Brabham BT15

[Denis Lupton]

Phillipe
Also saw the R&M Auction's ad,for BT15 #11, emailed them for any info, but no answer. BT15 - F3-11-65 - is locked up in Melbourne, Australia, so it's
NOT that car. In my records there is a BT15, Frame number AM11, with a Cap Chenoweth, in USA, may be that car?
Denis

[David Irwin]

Denis,

Cap did have a BT15, F3 20 65, AM11 but sold it to Japan about 10 or more years ago.

Don't know anything about the RM Auction car.

David Irwin
Evergreen, CO

[Hagis]

Re: Ch.no F3-7-65 and letters 79-85 on this thread.
I just happened to read an old Swedish magazine, "Teknikens Värld" -The World of Technics- from the end of 1965, with sort of a test of the Picko Troberg car, and there you can read, not knife sharp, but sharp enough, F3-7-65. In an earlier issue of this magazine he tells that he ordered the car already autumn 1964 from the double Champion Jack Brabham.

[Hagis]

Have to add: On the chassis plate, of course.
Regards, Hagis

[tim beardsley]

Hi all, as i thought.
BT15 F3-33-66 That to me sounds like my Dads car ( Ian Beardsley) that he used on the hills in early 70s. Yes we did have an old Waring and Gillow truck and i do remember him having a Centaur afterwards. I will get onto him to get on this site so he can fill you in on any more info.

Have had a word and all is confirmed. The car was bought in either 70 or 71 from a chap in Nottingham with a double barreled name but he cant remember who. The chassis was repaired at Brabhams after a shunt with a tree at Wiscombe park and then sold in the autum of 75. He has many stories of the car so will put together a brief history soon. will also try and scan some old photos.

Cheers Tim Beardsley

[Unit 2 Racing]

Originally Posted by allenbrown

John Saunders sent these pictures of his BT15 F3-33-66 when he and Mike Brett ran it in the 1970s.


Mike Brett driving in 1976 with original bodywork


At Silverstone in 1978 with March 733 bodywork and BT21 rear suspension


At Thruxton in 1978

Allen

Thanks for your post Tim,

The list of owners now reads,
66 Mike Knight F3
67 Tony Dean F3
67-68 J Hooper on the Hills

70-75 Ian Beardsley on the Hills
76-78 Mike Brett F4 (Mike & I sold the car for £2,250)
79-80 Mike Hartley F4
81-? Paul Tickner F4

89 Martyn Smith Historics
90 For sale in Autosport (for about £20,000)
?
Would like to see some of your old photos Tim & Ian

[Chris Townsend]

F3.22.65

A small update and extension of the history. Trevor Blokdyk wrecked the car at Albi late in 1966 and put himself in hospital for quite some time.
September 1967 Frenchman Jean Sulpice appears in what AS describes as the ex Blokdyk BT16. [Blokdyk never had a BT16, but F3.22.65 is always described in race reports as a BT16 despite having a BT15 serial]
Anyway, Sulpice has this car into the 1968 season.

Chris

[Denis Lupton]

Going through some old files, found this in a letter from Martyn Smith, dated
14/12/1990 ; ownership records of F3-33-66.

1966 Mike Knight
1967 Tony Dean
1968-69 John Hooper
1970-71 John Berry
1971-75 Ian Beardsley
1975-78 Mike Brett
1979-80 Mike Hartley
1981-84 Tim Williams
1985 Hubertus Huppauff ( never raced, kept in England, owned only
a few months)
1985-90 Martyn Smith.
1990 Advertised in A/S oct. 11,1990 for 28750 Pounds
Hope this fills in a few holes
Denis

[edholly]

Jim Sullivan was awarded Australia's first Driver to Europe scholarship award at the end of the 1963 season for his feats with a MK2a Sprite at Warwick Farm amongst other criteria. Jim not only prepared the car, built the engine but beat the BMC works cars. This award was jointly sponsored by the AARC, KLG/Lodge spark plugs and Divisions of S.Smiths and Sons (Australia) the instrument manufacturer

He left by boat to be met by Reg Parnell only Reg died of appendix complications whilst Jim was on his way there. Eventually a Co. named Promecon took Jim on board and bought a new 1965 F3 BT15 for him, and this photo is of him being fitted at the factory.

Photos from the factory are all too rare, and Jim kindly consented to putting this photo on 10/Tenths. Jim went on to be a foreign correspondent for Racing Car News in the mid 60s and settled into a media career on his return.

[tim beardsley]

Hi all,
no pics as yet but a little more info on F3-33-66. the car was bought on the 21-10-1971 from a J A Berry.

