Brabham BT21

[Bryan Miller]

BT21C-17 ,

New to Malcolm Eaves , but did not appear untill Prescott Spring meeting 1970 , apparently due to Ron T. not wanting to build it with the Buick eng , and when it did appear the eng. bay [ from memory ] was BT23C.

1971-1973 Peter Boshier Jones with Buick.
1973-1979 Nigel Pow with 5 litre quad cam Repco.
1979-1981 John Harper .
1981-1983 to Les Wright in Australia.
1983-1987 to Clive Osborne in Oz .
1987-present back to Les Wright Oz.

Bryan.

[David McKinney]

Originally Posted by Bryan Miller

Called out as 1966 build , 1st event December 1966 at Pukekohe, thence to Les Jones 1967-8 , then to Graham Baker 1968-70 , thence Allan Rhodes 1970-3 , then Russell Noble 1973-5 , then Neil Whittaker 1975-2001, sold to Robert Hands of Melbourne .
David do you concur.?

Close
First event with Harvey at Pukekohe Dec 1967
Then (in seasons):
1967/68: Harvey > Jones March
1968/69: Jones > Baker April
1969/70: Baker > Rhodes late
1970/71: Rhodes
1971/72: Noble
After that it gets confusing, as many parts were used in the construction of the Noble sportscar which raced the following season, and till 1978, and ultimately ended up with NZ Brabham collector David Manton.
The bits not used for the sportscar were built into Neil Whittaker's FF, which he raced from 1973, IIRC, and owned for many years afterwards - 2001, if you say so.
I don't know which parts went into which car, so can't be sure how much BT21 (or BT21A) remained with Whittaker

[Chris Townsend]

Rest of BT21s so far!

32: 1967 Egert Haglund, kept by Haglund early 68 then to Eddie Jacobsson; then 1969 to Richard Scott, run by Williams and updated to BT21B. Sold to Bert Hawthorne when Scott got his Chevron. Run by Hawthorne in UK F3 races in 1970. This is not Hawthorne's Tasman car I think.

33: 1967 not sure, but appears 1968 Race of Champions run by Lythgoe for Gethin with a BMW 2 litre in the back, so maybe a Lythgoe F3 car in 1967. Run by Millar with the Beemer still in it in 1969 Libre races

34: Don't know

35: April 1967 for Cassegrain, run by Lamplough, so maybe he owned the car. Cassegrain again in 68

36: Williams team car to mid 69 then sold to Canada and used in FB. Maybe Bruce Jensen's BT21 in Canadian championship

37: Ingvar Pettersson 67 and 68

38: Lars Lindberg 1967

39 and 40 : Don't know

41: 1967 FIRST for Mac Daghorn to replace early season car, 1968 to Alan Deacon for Libre

42: 1967 don't know. 68: Kenny Lall

43: 1967 don't know. 68 Williams for Burton, so maybe a Williams car in 67

44: 1967 - 68: Juoko Valli, 1969 Jonas Quanstrom

45: Not known before March 1971 when Jeff Uren has it for sale in Autosport, so maybe the Uren team car all the way back to 68 at least when Uren runs "Pele" [not the Pele]

46: 1967 don't know, 1968 Phil Tose entered by Ian Walker, so maybe a late season Walker replacement in 67

47: Don't know

48: Williams to USA thanks Bryan! Would the known history back to the early 70s include anything that might interest someone researching the history of Atlantic and FB races?

49: 67 perhaps Lythgoe mid season replacement used by Berry and Rollinson, 68 Goodwin racing for Cyd Williams, 69 Goodwin then sold to John Buxton, retained by Buxton to end 71, F/S Autosport Jan 27 72, then to Howlings. Owned by Lou Pavesi, California, at some point, now owned by Bruce Mansell.

