Tauranac chose a deliberately conservative chassis design and aimed to get the best both worlds by combining a space frame and riveted/bonded on panels
Ol' "Black Jack" Brabham (so called because of his jet black hair) & his good mate & business partner Ron Taurinac, who did much, if not most of the design & development.
Nice to see it in green & gold, although the traditional Australian sporting colours are green & yellow, which would be confusing in F1 as they were Lotus's team colours. Another nerdy fact is that, due to Repco not having sufficiently deep pockets to build an engine from scratch, Brabham decided to use the lightweight aluminium Rover (neé Buick) 3.5 litre V8 block, destroked it to the required 3 litres, replace the standard 2 bolt main bearing caps with 4 bolt ones & get renowned fellow Australian engineer, Phil Irving to do the design & engineering of the engine including the SOHC heads (again probably due to budgetary constraints). Although it developed less power than Ferrari's seemingly all-conquering cars, it was ultimately more reliable, enabling Brabham to win the 1966 Gran Prix. That was back when Repco actually did some pretty terrific engineering. 1966 would not have a good year for old Enzo, losing the 24 hours of Le Mans to Ford & both the F1 world driver's & constructor's championships to an Australian using a Rover engine. It would almost be enough to make you give up on motor sport.
Small detail, but the engine was based on the Oldsmobile block. The deal to sell the GM V8 to Rover was only concluded in January 1965 and the technology transfer only began then. Development of the engine was well underway by the time Rover were producing engines. With the expertise that went into the engine, the Repco Record Sports car and the Hi-Power head for the Holden engine, it's a great shame that the once great Australian Repco is no longer Australian.
One of these were stolen maybe 6 years ago from a private collection and was found a few blocks after the crooks tired of pushing it. Brighton, Australia.
Great video. I'm and Aussie, and we are all proud of Sir Jack, a true gentleman. He was 40 years old when he won his third championship, and in his last year was in the running early on, at age 44! He was supposed to race a Torana SLR L34 at Bathurst for our annual great race, in 1976 (I think, might have been '75) with Stirling Moss, but the car was rear-ended on the grid at the start of the race. th-cam.com/video/RLJJFb-OBUc/w-d-xo.htmlsi=NCMobCe6Tpy077nt What a pity!
The BT20 did not have a stressed member engine (or monocoque chassis). The first was the Lotus 49 of 1967. The first monocoque Lotus was the 25 of 1962. The first production monocoque Brabham was the BT28C of 1972.
I wonder if todays craftsman could build that car and it also makes me think could those guys from the 60's build todays chassis and suspension?? Whom is the better or would they be the same...
A buck fifty in that thing, with those fuel tanks, holy crap.
Not forgetting the T in BT is for Ron Tauranac. So often forgotten.
Tauranac chose a deliberately conservative chassis design and aimed to get the best both worlds by combining a space frame and riveted/bonded on panels
It holds a title that will never be beaten, the car that won the F1 constructors title and was owned by its driver who won the F1 championship.
Ol' "Black Jack" Brabham (so called because of his jet black hair) & his good mate & business partner Ron Taurinac, who did much, if not most of the design & development.
Nice to see it in green & gold, although the traditional Australian sporting colours are green & yellow, which would be confusing in F1 as they were Lotus's team colours. Another nerdy fact is that, due to Repco not having sufficiently deep pockets to build an engine from scratch, Brabham decided to use the lightweight aluminium Rover (neé Buick) 3.5 litre V8 block, destroked it to the required 3 litres, replace the standard 2 bolt main bearing caps with 4 bolt ones & get renowned fellow Australian engineer, Phil Irving to do the design & engineering of the engine including the SOHC heads (again probably due to budgetary constraints). Although it developed less power than Ferrari's seemingly all-conquering cars, it was ultimately more reliable, enabling Brabham to win the 1966 Gran Prix. That was back when Repco actually did some pretty terrific engineering. 1966 would not have a good year for old Enzo, losing the 24 hours of Le Mans to Ford & both the F1 world driver's & constructor's championships to an Australian using a Rover engine. It would almost be enough to make you give up on motor sport.
The official Australian sport colours are in fact green and gold .
Small detail, but the engine was based on the Oldsmobile block. The deal to sell the GM V8 to Rover was only concluded in January 1965 and the technology transfer only began then. Development of the engine was well underway by the time Rover were producing engines.
With the expertise that went into the engine, the Repco Record Sports car and the Hi-Power head for the Holden engine, it's a great shame that the once great Australian Repco is no longer Australian.
One of these were stolen maybe 6 years ago from a private collection and was found a few blocks after the crooks tired of pushing it.
Brighton, Australia.
They went from F1 to F this - hahahahaha
Great video. I'm and Aussie, and we are all proud of Sir Jack, a true gentleman. He was 40 years old when he won his third championship, and in his last year was in the running early on, at age 44!
He was supposed to race a Torana SLR L34 at Bathurst for our annual great race, in 1976 (I think, might have been '75) with Stirling Moss, but the car was rear-ended on the grid at the start of the race.
th-cam.com/video/RLJJFb-OBUc/w-d-xo.htmlsi=NCMobCe6Tpy077nt
What a pity!
The BT20 did not have a stressed member engine (or monocoque chassis). The first was the Lotus 49 of 1967. The first monocoque Lotus was the 25 of 1962. The first production monocoque Brabham was the BT28C of 1972.
Right, at 02:06 you can start to clearly see the tubular space frame chassis underneath the Repco engine.
Lancia D50, Ferrari 1512, Lotus 43 BRM...
How about some detail? Engine capacity, power outputs instead of saying over and over how "stunning" it is...
It would have been interesting if Repco had finished developing the 4 valve engine for the 1968 season.
It wasn't going to work the DFV was a game changer
I wonder if todays craftsman could build that car and it also makes me think could those guys from the 60's build todays chassis and suspension?? Whom is the better or would they be the same...
I don't think you said the word "absolutely" enough. You only used it in every second sentence. Try using it more often in future.