Brabham BT40

[Gary Jarlson]

Chris/Allen

I have the following information on a couple of the BT40/41s.

BT40-33: The car and an engine from Swindon was purchased by Ted Titmas through Brabham dealer Swanson Motor Racing of Costa Mesa, CA with provision made for Titmas to pick it up at MRD. The already-paid-for car sat at the factory for quite a bit of time, prompting several calls from Eccelstone as to what was going on. Perhaps, since it was just sitting there, Bernie figured he would run it for Reutemann at Thruxton. Titmas eventually collected the car and ran a couple of UK events before shipping it back home. Titmas ran the car sporadically in the US before selling it. The next time I saw the car, which had a '74/'75B March nose, was when I raced against it at club eents at Las Vegas and Riverside. It was owned an driven by John Angus. Marc Bahner bought the car and restored it, updating it to 4-poot Lockheeds on the front and aluminum Konis. Bahner sold the car and it was raced in West Coast clubs events by George Seidel (sp?) and Bob Schilling. The last time I saw the car, about 6 or 7 years ago, was at a vintage race in Tustin, CA, and was owned, I believe, by Ken Partch (sp?) Just today, I came across an ad for the car in the August 2005 edition of Vintage Racecar magazine. I spoke with the then-owner, Perry Sands. He said he sold the car last year, but doesn't remember who he bought it. He claims the car was Titmas", but the chassis number is 35.

BT 40-30: This ex-Meyers-Munroe-Christ-Whitton-Fazzi car is supposedly now owned by Tom Crowther in Texas.

BT41-30: This car, currently advertised on the Race Car Sales site, was raced in Southern California in the late '70s and early '80s by Tom Spagnola. The ad says the body is Falconer, but it looks very much like a kit Marc Bahner produced for several Brabhams, including his own BT29, my BT28 and Warren Pogue's BT38. It consisted of a '73B March nose and cowling and a '74B engine cover. Interest note: the ad says the car has an aluminum tub, but when I comtemplated buying from Spagnola, I was warned away because the BT41s were built with steel tubs to meet F3 minimum weight.

Gary Jarlson

[Gary Jarlson]

In the above post, I misspelled someone's name: it should be Warren Pauge, not Pogue.
Gary Jarlson

[Pete Brennan]

BT 40-30: This ex-Meyers-Munroe-Christ-Whitton-Fazzi car is supposedly now owned by Tom Crowther in Texas.
Would be surprised if he has it,as it is sitting in my shop in Australia with correct chassis plate and all log books.
Thanks
Pete

[Gary Jarlson]

Peter

I cannot argue with you, this is just what I was told by Marc Bahner. From whom and when did you get BT40-30? I'm in need of a project and was thinkng of calling Crowther about the chassis he has. I'll let the forum know when I find out.
Gary Jarlson

[Gary Jarlson]

Yet another small correction (the memory bank is unstable after nearly 35 years): I was talking tonight with one of my compatriots from back in the day at Swanson Motor Racing and he reminded me that, while we were going to order an engine for Titmas' BT40-33 from Swindon, that didn't happen due to some sort of an issue. We ended up getting it from Race Engine Services, possibly at the suggestion of Mr. Eccelestone. I apologize for that misinformation.
Gary Jarlson

[Douglas Brenner]

There is a picture of me driving the Titmus BT40 at Riverside on my website www.brennerfab.com in the "dougs bio" section. I totally restored this car around 1995 as a partner with Bob Schilling, but it was sold to Ken Parch by my wife after out divorce in kind of a shady deal. I am not sure what the number is but the car I had was probably the last BT40. I am in contact with Ted Titmus and can get any info that might be needed. I believe Ted had two BT40's. He crashed the first (in England) and the car that I restored was put togeather for him in 1972 with parts at the factory. Ted tells me that that car was the last Brabham customer car. I also have somewhere the pictures of the car after restoration. I still have a nice set of 10" and 14" wheels from that car for sale ($8000).

