Brabham BT19
| Category | Formula One/Tasman Series | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Constructor | Motor Racing Developments | ||||||||
| Designer(s) | Ron Tauranac | ||||||||
| Technical specifications | |||||||||
| Chassis | steel spaceframe | ||||||||
| Suspension (front) | Double wishbone, outboard spring/damper. | ||||||||
| Suspension (rear) | Single top-link, reverse lower wishbone, twin radius arms, outboard spring/damper. | ||||||||
| Engine | Repco 2994cc V8 naturally aspirated Mid-engined, longitudinally mounted | ||||||||
| Transmission | Hewland HD/DG 5-speed manual ZF differential | ||||||||
| Fuel | Esso | ||||||||
| Tyres | Goodyear | ||||||||
| Competition history | |||||||||
| Notable entrants | Brabham Racing Organisation | ||||||||
| Notable drivers | Jack Brabham | ||||||||
| Debut | 1966 South African Grand Prix (non-championship) 1966 Monaco Grand Prix (World Drivers' Championship) | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Constructors' Championships | 2 (1966, 1967)[1] | ||||||||
| Drivers' Championships | 1 (1966) | ||||||||
The Brabham BT19 is a Formula One racing car designed by Ron Tauranac for the Brabham team. In 1966 Australian driver Jack Brabham won his third world championship driving the car, which was the first bearing its driver's name to win a world championship race. The car, which Brabham referred to as his 'Old Nail', was a one-off, designed for a 1.5 litre (92 cubic inch) Coventry-Climax engine in 1965, but never raced in this form. For the 1966 Formula One season the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) doubled the limit on engine size to 3 litre (183 cu in.). Repco developed a new V8 engine for Brabham's use in 1966, but a disagreement between Brabham and Tauranac over Tauranac's role in the racing team left no time to develop a new car to take it. Instead, the BT19 chassis was modified for the job.
Concept
The BT19 was designed by Ron Tauranac for Jack Brabham's Brabham Racing Organisation (BRO) for the 1965 season of the Formula One motor racing world championship, the last season run under regulations limiting engine capacity to 1.5 litres (92 cu in.). Like the contemporary Lotus 39, it was built to use Coventry Climax's unraced flat-16 FWMW engine.[2] The potentially more powerful flat-16 unit's development was eventually abandoned: Climax's existing FWMV V8 engines proved good enough to power the Lotus team's Jim Clark to seven wins and the drivers' championship in 1965. Furthermore, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, motor sport's world governing body, had decided in November 1963 that the engine capacity limit in Formula One would double to 3 litres (183 cu in.) for the 1966 season,[3] meaning that a completely new design would be needed.[2] Climax chose not to develop such an engine, leaving many teams without a viable engine supply for 1966. Jack Brabham's solution to this problem was to persuade Australian company Repco to develop a new 3 litre engine,[4] the first example of which was delivered to the team's headquarters in the United Kingdom in late 1965.[5]
'Brabham' cars were designed and built by Motor Racing Developments Ltd. (MRD), a company jointly owned by Jack Brabham and Australian designer Ron Tauranac, which built cars for customers in several racing series. BRO, which was wholly owned by Jack Brabham, bought its cars from MRD but Tauranac had little connection with the race team between 1962 and 1965.[6] At the end of the 1965 season, Tauranac was losing interest in this arrangement, reasoning that "it was just a matter of a lot of effort for no real interest because I didn't get to go racing very much" and "I might as well get on with my main line business, which was selling production cars".[7] Although Jack Brabham investigated the possibility of using other chassis, the two men eventually reached an agreement that Tauranac would have a greater interest in the Formula One team, which MRD would eventually take over completely from BRO.[7] This agreement was not reached until November 1965, however, leaving no time for MRD to design a car to take their new Australian-built engine. The unused BT19 chassis was pressed into use instead.[8]
Chassis and suspension
Tauranac built the car around a mild steel spaceframe chassis similar to those used in all his previous Brabham designs.[9] This was considered a conservative design decision: by 1966 most of Brabham's competitors were using the theoretically lighter and stiffer monocoque introduced to Formula One by Lotus during the 1962 Formula One season. However, Tauranac believed that contemporary monocoques were not usefully stiffer than a well-designed spaceframe, and were harder to repair and maintain for customers.[10] The Brabham reputation for customer cars was in part built upon the works teams, including the Formula One team, using the same technology as the customer cars. One novel feature was the use of oval section tubing, of which Tauranac had found a supply, around the cockpit area, where the spaceframe cannot be triangulated fully, to strengthen it under beam loads.[8] The car weighed around 1250 lb (567 kg), around 150 lb (68 kg) over the minimum weight limit for the formula, although it was still one of the lightest cars in the 1966 field. The race starting weight of a 1966 Brabham-Repco with driver and fuel was estimated to be around 1415 lb (642 kg), about 280 lb (127 kg) less than the more powerful rival Cooper-Maseratis.[11]
