Brabham BT40

My researches into Canadian and USA FB/Atlantic races have led me to the vexed question of Brabham BT40s. There are a lot of gaps which I'm hoping someone can fill. There seem to have been at least 35 built, but I can only account for about 20, with all of 12 tied to a chassis number. This seems to be the worst documented of all Brabhams.

This is what I have:

Chassis no
12 Works F2 car for Watson; 1974 rented by works to Bautrone for Estoril F2 race; then 1976 John Hart for H/C until 1979; then to Barrie Duntall to 1981 then Alan Cook for H/C 1982

14 John Wingfield, then 1974-5 loaned by Wingfield to Chequered Flag for Ray Mallock; end 75 used by Len Booysen in British Atlantic and taken home to S.Africa by him - but no sign of him racing it there.

15 Unknown in period, for sale at a Coys auction in 2000

17 Ken Duclos 1973 - 75 [at least] Recently for sale on race-cars.com

18 Chuck Dietrich 1973 at least, now being restored by Westerburg Collection

19 Vittorio Venturi [F2] then Shangry La 1974.

21 Graham Eden, mainly for Cyd Williams until 1975, then David Winstanley 1976 -77. Williams had a big accident in a BT40 before this number is noted on his chassis, so there may have been an earlier BT40 written off in that accident

27 Unknown in period, now in Matthews Collection

30 unknown in period. 2003 owned by Mike Fazzi with an SCCA log book from 1980 with only school activity and a few vintage races

33 Ted Titmus [USA] to 1974 at least. Recently for sale on race-cars.com

35 John MacDonald [HK] to 1976, then to Pocholo Ramirez, 1988 to Jason Ho, 1992 to present owner Neville Mackay

36 Works F2 car for de Adamich; 1974 - 77 Tom O'Leary, then unknown until 1981 Chris Charlett in W. Indies, recently sold on race-cars.com

Here are the unknown cars

Opert
The Robertson car. Debuted at Singapore GP by Brian Robertson in April 73 and trashed. Rebuilt and used as hire car by Opert team in 1974 Canadian series.

The Hall car. Used by Mike Hall in pro series in 1973 and mainly SCCA 1974

The Roos car. New for Bertil Roos in Canadian series, August 1973

The Jaussaud car. New for Jean-Pierre at Trois Rivieres Sept 1973

Others
The Reeves car. Intended Ed Reeves for Dave Morgan to run 1973 F2 series. Crashed badly in testing and never raced. Sold to someone in Kent in 1976 but again never raced.

The Poon car. Albert Poon 1973, still being used by Mrs Poon in S.Asian races in 1977

The Lader car. New for Alan Lader 1973 [maybe run by Opert]. Ron Householder in Canada 1974-75

The Hill car. New for Craig Hill, 1973. Kept 74, appears with Howard Kelly in Canada 1976

The Leger car. New for Gilles Leger Canadian series 1973

The Eagles car. New for Bill Eagles, 1973 US/Canada, retained 74.

Where on earth did the rest go? Were they all in SCCA races?

Chris

Chris,BT40-30 was delivered new to the USA with BDA to Olie(Bill)Meyers in 73,he then sold car to his 2 Mechanics,Victor Tostado and Mark Munroe,Mark was the driver and unfortunatly was killed in a sprintcar in late 70's,car was sold to a Richard Christ,then John Whitton .Mike Fazzi sold the car recently.There are 2 other cars in Oz,Bryan Miller could give you the info on these,i believe they are both owned by Nev Mckay.

Chris,

BT40-12 , as you state John Watson , thence Wilson Fittipaldi for works .
John Hart for hillclimbs 1976 .
Barrie Dutnall , eng changed to Rover V8 for hillclimbs,1978/9.
Simon Law , hillclimbs , retired into storage after eng. blew up and retained untill 2000.
To Steve Worrand as restoration project. Not started.
2002 to Peter Boel of Brisbane Australia , and under restoration at the moment, with all correct components sourced , resides in Wynnum West , Queensland.

As Pete Brennan advised Nev. McKay has 2 x BT40s , one is BT40-35 and resides at Mona Vale in Australia , Nev also owns a second car which I am sure is the Albert Poon car , however this is still in S.E.Asia.
I will try to find out the chassis number.

Bryan. P.S. you gave up on the BT21's quickly.