[Douglas Brenner]

Riverside circa 1986

[Chris Townsend]

Agree that Titmus probably had a second BT40 in 1973 as he doesn't debut 40-33 in UK until 9 Sept 73 [Adam Ferrington noted chassis number at Oulton Park] and he's been driving a BT40 in SCCA before then. Hardly likely that he would have shipped that car back to UK for a few races and then back to US. I think he wanted to get a second car as back up and have a newer chassis for the SCCA run offs. 33 must have sat around the shop at MRE for some time as 36 is ready by June.

Quick recap on BT40s

11 - Opert: Probably Hall at 1972 ARRC then Brian Robertson [w/o Singapore GP] [probably used by Roos]. 1974: Rebuitl and raced as hire car by Opert team, 1975: Gary Wallace

12 -Works F2: Watson; 1974: Eugenio Baturone; 1977 John Hart; 1979: Barrie Dutnall

13 - not built?

14 - John Wingfield F2/F.Atlantic 1974: Wingfield for Ray Mallock, also 1975 then loaned to Len Booysen. Maybe taken back to ZA by Booysen

15: not known

16: not known

17: Ken Duclos to 1976, then Peter Gates Sr

18: Chuck Dietrich, 1974: David Ralston; 1976 Ned Clark

19: Vittorio Venturi F2; 1974 "Shangry La"

20: Italy, probably unused F2; 1974: Hans Rudi Wittwer

21: Graham Eden for Cyd Williams to 1976, then David Winstanley

22: Not known

23: not known

24: not known

25: not known

26: not known before 1982 in SCCA NE with John Macaluso. Area suggests might have been an Opert car or Canadian

27: not known, in Matthews collection recently

28: not known

29: not known

30: Olney Mairs to 1975, then Mark Munroe, 1979 Richard Christ

31: not known

32: not known in period but f/s Coys Padova 2006, suggesting Euro hillclimb history more than anything else

33: Titmus

34: not known

35: John McDonald [Hong Kong]

36: Works F2 de Adamich, 1974: Tom O'Leary; 1978 John Ledlie

37: Alan Lader probably replacing an earlier car, written off. 1974: Ron Householder

38: not known

39: not known before 1975: Moto Kitano Japanese F2. Suggests previous history in US or SEA.

Unknown users:

Opert has at least three cars in rotation, including one late season for Jaussaud at Trois Rivieres and new there, so 38?

Ed Reeves buys a car for Dave Morgan, damaged in pre-season and never raced

Albert Poon has one and keeps it in family to at least 1977 so can't be Kitano car

Craig Hill has one to end 74 and then goes to Howard Kelly 1976

Gilles Leger [Montreal] has one

Michael Hall perhaps rents from Opert, more likely to own car

John Milledge

Ron Southern [Glen Ellen CA] retained to at least 1976

Chris

[Douglas Brenner]

I don't believe Ted had two cars at one time. I think the first one was crashed. I will get a hold of him and find out what actually happened.

[Jonathan Burke]

Hello all;

Pardon me in advance if I double post this- I'm new at this so please forgive me.

I have yet another BT-40 which I purchased about a year ago from a friend. It is one of the two cars purchased by Dragoni for the CSAI in '73 or '74 and was used in the national race school in Italy. This car was purchased by a fellow named Giorgio Schon in '86 from the CSAI, was resored and raced minimally till Dave Rugh of Portland, Oregon bought the car in '98 and brought it over to the US. The car has an Arch Motors number (AM73-20) but no chassis plate. Tho photo attached is me racing the car last May with the HGP group at Thunderhill in Northern California.

In a previous thread Stephen Griswold mentioned the pair of BT-40's sold by the factory to Dragoni. This is the other car.

So any help in determining the chassis number would truly appreciated!

Thanks-

Jonathan Burke, Berkeley, California

[Richard Knox]

I just ran accross this thread. I used to own a BT40 ( as well as a BT35) which I bought from David Kerr ( Jamaica ) & subsequently sold it to Bob Howlings ( UK ). I have no knowledge what happened to it but I suspect that it may have been the Bill Eagles car referred to in an earlier post.

