Brabham BT40

[Bryan Miller]

Colin,

It seems that your car was updated with 4 pot calipers on the front as well as my BT40-18 ex Chuck Dietrich , original ex factory was solid front and rear discs with Girling A.R 2.0'' front calipers and Girling D12R 1.687'' rears.
Observations suggest that some cars were upgraded by fitting 4 piston fronts on solid discs and transferring the front 2.0 '' calipers to the rear .

Shocks , Armstrongs can be repaired by some people [ if you can find someone] if they are the large knob type however the screwdriver slot adjustable seem to be non repairable.
Best replacement is Koni steel body , these are the same as fitted to all sorts of cars in the 1970s and can be obtained brand new.

Is your dry sump tank behind the drivers seat [ should be] why did you require a new one ?
The factory one is a beautifully made high strength alloy unit.

Bryan Miller.

[Collin Jackson]

Bryan

Yes I have solid rotors front and back with the calipers as you mentioned.
This was definitely done at the factory.
My Armstrong shocks are the screw driver style.
I remade the tank as it was leaking badly from the seals for the moumting bolt. The long mounting bolt goes directly through the oil tank and uses rubber seals for a seal. Did not like the idea of sitting in a pool of hot oil.
Collin

[Bryan Miller]

Colin,

My car has come with old style Spax which appear quite serviceable so I will use
those initially .
Bryan.

[Collin Jackson]

Tube #37
I am going to have some shocks made up special for the car to be period correct.
Just got my BDA engine rebuilt at 213HP and re-did the original Hewland.
Waiting on rebuilting the uprights before I can start final assembly.

Collin
From Canada

[Collin Jackson]

Currently putting my car together.
Entire tube is assembled with the drive line able to run.
Waiting on hubs and some nickle plated parts, plus a Cr. Moly nose frame.
Then onto the shocks and the rear wing.

I hope the picture I attached worked

[Collin Jackson]

Unfortunately we lost a great BT40 driver in Ron Householder last week. He died of ALS. Ron ran his BT40 (#37) from 1974 thru 1978 in various Club races as well as the Western races of the Player's Atlantic Series in Canada.
Ron lived in Portland Oregon and raced Formula B/Atlantic from 1970 thru 2011 in various cars (Lotus 2012, BT29, BT40, March77B, Ralt RT4, Swift DB4). God Speed Ron you will be missed by your many freinds.

[Collin Jackson]

Has anyone speced out a steel bofied Koni shock for this car?
I need a set and the specs would help a ton.
My car has 150 & 300 pound springs, was this the factory rates?
Collin J

[Chris Townsend]

Originally Posted by Collin Jackson

Unfortunately we lost a great BT40 driver in Ron Householder last week. He died of ALS. Ron ran his BT40 (#37) from 1974 thru 1978 in various Club races as well as the Western races of the Player's Atlantic Series in Canada.
Ron lived in Portland Oregon and raced Formula B/Atlantic from 1970 thru 2011 in various cars (Lotus 2012, BT29, BT40, March77B, Ralt RT4, Swift DB4). God Speed Ron you will be missed by your many freinds.

Really sorry to hear that. Corresponded with Ron several times about his cars, and he was always helpful and friendly. RIP Ron.

Chris

[Bryan Miller]

Colin,

My condolences to the family .

Springs and shocks .

I have a Brabham Users newsletter from years ago which suggests ex factory the cars were fitted with 100lb front and 140 rear which was not satisfactory and most upped the rates about 30% , so 130lb front and 180lb rear .

My car came with nickel plated period springs of 170lb fronts and non period rears of 350lb so to start I will use the 170lb fronts and fit some 225/250 rears .
I use 185lb front and 225 rear on my BT35 F2/Atlantic .

Shocks , somehow get in touch with Phil Harris , was/is the guru for Koni's in the USA , he spends his time these days between the USA and Australia , as I write he is I believe back in the US , he runs a Brabham BT23C which is here at the moment and he is the man for Koni's on these cars , tell him I advised you contact Phil.

Bryan Miller.

