Brabham BT16

[Bob Micheletti]

Originally Posted by Bob Micheletti

I second that motion! This board is amazing...

Brabham BT-16 F2-23-65

When I purchased the car it was without a logbook but came with a journal that had the following entries:

[Probably Simon Gardner]
On July 19-78 I bought from Kevin Skinner one Brabham BT 16 with BT 21 suspension. Car is without engine. Skinner sold me a Ford Twin Cam 1600cc with about 8500 RPM’s.

[Probably Jerry Ives]
Car purchased Nov 4-79 from Simon Gardner in Burnaby. Car is with Twin Cam in good running order. Rebuild body change color to red – white wings.

[Next page – unknown who wrote recap of history. Handwriting does not match]
Bought 1967 by Rob Leeson, raced in UK that year, crashed at Silverstone rebuilt and brought to Westwood 1968. Raced all season in conference. 1968 champion. Sold to Pierce Isaacs (pi symbol) in 1970. Ran 1970 season and 1971. Retired.
Sat dis-assembled at Abingdon Motors till Skinner bought in 1973.

When I bought the car I made the following entry:
Car bought from Jerry Ives by Bob Micheletti in Feb 1985 (Jerry had used the car for school in Canada purchase date unknown). Ground up restoration by Bob in early 85 to prepare car for vintage racing. First vintage race 7-85 at Willow Springs. New logbook started.

The car was Maroon when I bought it from Jerry. He had brought it down from Canada when he moved to California. He never ran the car in the US. It had the dash plate with f2-23-56 on it. I neglected to record the Arch Motors number. The rear suspension was BT 21 but the original pickup points for the short hub carriers were still there. It had the MRD cast motor mounts for the Twin Cam and a Brabham magnesium gearbox adaptor and side plates on a mk5. It came with a George Reed fuel cell installed, an aluminum can (probably the original tank) with a rubbery coating on the outside and foam inside. Spare parts included a large aluminum tank that wrapped over the top of the foot well and down the other side intricately fit around the side tubes to get maximum capacity. With both tanks the capacity must have been 15 or 20 gallons. There were 10 Brabham wheels, if I remember correctly 2 - 5”, 2 – 7” and 2 – 9” daises (round spoke), 2 - 10” and 2 - 12” square spokes. It also had a hole through the nose for a set of wings and a high wing for the rear, which I never used.

I completely disassembled the car and stripped the frame to check the welds. The car was reassembled with all new hardware, bearings, plumbing and electrical. I raced it the rest of 85 including the first “Return to Palm Springs Road Races” in November. The following year, 86 I won the “single seat points championship” with VARA (Vintage Auto Racing Association). In the middle of the year I repainted the bodywork orange with a white stripe and band on the nose. On of the highlights of 86 was a support race we ran for the Times Grand Prix of Endurance at my favorite track, Riverside. It was supposed to be a vintage formula 1 race but to fill the field there were some F-5000s, Atlantics and B cars invited. I put the 10s and 12s on with slicks and had a ball! I finished 3rd overall and first in class, ahead of some very fast cars. Also in 86 Sir Jack signed the logbook at the Palm Springs event. In 87 I again won the points for the year.

At the beginning of 1988 I sold the car to Christopher Leggett. He had the car gone through completely again by Rick Cresse and Kevin Bollinger of Vintage Racecar Restoration. The engine was redone by Dave Vegher and the car painted red with a white stripe. It is fuzzy how long Chris ran the car but I think 2 or 3 years. He then sold it to David Long who pained it black. I saw the car at 2 VARA events but lost track of it after that. I will see if I can find out where the car is currently and post again. I think I have a lead but it may take some time.

Sorry for the loooong post but once you get me started I can't SHUT UP!

Please see this thread for my current project (another Ron T. car)

http://tentenths.com/forum/showthrea...t=88715&page=2
starts at post #20

Regards,

Bob Micheletti

Ralt 1980 RT-5 #201
1966 Diva Valkre

I just wanted to report back on this chassis. I connected with Kevin Skinner in July of 2020 on another racing forum. He confirmed what I had posted above from the notebook that I had received with the car.

Kevin Skinner:
"Bob
Yes I was a previous owner of this car.
Pictures of the car are at https://www.dropbox.com/home/public
I purchased the car from Pierce Isacs but it was imported by Rob Leason. Unsure of the history before Pierce or since I sold to Simon Gardner but would be interested to know what you have found out.
The car is a BT16 with upgraded BT21 rear suspension sold with a Twin Cam race engine and a Mk5 gear box. I added the rear wing and Chevron sports car nose. Car was sold with the original Brabham nose along with the modified pieces. I had the roll bar upgraded to then current regulations. When sold the car still had the original alum tanks which were a work of art.
I will dig around and see if I can come up with contact info for Rob, Pierce and Simon
Please feel free to contact me with any questions and history

Kevin"

In 2017 I had connected with another gentleman, Steve Davis who had purchased the car. I encouraged him to post an update but since it doesn't look like he has I will continue the story for him.

Enough for now,
Bob

[nirvanadream]

Good evening,
who could tell me which Brabham chassis number were fitted with the Ford Cosworth SCA with fuel injection, is it only the factory cars?

[nirvanadream]

Hi , I’d like to find the right British racing green for bT16 works team 1965
Thank you