[allenbrown]

Welcome Richard. Can you remember what year this might have been?

[RJ Nelkin]

Funny BT38---BT40 story. My friend Chris Chrisafulli had a BT38 and was looking for a newer car. My wife was over at Fred Operts shop picking up some parts for us and while sitting in his office she noticed a check for $3500. made out to Paul Corazzo..She called me because I knew what the check was for: Corazzo's BT40...so I called paul and told him that I would give him $3800. for the car that day...bought it and sold it to Chrisifulli the next day for $4500.......I was not dishonest...just opertunistic...get it opertxxxxxx..RJ

[Andrew Fellowes]

Originally Posted by Richard Knox

I just ran accross this thread. I used to own a BT40 ( as well as a BT35) which I bought from David Kerr ( Jamaica ) & subsequently sold it to Bob Howlings ( UK ). I have no knowledge what happened to it but I suspect that it may have been the Bill Eagles car referred to in an earlier post.

Richard may I ask about the BT35? Mike Sharott had one in Jamaica BT35-35?
(I'll copy this to the BT35 thread)
Andrew

[Mike Rand]

Mike Rand here, enjoying the read.
Funny story RJ, how are you ? God knows if anyone was opportunistic it was, and I'm sure still is, Fred Opert.
Another thread I can add a bit of information to.
I bought the rebuilt Brian Robertson car [after he destroyed it in Singapore in 1973] from Opert to replace my crashed Rondel/Motul M1 in the early fall of 1974. Took it to Road Atlanta for the Runoffs, finished third in a 3 BT40 train, Duclos-Mike Hall-me with a new lap record that day.
I ran the car all of 1975 and it was showing it's age as an Atlantic/B car so I converted it to FC with a Cosworth BDJ 1,100cc injected motor. A little heavy for FC when guys were running F3 chassis with the same motor but a typical Brabham, strong, forgiving, easy to work on, brave, thrifty, clean, etc etc all the good Boy Scout stuff.
As someone else posted, no chassis number for you, we just didn't care back then.
Sold it to Larry Snover from Pennsylvania somewhere and I think he sold it to Ohio where at one point someone contacted me as they were converting it to a sports racer of some description.
I loved that car, real quality, a far cry from a modern production race car.

[Chris Townsend]

Originally Posted by Mike Rand

Sold it to Larry Snover from Pennsylvania somewhere and I think he sold it to Ohio where at one point someone contacted me as they were converting it to a sports racer of some description.

Mike, good to have you join us!! Might be the BT40 run by Dale Wise in Cen Div ASR in the early 80s

[allenbrown]

I've only just spotted Mike's story:

Originally Posted by Mike Rand

Mike Rand here, enjoying the read.
Funny story RJ, how are you ? God knows if anyone was opportunistic it was, and I'm sure still is, Fred Opert.
Another thread I can add a bit of information to.
I bought the rebuilt Brian Robertson car [after he destroyed it in Singapore in 1973] from Opert to replace my crashed Rondel/Motul M1 in the early fall of 1974. Took it to Road Atlanta for the Runoffs, finished third in a 3 BT40 train, Duclos-Mike Hall-me with a new lap record that day.
I ran the car all of 1975 and it was showing it's age as an Atlantic/B car so I converted it to FC with a Cosworth BDJ 1,100cc injected motor. A little heavy for FC when guys were running F3 chassis with the same motor but a typical Brabham, strong, forgiving, easy to work on, brave, thrifty, clean, etc etc all the good Boy Scout stuff.
As someone else posted, no chassis number for you, we just didn't care back then.
Sold it to Larry Snover from Pennsylvania somewhere and I think he sold it to Ohio where at one point someone contacted me as they were converting it to a sports racer of some description.
I loved that car, real quality, a far cry from a modern production race car.

