotus 18 Climax.

(unattributed)

Our very own Jack during the ‘69 Sandown Cup. He is on the run out of Peters above, and on the way into Dandy Road below, wearing the same 1960 helmet or one very much like it.

Small things as I say…mind you, I don’t like ‘yer chances of racing with a nine year old helmet in today’s homogenised, pasteurised over regulated times.

Brabham finished third in the race, proving brand-new BT31 was quick right out of the box, which was won – so too the Tasman Series – by Chris Amon’s Ferrari 246T. Jochen Rindt was second in his Lotus 49B Ford DFW.

(R MacKenzie)

Jack returned that Easter to fulfil his final Australian Repco commitments, winning the Gold Star round at Bathurst in BT31. This time (below) Jack remembered to pack the Bell Magnum but not his modern goggles…

(B Frankel)

More on Jack’s helmets here: https://primotipo.com/2020/07/11/jack-piers-and-helmets/

Credits…

Ian Smith , popperfoto.com, Rod MacKenzie, Bob Frankel

Finito…

Pau Grand Prix 1970 and the Brabham BT30…

Posted: October 3, 2023 in Who,What,Where & When...?
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0
(MotorSport)

Jack Brabham negotiates the tight confines of Pau during the April 5 weekend. Got his Jet Jackson helmet on too, hasn’t he, see here; https://primotipo.com/2020/07/11/jack-piers-and-helmets/

The car is Brabham BT30 chassis # 17 owned by ex-racer/businessman/team owner John ‘Noddy’ Coombs, the machine was shared by Jack and Jackie Stewart that season

Brabham didn’t finish at Pau fuel metering unit problems intervened. Jochen Rindt won in a works/Jochen Rindt Racing Lotus 69 Ford FVA from four BT30s: the machines of Henri Pescarolo, Tim Schenken, Derek Bell and Francois Mazet.

(MotorSport)

“Yeah, its not a bad little jigger, we’ve won a few races with BT30s in the last twelve months I suppose. It’s a lot tighter than I remember when I tested it for Ron last year mind you…”

Jack gets out of BT30/17 over the June 28, XVIII Grand Prix de Rouen-les-Essarts weekend where he was eighth in the race won by Jo Siffert’s BMW 270.

BT30/17’s best results that season was Jackie’s second place at Thruxton and victory at Crystal Palace, while Jack was second at Tulln-Langenlebarn. Coombs shipped the car to Japan in May, where JYS won the Formula Libre Japanese Grand Prix at Fuji with Ford Cosworth FVC power.

Stewart bagged the Quadrella in the London Trophy at Crystal Palace in May. He won his heat, the final from pole, bagging fastest lap along the way (MotorSport)
(MotorSport)

The Brothers Brambilla compound during the Hockenheim 11, 1970 weekend. The car in shot is Tino’s #7 Brabham BT30/21 (DNF) during the 1970 Preis von Baden – Wurttemberg und Hessen Euro F2 Championship round. Dieter Quester had a home-win for BMW, he prevailed in an M11 powered BMW 270. The exhaust of Vittorio’s car, BT30/22, is at right.

The essential elements of customer F2 Brabhams of the era are on display; a spaceframe chassis, Ford Cosworth 1.6-litre FVA 210bhp engine and Hewland FT200 five-speed transaxle. It was then up to the driver to make these immensely robust, chuckable, fast, Ron Tauranac designed cars do the rest.

Chassis fetishests should check out Allen Brown’s detailed review of all BT30s built on oldracingcars.com, here; https://www.oldracingcars.com/brabham/bt30/

Etcetera…

(MotorSport)

Jack toyed with wings on and off at Rouen, racing without the appendages. Here he is showing the way to customers, Derek Bell (seventh) and Peter Westbury (tenth).

(MotorSport)

Another lovely Pau GP shot, where Tim Schenken was third in the Sports Motors International Brabham BT30.

That year the European F2 Championship was won by Clay Regazzoni’s Tecno 69 and 70 FVAs with 44 points, from Derek Bell’s BT30 (he also bagged one point in a BMW 270) 35 points, and Emerson Fittipaldi’s Lotus 69 FVA on 25.

‘Graded drivers’ – in essence and summary, drivers who had scored points twice in the Top Six of a Grand Prix in the previous two years, and the World, F2, Indy, and Can Am Champs of the previous year – were ineligible for Euro F2 championship points.