[Collin Jackson]

Bryan

Thanks for the comment on Ron, he was an important part of my life.
He gave me the car in 2011 when he realized he was sick. He wanted the car with me as I crewed on it for many years for him. As you can see we were very close.
As a result I am determined to get her not only finished, but vintage racing at the speeds she deserves. Fortunately there is a great group of 70's vintage Atlantic cars right now on the west coast of the USA.

Appreciate the contact info for Koni!

Collin J

[Collin Jackson]

Anyone have body work they want to sell?
I have plenty of narrow Noses and a mold, but no other spare bodywork.
I would love top body, seat back, and rad covers.\

Collin

[Daisy Dobermann]

Hi Collin,

I have body moulds for all the body parts to fit BT40 and BT41 cars.

I have some second hand parts but also make them new too.

if you go to www.mimspower.co.uk you can contact me through that site. Let me know what you are after and we can take it from there.

best regards

Richard

[Collin Jackson]

Richard
Plan to look at bodywork spares in the new year. Thanks. I will call you.
Anyone come up with a good repair for the rear wings? Mind has a front bolt mount that is a little loose. Seems like it it just foam inside so it is a little scary to run!
I did make up a rear wing mount and jig. Crome moly with ENC looks awesome.

[SidewaysFeltham]

Originally Posted by Collin Jackson

Richard
Plan to look at bodywork spares in the new year. Thanks. I will call you.
Anyone come up with a good repair for the rear wings? Mind has a front bolt mount that is a little loose. Seems like it it just foam inside so it is a little scary to run!
I did make up a rear wing mount and jig. Crome moly with ENC looks awesome.

Interestingly, back in 1973, I ran a BT40 rear wing on my Huron Atlantic.

More interestingly, we suffered a total wing detachment on the full Silverstone GP circuit........

Therefore, be very careful: the opposite to downforce exerted on the car, is the aerodynamic lift which is obviously equal and opposite.

Ergo, the tensile loading on the retaining fixing is very high.

About the only safe way if the internal foam has degraded is a very wide headed Pan bolt right thru from the top, with load spreading washer and same at the bottom, and refill the damaged foam first.

If a rear wing detaches at speed (In our case 170 mph along Hanger Straight) the car dives onto the front tabs and becomes totally uncontrollable, as the rear literally takes off!

Exciting.

[allenbrown]

Originally Posted by SidewaysFeltham

Interestingly, back in 1973, I ran a BT40 rear wing on my Huron Atlantic.

Aha! Just realised who you are. Hello Colin.

The Huron single-seaters are an interesting subject - can you help us sort them out?

First there was a Mk 1 driven by Del Bennett in 1971 and 1972 in Pinch Plant colours. Then at the end of 1972 that car went (I think) to you and another car appeared called the SS0A2 (or some variation) which was entered by R.A. McKinistry for Syd Fox. Some time around mid-1973, the McInistry/Fox car disappears and a Huron Cars entry appears for Jonny Dimsdale - same car I'm pretty sure.

Some time later, Alan Newton had one of these but I don't know which one. Later on again, in 1976, Barrie Carter had one at Prescott.

Colin - have I got much of this right? Where did your car go after you?

[SidewaysFeltham]

Originally Posted by allenbrown

Aha! Just realised who you are. Hello Colin.

The Huron single-seaters are an interesting subject - can you help us sort them out?

First there was a Mk 1 driven by Del Bennett in 1971 and 1972 in Pinch Plant colours. Then at the end of 1972 that car went (I think) to you and another car appeared called the SS0A2 (or some variation) which was entered by R.A. McKinistry for Syd Fox. Some time around mid-1973, the McInistry/Fox car disappears and a Huron Cars entry appears for Jonny Dimsdale - same car I'm pretty sure.

Some time later, Alan Newton had one of these but I don't know which one. Later on again, in 1976, Barrie Carter had one at Prescott.

Colin - have I got much of this right? Where did your car go after you?

Correct car; wrong person!

I was in fact the entrant. Ran an eight car team (Felspeed Racing): I then, apart from competing, had an International Entrant's Licence from 1971 to late 1973, which included the Huron. Colin Selvedge was one of my drivers.

Huron: interesting history.

The designer was the late Jo Marquart (ex Maclaren) the Swiss engineer. Jack Smith (Canadian), Roy Ireland and Marquart were founding directors. The major sponsorship deal with the Camel fag biz, R J Reynolds, evaporated and Huron Cars went into insolvency.