Originally Posted by allenbrown

I have another possible fate for BT38/1. The 'Osprey SR-1' 2 litre sportsracer built to Can-Am spec in 1977/78 was based on "an ex-Graham Hill Formula 2 car that a Chicago racer brought over from Europe". Could this be BT38/1 or could it be one of the older Rondel BT36s that he drove in 1971. I'm off to the BT36 thread next...

Allen

Originally Posted by allenbrown

I have a little more on this Osprey business. The two people who built the Osprey, Jack Finucan and Dan Hartill, bought the "ex-Hill Formula 2 Brabham BT34[sic]" from Chuck Dietrich along with some Lola T294 bodywork and a pair of FVCs. Jack recalls that Dietrich was importing quite a bit of stuff from Europe.

It would have been pretty old by this time. Any of this helpful? From reading the threads, it appears more likely to be a BT38 than a BT36.

Allen

The timing is right and the location (Ohio) is right for this to be the Osprey. Everything else is wrong but it's worth bearing in mind.

[Gary Jarlson]

The acknowledged Titmus car is up for sale out of San Diego. The ad (Apexspeed Vintage section) doesn't say who the currentowner, just that he's getting out of racing.

[marc bahner]

Bt - 40-33
It seems soom of the prevoius facts are distorted by time - I owned BT40-33 - completely restored by myself, with a stock BT40 nose/wing set up. Sold it to George Seidel.

Also the car currently owned by Tom Crowther is chasssis BT41-16. I built this tub for Mike Fazzi, who sold it to Tom. For someone looking for a excellent project should call Tom. The Monocuque has never been assembled after my build. Tom has the complete car.

Marc

[Chris Townsend]

Originally Posted by marc bahner

Bt - 40-33
It seems soom of the prevoius facts are distorted by time - I owned BT40-33 - completely restored by myself, with a stock BT40 nose/wing set up. Sold it to George Seidel.

Also the car currently owned by Tom Crowther is chasssis BT41-16. I built this tub for Mike Fazzi, who sold it to Tom. For someone looking for a excellent project should call Tom. The Monocuque has never been assembled after my build. Tom has the complete car.

Marc

Marc, great to have you on the forum. I have you buying BT40-33 in 1978 from Wilbur Bunce. Is that right?

Was the Fazzi BT41 the car he ran in SoCal races around 1976?

Have sent you a private mail

[marc bahner]

Pete - I recall Fazzi driving the car - time frame sounds right it was Mark Monroe's car (killed in a sprint crash).

[marc bahner]

Gary - I made a mistake - I 've had the flu and been on medication last 10 days and my brain has been fizzled - upon further recolection Tom Crowther received in trade from Mike Fazzi a 76 March, Mark 4 Mclaren and a Winkleman FB. I did the March and McLaren chassis for Tom. Near the same time frame I restored Tom's BT41 chassis converting it from steel to aluminum. This car Tom still has as it had been run in the US in FB trim many a year prior to Tom's ownership. I did not do Mikes BT40 and I don't know if he still owns that car. I am reasonability certain that Fazzi's chassis was the Mark Monroe Car. Toms chassis is BT41-16. Sorry for my stupid mistake. Hope this helps. Tom's car does had a BD and FT200 and is in full atlantic trim. The car is apart as a project, I can't believe someone hasn't grabbed it.

Best - Marc

[Douglas Brenner]

The car I re-restored (Pictured somewhere above) was the George Sidel car. I just saw it on the following website: http://www.jdcracing.com/TheCARS/tabid/54/Default.aspx

On a side note, I am suprised to find Marc Bahner in NP. I go to Thousand Oaks ever few months. All of my kids graduated from Newbery Park HS. To Marc: Email me some contact info at Douglas@brennerfab.com. I would love to hook up next time I am down.

[Phil Franzone]

Hi all. Is this thread still active? I have just aquired to Brabhams and could sure use some help with their history?

[Phil Franzone]

Make that "two" Brabhams.