New cars in 67 still to be accounted for:

Charlie Lucas
Tetsu Ikuzawa
Peter Fattorini
Mervyn Wingfield
Sports Motors: Gethin
Winfield: Tico Martini
Woodward
FIRST: Mac Daghorn [early season]
Jurg Dubler [badly damaged in the Casserta F3 accident]
Williams: Mauro Montagnani
Williams: Ole Vejlund
Kurt Lincoln
Carlos Gaspar
Lamplough: Phillipe de Henning
Bridges: Malcolm Foulds
Silvio Moser
Jorgen Ellekaer [maybe Williams]
Alain Franchesci
Mike Hiss [FB]
Fred Opert [FB]
Joe Grimaldi [FC]

[Chris Townsend]

The 21A advertised by Wingfield is probably 21A-12
1967: Stockbridge: John Fenning 1968: Stockbridge: Fenning-> Nick Williamson 1969: Nick Williamson->Robin Darlington->Jim Charnock Run by Wingfield at Thruxton FL 22.5 [MN report says it's ex Charnock]

Chris

[Bryan Miller]

Chris,
I wasn't being devious when I posted re. BT21-48 , as this is what I have been advised , but as a formal application hasn't been recieved , and knowing the owner , may not progress for years is best I can do at the moment , and as it appears to have always been a Twin-cam car it should help someone.

David, I have just re-read Vercoe's version of events , and think we have two distinct cars , both of which at one time were with the same person, i.e. Russ Noble. and the owner may have histories of two cars intertwined.

Bryan.

[Bryan Miller]

Chris,

Vercoe's book also advises BT21-19 was bought back from the U.K. by Bert Hawthorne , and first race at Timaru Feb. 1968 . But this doesn't work with your call out of BT21-19.
In Oz in period we had no permanent resident BT21 series cars , they have all migrated in since.

Bryan.

[Bryan Miller]

Chris,

BT21-48 is the car owned by Bruce Mansell , not -49, as far as I know.

Bryan.

[Chris Townsend]

Bryan

Vercoe never struck me as terribly reliable, especially when Allen and I looked at F5000 cars. I haven't looked at the 1967/8 races yet, and don't know what Hawthorne drove in UK in 67, but in 68 in UK he uses a BT21B which is then sold to Ed Reeves for the 69 British season. He then takes what my notes record as 'the last one built' of the BT21Cs - so BT21C-19?. F1R has this chassis no in its Tasman book [don't know how reliable that is!] and it staying downunder with Cary Taylor in 1970.
What might confuse Vercoe is that the BT21B which Hawthorne buys in the UK to race F3 in 69 is ex Graham Coaker. [AS 6.6.69 p. 2] But this is NOT, as far as I can tell, BT21-19, which is also raced by Coaker in 69 [when it belongs to Mike Stow], and which has been updated by then to B spec. Rather it is a genuine 21B. In Sept 69 it goes to David Martell [AS 25.9.69 p. 24]

I would have to have a good look at MN and AS late 67 to start getting further on this at this end. My guess however, is that Vercoe took 21C-19 and extrapolated back that this had always been Hawthorne's car and that he'd just upgraded it. He actually gets through at least four Brabhams between late 67 and Sept 69.

Chris

[Bryan Miller]

Chris,

We have agreed before on Vercoe's info being a bit suspect , I would tend to believe that the car is probably BT21C-19 , most people don't have a clue that there were so many different BT21 varietys.

Bryan.

[Bryan Miller]

Would you believe varieties.

[David McKinney]

Just went back to my earliest (pre-Vercoe) records to check the number of Hawthorne's NZ BT21, and find I don't have one. I do however have it listed as a BT21C: this could be a later description, perhaps after an update (Hawhorne did wok at Brabhams after all, and could easily have brought home an update kit at some stage).
I always believed the car he raced in NZ was brand new, and not one he had raced in the UK. It was landed in November 1967 but there were problems with Customs and it did not race until Feb 1968

[IANHEB]

Chris,
I have BT21-47 at Silverstone in 2000 presented as the ex Tony Trimmer car that he used as a Formula Ford.
Ian

[Chris Townsend]

Interesting, according to a piece on TT in Motoring News that was ex Williams (a wrecked Ikuzawa car from Oulton) which Trimmer rebuilt in the evenings for nothing. 1969 sold to Martin Grant-Peterkin and retained in 1970 [MN 26.2.70 p.7]
I'd be surprised to learn that the plate was still on it, but will pencil 47 in as the Ikuzawa - Trimmer car

Chris

[Ted Walker]

BT21-47 is now back with its second owner Martin Grant -Peterkin.He re-purchased from Mattthew Watts after Mattew had retired the car ,after racing it for several seasons in Historic formula ford .Whilst in Mattews ownership he re-united it with Tony Trimmer who helped with the shake down tests.It still retains its plate.