My car was indeed sponsored by Bruno Drury, the multi millionaire owner of a major Essex UK plant hire business: Bruno was a racing enthusiast.

He bought the Huron (described as an F3/F2) chassis, for Del Bennet and agreed to sponsor Del.

However, Del didn't achieve anything and his Ford Twin Cam was truthfully a real bag of bolts!

Having fettled Bruno's new V12 4 OVC Lambo Espada and sorted it (which the then UK concessionnaires in Aley Street, East End of London singularly failed to know how to do (! ), Bruno asked me to take over the car.

I agreed a sponsorship deal with Pinch.

Since Huron were struggling (October 1972) this was very much a development project! Thus I had to re-design much of the car; starting with the damned engine!

I asked Bruce Renny, an FVA/FVC wizzard to build me a new lump using as many of the acceptable bits as possible: from memory, that was the block!

When finished, Bruce and I ran the lump up to Tom at Titan Engineering for a day (hired an engine dyno: Tom was a very helpful and nice guy); as we arrived, Tom was just taking one of Graham Eden's engines, also an Atlantic Twink, off the dyno; Eden's lump had sort of exploded.......

After a modest run in, we adjusted mixture etc and Tom couldn't believe the power output! Rewarding! I still have the power/torque graph curve somewhere......

In fact I met Jo Marquart at Snetterton in 1973: I was shakedown testing the car, prior to the British GP at Silverstone, where we were a support race on the full GP circuit.

Jo was then with GRD (Brise Bros) just up the road, and Jo was able to provide me considerable advice on tyres and set up etc. Lovely man.

One further point of interest: Bruno Drury was also about to sponsor John Nicholson, (Nicholson Engine Services: who serviced and rebuilt Mclaren's Ford DFVs for their F1 team): John was competing in the UK Atlantic series in one of Martyn Slater's Lyncars. Indeed, John won the 1973 and 1974 championship!

Anyway, Bruno asked me to try and fettle the Bennet Twink just so Nicholson could test the Huron (Up to this point, Bennet had failed to finish one single race). John didn't like it! At least the lump worked OK but very down on power. And Nicholson stuck with his Lyncar. The new engine was built after this.

Bruno then went on to buy out Lyncar and asked Martyn Slater to build him an F1, Nicholson to drive. Sadly, John failed to finish one single F1 race. Went back to new Zealand and became a very successful offshore powerboat racer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ni...cing_driver%29

At least I got the damned dog to finish races! Sadly outclassed by BDA engined cars, by this time and the handling was always tricky.

It was fun, though!

Further webrefs here:

http://www.f3history.co.uk/Manufactu...uron/huron.htm

http://www.rmauctions.com/lots/lot.cfm?lot_id=851093

[SidewaysFeltham]

Allen: Sorry forgot to respond to one question.

I sold out in September 1973 and the Huron was purchased by a woman seeking a hillclimb car.

The remains of Huron Cars (jigs, moulds, spares) were bought from the receiver by a couple of guys (can't remember their names) and I used to purchase various the odd spares from them - based at Byfleet.

Cheers.

[SidewaysFeltham]

Just for reference, the Huron early 1973 in its ex Del Bennett Metalflake finish.

The rear wing is the one I designed and built with kind assistance from a an aerofoil scientist at RAE: it was a very high lift profile, and constructed from light wooden internal formers, thread on two dural rods and skinned in NS4.

It provided so much downforce, the side spoiler tabs kept hitting the tyres as the springs compressed and this separated the rear mounting and it was destroyed.........

[Collin Jackson]

I see the car has a BT40 nose.
Did any other Bt40 parts get used for the Huron?

Quit the adventure indeed and a great story from the day.

[SidewaysFeltham]

Originally Posted by Collin Jackson

I see the car has a BT40 nose.

Did it? Or did Jo simply copy the profile?

At core, the Huron was trying to break away from the mainstream; as one example, the spring-shocks were inboard and used pivoted upper wishbones to carry the loading thru the pivot and lower the frontal aspect.

Did any other BT40 parts get used for the Huron?