In 1970 Rindt won at Thruxton, Stewart at Crystal Palace and Ickx at Tulln-Langenlebarn. Of the non-graded drivers, Regga won at Hockenheim, Enna-Pergusa and Imola – and won his first Grand Prix for Ferrari that September at Monza -, for Derek Bell at Montjuich Park, Barcelona, and Dieter Quester in the final Hockenheim round.

Credits…

MotorSport Images

Tailpiece…

(MotorSport)

The ‘guvnor keeps an eye on his protege during the Rouen weekend. Brabham and John Coombs, who bought his share of Brabhams over the years. See here for a MotorSport interview with John; https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/may-2009/71/lunch-john-coombs/

Finito…

RB620 Breaks Cover…

Posted: July 18, 2023 in F1, Fotos, Rodways Repco Recollections
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1
image

The Repco Record cover girl for September 1965 is the prototype 2.5-litre Repco Brabham 620 V8. Engine #E1 first spluttered into life on the Repco Laboratory testbed, Richmond on 26 March 1965…

She is quite a cutie replete with Weber carbs rather than the Lucas fuel injection with which the Repco engines always raced. Click away at the links below for plenty of articles on this engine, this is another piece from Michael Gasking’s wonderful collection of Repco memorabilia.

image

The public announcement of the engine was made by Repco on Monday September 13, 1965. Many thanks to historian David Zeunert who forwarded a copy of Leonard Ward’s piece about the initiative which was published in the Canberra Times the following day.

It includes an unusually detailed technical description of the engine, but makes no mention – at that point at least – of a 3-litre 620 variant for the new F1 which commenced in 1966.

That the 1275cc Morris Cooper S – ‘one of the worlds most successful small sports saloons’ – has gone into production at BMC’s Australian plant at Zealand, inner-Sydney would have been big news too, albeit well-known to enthusiasts.

Credits…

Michael Gasking Collection, Repco Ltd, Canberra Times via David Zeunert Collection

Finito…

Jack’s Hume Weir…

Posted: May 17, 2023 in F1
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0
(Draper Family Collection)

One upon a time Grand Prix drivers weren’t paid fees that make the GDPs of third world countries look small.

I guess that over 20 Grands Prix and the associated test and race-simulation loads keep them busy, the rest of the time is devoted to the body-beautiful, PR and the needs of the girl/boyfriend.

At the dawn of the space-age, wily Jack Brabham worked all the angles to optimise his earnings, short and perilous as it was in the days when drivers died in the cockpit as a matter of routine.

John Cooper paid him a retainer and a percentage of his winnings. He ghosted magazine articles, had a motor garage and dealership or three, drove cars for others and owned and entered cars for himself and others. That’s how he found himself in the New South Wales/Victorian border-town of Albury, on the Murray River, for the Craven-A International at the small, new, Hume Weir circuit over the March 12/13 1961 weekend.

(Draper Family Collection)
(G Garth)

That summer he’d brought a Cooper T53 Climax (chassis F2-8-60) and Cooper T51 Climax (F2-5-57 or F2-7-59) home to do the Kiwi and Australian Internationals.

He did pretty well too, winning the New Zealand Grand Prix on the Ardmore aerodrome and the Lady Wigram Trophy on the RNZAF base of the same name in the T53. Ron Flockhart that car on pole at Ballarat, and finished third, while Ron’s best with the Cooper T51 was fourth at Ardmore and fifth in the Warwick Farm 100 where Stirling Moss won the first international held on the great Sydney track aboard Rob Walker’s Lotus 18 Climax.

(J Richardson)

Roy Salvadori – who had raced a Reg Parnell Lotus 18 in New Zealand that summer – took the wheel of the Cooper T51 in Tasmania, winning the Longford Trophy (above) but his weekend wasn’t so successful in Albury where he was fourth in the Saturday 20-lapper, and failed to finish the equally hot Sunday race. Brabham won both races in the T53 in skinny six/seven car grids.

Our Jack dragged in he crowds, doubtless Craven A sold a few cancer-sticks, so everybody went home happy. Brabham always flogged the cars he brought to Australia at the end of his tour but on this occasion both Coopers returned to the UK and equally oddly both disappeared into the ether later in the year.

(Draper Family Collection)

Credits…

John Richardson, Draper Family Collection, Glenn Garth, oldracingcars.com

Tailpiece…

(Draper Family Collection)

Roy Salvadori reflecting on the size of his ‘Gregory Peck’ at the Weir while entertaining the crowd, announcer’s name folks?

Finito…

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