The bodywork was glass-reinforced plastic, finished in Brabham's normal racing colours of green with gold trimming around the nose.[9] Although aerodynamics would not really come to the fore until the 1968 Formula One season, Tauranac had been making use of the Motor Industry Research Association wind tunnel since 1963 to refine the shape of his cars.[12] Jack Brabham has attributed the car's "swept-down nose and upswept rear lip to the engine cowl" to Tauranac's "attention to aerodynamic detail".[13]
Against the trend set by the Lotus 21 in 1961,[14] the suspension was outboard all round, with the bulky springs and dampers mounted in the space between the wheels and the bodywork, where they would interfere with the airflow. Tauranac had persisted with this apparently conservative approach based on wind tunnel tests he had carried out in the early 1960s. He believed the reduction in aerodynamic drag from moving the suspension inboard to be only 2% and judged this gain to be insufficient to outweigh the extra time needed to set up a more complicated inboard design.[10] At the front the suspension layout was unequal length, non-parallel double wishbones. The front uprights were modified from the Alford & Alder units used on the British Triumph Herald saloon. The rear suspension consisted of a single top link, a reversed lower wishbone and two radius rods locating cast magnesium alloy uprights. Wheels were initially 13 inches but soon upgraded to 15 inches and the car ran on treaded Goodyear tyres throughout its racing career.[8]
The car continued Tauranac's reputation for producing cars that handled well, Brabham has since said: "The BT19 was beautifully balanced and I loved its readiness to drift through fast curves".[15] Brabham referred to the car as his 'Old Nail', Ron Tauranac is reported to have explained this as "because it was two years old, great to drive and had no vices."[9]
The sole example carries the chassis number F1-1-65.
Engine and transmission
Repco's 620 engine was a normally aspirated unit in a V8 configuration and was based on aluminium alloy engine blocks obtained from the abandoned Oldsmobile F85 engine project. The engine block, originally designed without cylinder liners, was fitted with cast iron cylinder liners by Repco. It was stiffened with two Repco magnesium alloy castings and featured new Repco-designed cylinder heads and chain driven single overhead camshafts. The internals of the unit consisted of a bespoke Laystall crankshaft, Daimler connecting rods and specially cast pistons. The cylinder head design meant that the engine's exhaust pipes exited on the outer side of the block, and therefore had to be wrapped around the rear suspension, a complicated design which was difficult to work with. The engine was water-cooled, with oil and water radiators mounted in the nose.
The engine was light, weighing around 340 lb, compared to 500 lb for the Maserati V12,[16] but in 3 litre Formula One form only produced around 300 brake horsepower (bhp) at under 8000 revolutions per minute (rpm) compared to around 360 bhp for the Ferrari and Maserati V12s.[17] It did however produce high levels of torque over a wide range of engine speeds from 3500 rpm up to peak torque of 192 psi bmep at 6500 rpm. It was also relatively fuel efficient. On the car's debut Brabham reports that the car achieved 7 miles per gallon (mpg), against figures of around 4 mpg for its "more exotic rivals".[13] This, combined with the lightweight chassis, meant that it could start a Grand Prix with only 35 gallons of fuel on board, compared to around 55 gallons for the Cooper-Maseratis.[11] The engine had one further advantage - parts were cheap. The engine blocks were available for £11 each, while the Daimler connecting rods cost £7 each.
The 740 unit used in the three races the car was entered for in 1967 used a different, lighter, proprietary engine block. It also had redesigned cylinder heads, which among other improvements, also meant that its exhausts were mounted centrally, away from the suspension.
The car was initially fitted with a Hewland HD (Heavy Duty) gearbox, originally designed for the 1.5 litre formula. This design was marginal for the more powerful 3 litre engines, with the result that Brabham normally made very gentle starts - the start being the time the greatest loading is put through the gearbox. The HD was later replaced with the sturdier DG (Different Gearbox) design.[18]
Racing history
Although regarded by its designer as a "lash-up", BT19 had a very successful racing career, almost entirely in the hands of the Australian triple world champion.[8] In its first race, the non-championship 1966 South African Grand Prix on 1 January, it was the fastest car in qualifying, taking pole position, and led the majority of the race before suffering a seized fuel injection pump. At the 1966 French Grand Prix at Reims-Gueux Jack Brabham used it to take his first Formula One world championship race win in one of his own cars, the first man to do so. He went on to take four straight wins and the world championship. Although the BT20, the definitive 1966 car, was available as early as the French Grand Prix on 3 July, Jack Brabham continued to use BT19 until the 1966 Italian Grand Prix on 4 September, at which he won the 1966 world championship. He used it once more to take pole position and victory at the non-championship Oulton Park Gold Cup before taking over a BT20 for the final two races of the championship season. The car was used again at the first three championship races in the 1967 Formula One season, taking second place at the 1967 Dutch Grand Prix.
