Beschreibung:

1962 1 1/2-litre V8 Brabham-Climax BT3 Formula 1 Racing Single-Seater Chassis no. F1-1-62• The triple World Champion Driver's first Formula 1 car to carry the Brabham name • The first Formula 1 Brabham ever to score a World Championship point • The first Brabham car ever to win a Formula 1 race • The first car constructed by its driver ever to win a Formula 1 race • Coventry Climax 1 1/5-litre V8 engine • Superb Ron Tauranac spaceframe chassis design • Prepared regardless of cost for Historic racing FootnotesThe BONHAMS motoring department is delighted to offer this beautifully presented, truly significant Historic Formula 1 car, since several of the BONHAMS staff were not only firm friends of the great Sir Jack Brabham, but also had long-term connections with this particular car. This unique Formula 1 Brabham-Climax BT3 was designed by Jack Brabham's business partner, engineer Ron Tauranac. Its 'BT3' designation was derived from the combination of the initials 'Brabham-Tauranac'. Sir Jack had previously driven for the Cooper Car Company works team from 1956-1961. The great Australian was technically extremely astute, and he had admired Ron Tauranac's design thinking since the early 1950s when they had been rivals in home Australian events, Brabham driving a series of Cooper cars and Tauranac his own Ralt designs. From 1955, when Jack Brabham had settled in England to advance his international racing career, the duo maintained a constant pen-pal correspondence discussing technical matters in particular related to making Jack's works-entered Cooper cars increasingly competitive. Ron Tauranac influence - via Jack Brabham - ultimately resulted in the driver's 1959 Monaco and British GP victories for Cooper, and his first (of three) Formula 1 Drivers' World Championship titles achieved that season. Once Jack Brabham and the Cooper Car Company works team achieved back-to-back Drivers' and Constructors' Formula 1 World Championship titles in 1960, it became evident to the shrewd Australian that Cooper capability was being overtaken not only by Ferrari but also - into a new 1 1/2-litre Formula 1 era in 1961 - by such other British teams as Lotus and BRM. Jack Brabham himself told the story to his friend, biographer and BONHAMS consultant Doug Nye like this: "As 1959 World Champion, my new garage business in Chessington had got off to a good start and during that winter into 1960, I was able to offer Ron a job in Britain... He accepted my offer...initially for six months...but in effect he would never return. At my Chessington garage we sold Rootes Group and Standard-Triumph cars...I then got Ron to convert the latest Triumph Herald saloon to use a single-cam Coventry Climax engine..." - and the Jack Brabham Herald-Climax emerged with a 0-60mph time as good as an Austin-Healey 3000 sports car! "Looking forward into 1961 we decided to build a design prototype single-seater racing car for...Formula Junior. It was Ron's first water-cooled racing car design and his first with the kind of modern lay-down seating position we'd used in the 'Lowline' Cooper. Ron had very advanced ideas on suspension geometry... It was mid-summer 1961 before the car was ready... We called it the MRD after the initials of our new company, Motor Racing Developments Ltd." That 1961 Formula Junior MRD would be titled retrospectively the 'BT1'. Driven by Tasmanian Gavin Youl it did well enough to spark customer interest in a Tauranac-designed updated MRD Junior for 1962. After French racing journalist Jabby Crombac had pointed out that the French pronunciation of 'MRD' was (to say the least) unfortunate, future Brabham-Tauranac cars were marketed under the 'Brabham' brand name. The initial batch of 1962 Formula Junior Brabhams took the BT2 design classification, and Jack's forthcoming Formula 1 prototype emerged as the BT3 now offered here. Until this car was completed in mid-summer 1962, Jack Brabham ran customer Lotus Formula 1 cars. His first 4-cylinder Lotus-Cl