Brabham
Motor Racing Developments Ltd., commonly known as Brabham (how to say: /ˈbræbəm/), was a British company that built racing cars. It also ran a racing team in Formula One. It was founded in 1960 by two Australians, driver Jack Brabham and designer Ron Tauranac. The team won four drivers' and two constructors' world championships in its 30-year Formula One history. As of 2008, Jack Brabham's 1966 drivers' championship remains the only victory by a car bearing the driver's own name.
Brabham was the world's largest manufacturer of customer open wheel racing cars in the 1960s, and had built more than 500 cars by 1970. During this period, teams using Brabham cars won championships in Formula Two and Formula Three and competed in the Indianapolis 500. In the 1970s and 1980s, Brabham introduced innovations such as the controversial but successful 'fan car', in-race refuelling, carbon brakes, and hydropneumatic suspension. The team won two more Formula One drivers' championships in the 1980s with Brazilian Nelson Piquet, and became the first to win a drivers' championship with a turbocharged car.
British businessman Bernie Ecclestone owned Brabham during most of the 1970s and 1980s, and later become responsible for administering the commercial aspects of Formula One. Ecclestone sold the team in 1988. Its last owner was the Middlebridge Group, a Japanese engineering firm. Midway through the 1992 season, the team collapsed financially as Middlebridge was unable to make repayments against loans provided by Landhurst Leasing. The case was investigated by the UK Serious Fraud Office.
Brabham Media
Jack Brabham was 40 when he won the F1 drivers' title in a Brabham car.
Jack Brabham
The Brabham BT3, the first Brabham Formula One design
Brabham BT33. Technically conservative, Brabham did not produce a monocoque car until 1970.
Brabham BT34. Graham Hill took his final Formula One win in the non-championship BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone.
The Brabham BT44 on display in 2003. The car was used in the 1974 and 1975 seasons.
The Brabham BT49 competed over four seasons, winning one championship.
Nelson Piquet and his BT54 were hampered by Pirelli tyres in 1985.
Several F1 teams used Brabhams (Piers Courage, FWRC, 1969).
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