Commenting on the reasons for the unexpected competitiveness of the 1966 Brabham-Repcos in Formula One, motorsport historian Doug Nye has suggested that they "could score on weight over the more powerful Ferrari, BRM, Cooper-Maserati, Eagle-Weslake and Honda in their undeveloped forms, and on sheer 'grunt' over such interim stop-gap cars as the nimble 2-litre Climax and BRM V8-engined Lotus 33s and BRMs".[19]
BT19 also competed in the final two races of the 1965/66 Tasman Series with a 2.5 litre version of the Repco engine, where it recorded one retirement and a third place. Tasman racing was the original purpose of the Repco engine and Brabham's involvement was supposed to promote the new engines. Frank Hallam, head of the Repco-Brabham organisation responsible for designing and building the Repco engines, has said that the 2.5 litre version "never put out the power per litre that the 3 litre engine produced.",[20] which itself was not a powerful unit. The 2.5 litre engine was not successful in Tasman competition.
As of 2004, BT19 was in Australia, where, it was still occasionally being driven at demonstration events by Jack Brabham, by then in his 70s.
Complete results
(results in bold indicate pole position)
| Year | Team | Engine | Tyres | Drivers | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | Points | WCC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1966 | Brabham Racing Organisation | Repco V8 | G | MON | BEL | FRA | GBR | NED | GER | ITA | USA | MEX | 39 | 1st | |||
| Jack Brabham | Ret | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Ret | ||||||||||
| 1967 | Brabham Racing Organisation | Repco V8 | G | RSA | MON | NED | BEL | FRA | GBR | GER | CAN | ITA | USA | MEX | 6 | 1st | |
| Jack Brabham | Ret | 2 | |||||||||||||||
| Denny Hulme | Ret |
| Colour | Result | Colour | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gold | Winner | White | Did not start (DNS) |
| Silver | 2nd place | Light blue | Practiced only (PO) |
| Bronze | 3rd place | Friday test driver (TD) - 2003-2007 only | |
| Green | Points finish | Blank | Did not practice (DNP) |
| Blue | Non points finish inc. non classified finish | Injured or ill (inj) | |
| Purple | Did not finish (Ret) | Excluded (EX) | |
| Red | Did not qualify (DNQ) | Did not arrive (DNA) | |
| Black | Disqualified (DSQ) |
Notes
- ^ BT19 scored 6 points towards MRD's constructors' championship winning total in 1967.
- ^ a b Lawrence (1998) p.103
- ^ Nye (1986) p.20
- ^ Henry (1985) p.53
- ^ Pinder (1995) p.43
- ^ Lawrence (1999) p.31
- ^ a b Henry (1985) p.55
- ^ a b c d Nye (1986) p. 45
- ^ a b c Pinder (1995) p.104
- ^ a b Lawrence (1999) pp.44-45
- ^ a b Unique p.45 Jack Brabham - World Champion Units of weight and volume are Imperial measures, as used in the original references. The exception is engine capacity, which was defined at the time in SI units.
- ^ Lawrence (1999) p.43
- ^ a b Brabham, Nye (2004) p.191
- ^ Lawrence (1998) p.190
- ^ Brabham, Nye (2004) p.199
- ^ Henry (1985) p.66
- ^ Nye (1986) pp.151 & 155 Nye reports that Ferrari claimed 380 bhp for their V12, but believes 360 bhp to be more likely.
- ^ Lawrence (1999) p.77
- ^ Nye (1986) p.43
- ^ Pinder (1995) p.38
References
- Books
- Template:Harvard reference
- Henry, Alan (1985). Brabham, the Grand Prix Cars. Osprey. ISBN 0-905138-36-8.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - Lawrence, Mike (1998). Grand Prix Cars 1945 - 1965. Motor Racing Publications. ISBN 1-899870-39-3.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - Lawrence, Mike (1999). Brabham+Ralt+Honda: The Ron Tauranac story. Motor Racing Publications. ISBN 1-899870-35-0.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - Nye, Doug (1986). Autocourse history of the Grand Prix car 1966-85. Hazleton publishing. ISBN 0-905138-37-6.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - Pinder, Simon G. (1995). Mr Repco Brabham. Pinder publications.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - Unique, (Various). Brabham - the man and the machines. Unique Motor Books. ISBN 1-84155-619-X.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help)
- Websites
- www.oldracingcars.com Retrieved 30 March 2007
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