[James Murray]

Can vouch for bt21-47 being driven very quickly by Mr Watts during his ownership and also being involved in a very spectacular aerial display a couple of years ago in a hottly disputed Formula Ford race at Silverstone.

[Ted Walker]

Thank you James. I will remind Matt of this when I see him this afternoon.

[Teretonga]

I can remember reports in period saying thatHawthorne's BT21 in NZ was a new one he built up while working at Brabhams. It was supposed to have had a six speed gearbox from one of the 66 Brabham Honda 1.0 F2 cars.

[Steve Wilkinson]

So far the following remain unidentified:

BT21A - Sir Nick Williamson then to Howard Bennett
BT21B - Bryan Brown then to Peter Blankstone who installed a Hepworth 4-w-d system
BT21B - John Barr with 1.0 engine (1970)
BT21B - Roger Hickman with 1.0 engine (1970)
BT21/BT23 - Roy Lane
BT14/BT21 - Roy Lane then to Jimmy Johnstone (NB not the BRYAN ECCLES car)

NB BT21A-9 went from Tony Griffiths to Gray & Agnes Mickel before Griffiths bought it back. He then sold it on to Tom Elton.

[Expat]

FYI - I have BT-21 Chassis no. 23. Though the Arch Motors number stamp is long gone from the frame (assume from some amount of contact with the armco over the years by previous owners - though I shouldn't talk having not helped matters by spinning her into the pit wall at Brands last July ), the FIA papers and history indicate that the car was built in 1967 as a screamer and since then converted to twin cam spec.

[Chris Townsend]

Expat

Does the log book identify the first owners?
Any idea when the twink was installed?

cheers
Chris

[Expat]

Chris,

Unfortunately there is no history on this.

Regards,

Expat

[rbracing]

Can anyone help me with any history of my Brabham BT21A-2. please? The data prior to 1990 I have seems confused. I am also interested in any photos etc. indicating original colours.

rb

[Chris Townsend]

Most 21As were sold in America for the FB series.
I only have limited period information for a very few British based cars.
What names and other data do you have on the history? We may be able to join the dots with known 21A users where I don't know the actual car

Chris

[rbracing]

Chris,
your post of 12Dec04 refers to BT21A-12. I believe, and my papers support it, that it is in fact #-2. I do have a picture of the car with John Fenning at Prescott. There is a "Supplied by Frank Williams" decal on the side of the nose. Other owners listed are John Longfield, Jim Charnock,Robin Darlington, Steve Malins, Harvey ????,Roger Murray, Graham North and prior to myself, Stephan Foster. It may have been that the car was originally in F2/Libre spec. but competed in several different specs. It has the original number gearbox but is known to have had the original (?) TwinCam replaced with a Fiat twin cam in a sprint form before being returned to its original and present spec.
At present I have only a couple of B+W photographs and some race reports from Autosport in the '70's. If there is any interest, and I knew how to, I would post some past and present photographs.
I only came across this site a couple of days ago. I must say how interesting it is. The depth of knowledge staggering and I have only visited this historic forum so far!
Regards

[Chris Townsend]

rb

I'll have to go back into my Brabham notes file and see where my original note of this car being chassis 12 came from.
My ownership trail for it in period runs Stockbridge Racing late 67 for John Fenning [and I understand it to be new at this point], sold by Stockbridge to Sir Nick Williamson mid 68; Williamson to Robin Darlington to Jim Charnock during 1969; kept by Charnock for a couple of years and then turns up at a libre race at Thruxton, May 72, described as owned by Williams [presumably part of a deal] but driven by John Wingfield.

Both Ted Walker and Bryan Miller can probably help here with their extensive Brabham records!

Chris