All apart from the rear wing, which was indeed a Brabham part supplied by Brabham to what was left of Huron Cars Ltd of Byfleet (and admitted as Brabham part ) by the two guys who bought what was left from the administrators, I believe the rest was a pretty standard "Cookie Cutter" formula car of that time.

i.e. Monocoque by Arch, or Grand Prix Metalworks and the body envelope in GRP by the main company then making GRP skins for almost everyone (I forget their name: all I can remember is they built their own wind tunnel using a VW flat four Beetle motor!).

Gearbox, standard 5 speed Hewland FT400.

I would guess the mag wheels, uprights etc were Huron design parts.

Quite (edit) the adventure indeed and a great story from the day.

It was indeed.

Back then, teams were divided into those with mega-wealthy sponsors and the rest!

Whilst our sponsor, Pinch Plant and more particularly the owner and founder, Bruno Drury, was a very wealthy outfit, his actual sponsorship was limited.

So I paid for the majority from my business at the time.

Would have killed for a decent BDA, though!

[SidewaysFeltham]

Correction:

The transaxle was of course Hewland FT200; not as earlier stated an FT400, since the FT400 was the then F1/5000 unit.

[Collin Jackson]

Anyone have pictures of Al Lader running My BT40 in 1973?
He ran in the Canadian Player Pacific series and other races in 73.

IE: I am looking for sponsors decals and decal placement information.

[Mike Rand]

Regarding Al Laders BT40 in 1973, I found a photo on a site called "Old Racing Cars" which is a gold mine of results of North American FB and F Atlantic racing from the late 1960's up.
There is a section specifically about Canadian Formula B in 1973, the lead photo is of Lader in front of Craig Hill, both in BT40's.
In 1973 only Canadian citizens could compete for the Canadian Championship so in spite of winning 4 races Lader does not appear in the final points standings ! They altered that in 1974. Other names in BT40's were Mike Hall, Gilles Leger and Bill Eagles, who ran his BT40 for a few years. Anyone know or know of Bill Eagles ? I was in FB at the time and don't recall ever meeting Bill. No idea if he is still with us or not or where he was from. Bertil Roos also drove an Opert BT40 several times winning at Mosport in August of 1973 as well as at the USGP supporting FB race at Watkins Glen in October of that year. I struggled to a top 10 finish in a recalcitrant March 73B. Sad event as we were already pre-gidded when Cevert went in and after the delay on the pace lap we were confronted with the sobering sight of fresh unpainted guardrails up through the esses[the Glen always had the infamous " blue bushes" painted Armco, still does in fact !].
'73 was still the twincam [twink] era as Canada went BDA in 1974 and we, SCCA, followed in 1975 I think if I remember correctly.
On another subject I have just gotten the ex-Duclos BT40 in my shop after recently buying it from the last of a long string of owners.
This is, as noted elsewhere in this BT40 thread, chassis number BT40-17.
I had a BT40 as well, also described in previous posts in this thread, and raced Kenny pretty hard for a while back then.
The car is mostly original, rear wing is off a later '70's March, the car is sitting on Chevron rims but I anticipate delivery any day now of a full set of original BT40 wheels from Douglas Brenner in California.
So I have this spectacular Brabham and cannot wait until April 22 when I expect to first drive it at Lime Rock before a few other outings with the car in 2014.
To include the grand re-opening of the refurbished and renovated Thompson Speedway in Northeast CT in late June, which both the car and driver have significant history at from 1968 until 1975.

[Collin Jackson]

Anyone out there played with front upright spacers to optimize the suspension?
Mine did not have any spacers at all under the upper a-arm bearing? Seems unlikely to me. also What about ride hieghts? 4" rear and 2 3/4" on the front seem pretty high.

[Collin Jackson]

Mike

Thanks for the link! Congratulations on getting BT40-17 back together for this season.
I too am planning to run this spring for the very first time in the car. I attended many of the western Players Pacific Canadian races from 1973 on as crew for Ron Householder. Ron ran a BT-29 until late 1973 when he bought the BT-40 from Al Lader.
We ran Mostly at the Westwood and Edmonton Players races. I will have to look you up in the records. Do you have a pictures of your old March and your BT-40?