Chris: There was a car in the Colorado area that may be the Bertil Roos
BT-40 It was owned and raced by Cam Macarthur (sp?), then sold to Terry Allard, then sold to Bill Swope in Albuquerque. I emailed Bill to get the chassis number, haven't received any reply, will keep trying. When Macarthur had the car for sale, he had an album of photos of the car's history, including some of Roos. Also had heard that the Fazzi car, #30, was sold and shipped to Australia.

A minor snippet: BT40-17 for sale in VM Sep/Oct 1992 p94 by Peter Gates as ex-Duclos. It was said to be totally restored with a new tub.

Allen

Chris,
I have a feeling the Len Booysen car is in Ireland. I remember him racing it at Kirkistown in period, and something that looked very like it (black/white livery from memory) was part of Tommy Reids collection the last time I was there.
Richard

Ron Householder still has his BT40, (at least he has A BT40, I have a picture of it that was taken about a month ago).
A friend of mine is going to see him next week, I'll have him look at the car and see what chassis number it is.

Jim

Richard, didn't Tommy R have a BT38, or was it a 40. Also, did Bill Gowdy have a Brabham of this era ??

Tommy Reid also has a BT38, bought new by Irish Racing Cars (Mick Mooney) and fitted with a Cosworth Vega engine - how many of those are still around I wonder ?
I've a feeling there may also be a BT41 somewhere at Reid HQ but couldn't/wouldn't swear to that.
Incidentally the BT38 won a historic championship run at Kirkistown in about '84. Tommy still races on in FF1600 at age 73..........And wins things too !

Sorry Dan, forgot the other question. Bill Gowd - now half the Radical agency for Ireland ! - had a BT21 which he ran in Euro F3 in (I think) 1970, with the Jurg Dubler organisation which looked after privateers in F3 at that time. Later he had one of the first FAt Ralt RT1 chassis which, if memory serves was well smacked on its first Kirkistown outing, which must have been in '75.
There may have been another Brabham in between, but as I was on the Eastern shores of the Irish Sea during that period I know not.......
Richard

Richard, I think Gowdy's RT1 was a little later than 75, perhaps 1977 or even 78.

Bill Gowdy's RT1 is shown in the Ralt build records as chassis 120, delivered April 1978.

Chris

Chris, I just stumbled onto this site and have some information you may find interesting. In early 1975 I bought the Bertil Roos car from Fred Opert as a roller then bought a Hart motor from him later that spring. Before I bought it Bob Kime raced it as a Formula C with an 1100cc BDA. He was northeast division champ in '74 and finished second in the runoffs that year. I raced it in CENDIV nationals and regionals as an Atlantic through the '79 season. I sold the car to Cam in the spring of '90. All of the paperwork went with the car but if memory serves the chassis was #11. I remember giving Cam a picture of the car from the winners circle of a pro Formula B race at Watkins Glen in August of '72 with Bertil Roos, Fred Opert and Miss Columbo Yogurt. Hope this fills in some of the gaps. Gary Wallace

As far I am aware, the ex-Albert Poon car was trashed in Malaysia and has had its tub rebuilt by Neville Mackay (he's got the Macdonald Macau winning car). The Poon car is in pieces in Macau.

Thanks Gary and Eli. More gaps filled!

At the Donington 78 Irish F At race, Gowdy's Rt1 is described a s brand new, so that confirms Chris' post above. There was also an Irish BT40 entered, can't recall the driver now tho'. Finally, at this timer, ie Spring 78, Paul Hutson weas doing some Libre races in a BT40, quite smart red one as I recall. Any thoughts on the latter?

The Irish driver in a BT40 at Donington in 1978 was John Ledlie

Chris

Chassis no
12 Works F2 car for Watson; 1974 rented by works to Bautrone for Estoril F2 race; then 1976 John Hart for H/C until 1979; then to Barrie Duntall to 1981 then Alan Cook for H/C 1982



Chris, my father John, never actually had a BT40 .. What we had was a real secondhand BT38 that was seriously smashed by my brother Greg at Shelsey and rebuilt using a BT40 Tub .. No idea if teh tub had a chassis number and my father cannot remember either.. nobody cared then !!

I am sure that he got two BT40 tubs in one go and sold some on .. I remember going to brabhams and meeting bernie to buy some nice cotton reel rear wheels but not sure if brabham themselves were the tub suppliers.... any help ?


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http://www.ten-tenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=80370

JT