Another piece of old paper (and it looks as if its came from the 60s) was passed to me from dad saying,

F3-33-66 BT-15-18 Origionaly supplied in 1965 to Mike Knight, Martigny France. Rebuilt 1967 using spare 66 chassis hence -66 and -18 chassis no, rebuilt by M.R.D

Now how true all this is i dont know, its just what is says on the bit of paper

Cheers Tim

[allenbrown]

Originally Posted by allenbrown

More from the very helpful Mr Lupton:

BT15 F3-3-65 Jim Sullivan then to Geoff Oliver, I think then to Fred Opert, to Joe Bosworth?

And now this:

Originally posted by Joe Bosworth
Back in 1970 I bought BT15-3-65. It was SCCA log booked by myself in May 1971 and I have owned ever since. The Brabham Register has verified it and has provided some useful 1965 racing history.

When I bought it I knew from the –3 serial number that it must have been very close to being a factory raced car as historically the first two or three of every new model at least starts its life under factory auspices.

Thanks to the Brabham Register and a subsequent contact there-from I have what I believe is a very full history of its 1965 season.

Its 1965 use was by Jim Sullivan, the Australian Driver to Europe award winner which explains its –3 numbering where obviously Jack and Ron made sure that the Australian driver was well taken care of for his first year overseas.

Sullivan ran under the umbrella of the Jim Balfour owned Team Promecon. My best source of history under Team Promecon was thanks to Peter Mockler who was very close to the team. Peter’s data includes the build sheets that included the start and finish dates of the build, February 7 to 25, 1965. Peter also has provided some photos of Jim and BT15 at Brands, likely to have been its first outing.

I bought the car from Fred Opert of Paramus New Jersey. Fred seemed to handle most of the Brabhams to enter the US in those days. I have a memory of asking Fred where the car came from and he replied that it was from France.

With this thread I am hoping that while there are still people who were around in those days that I could gather more information and history of the car in the Team Promecon days and subsequent to coming into Opert’s hands.

A second purpose of posting is that I would like very much to make contact with Jim Sullivan. Perhaps someone can point me the way to making that contact either by way of this thread or a private email, (doveratarachdotnetdotau).

On came on to the car having had a three-year break from racing after having been racing for some 17 years. I was interested in having some fun racing as by then I had done all that I really had wanted to racing in the US and Oz. I decided that Formula Ford looked like fun and decided to go that route. In those early days if FF there weren’t any clear cut winning cars so I decided to use a little free thought. I went through the process of thinking through what was the world’s best small open wheeler designed to race on treaded tires with relatively narrow wheels. The BT15 was the obvious answer so I went from there to source one.

Turning one into a FF was very straightforward. All it really took was substituting the layover transmission/engine plate with an upright one and weld up a couple of engine mounts. I never ran the rear engine cover so it is still in its original guise except that I got Jack B to autograph it a few years back. I also decided to buy a new Hewland box as I didn’t know the history of the one in the car and I didn’t want those kinds of hassles.

Probably the only mistake that I originally made was to build its first FF engine myself. I learned something in a hurry. Although I was a pretty good engine builder of modified race engines a learnt that doing a competitive blueprint engine was another thing all together. I really wasted most of a season until I woke up and bought an American built Quicksilver engine straight off the dyno. Quicksilver built about as good an American FF engine as was available and they agreed to guarantee 102 HP and to show it to me on a dyno before I paid up. It did and I paid.

Thereafter the BT15 was as good as any FF in the US until the side radiator FFs started to come in. Interestingly, while running SCCA races they sometimes lumped the Formula C cars in with us. Most were F3 variants so I got to see at close quarters how FC/FF/F3 squared up against each other on the track. Everywhere that I saw they performed absolutely equally.

I guess BT15-3-65 is a little unique as it can very legitimately race as F3 as well as FF in the class’s earliest format.

If anyone can/would help with information I will be grateful.

Regards

Grabbed from here

[SJ LAMBERT]

I was reading recently that in about 66 or 67 Holbays F3 engines were pretty good and that the combination of BT15 chassis and Holbay engine was pretty handy back in the day. I presume the engine was designated as R65, does anyone know whether that is right and whether there was ever a Holbay S65?
I would dearly love to discover a specification sheet for 1150cc Holbay Ford downdraft engine of circa 1965/6 built on a 5 bearing block (so it's not a F3 motor......)

[unipart]

Hello to all,

I would be grateful if anyone could indicate basic dimensions of the Brabham BT15 (wheelbase, front and rear track, etc)

Thanks,

unipart

[Denis Lupton]

From BT15 Factory Spec. sheets of the period,
Wheelbase 90"
Front track 50"
Rear track 51"
Tyres, Front 500x13"
Rear 600x13"
Weight 400kg (882lbs)
Can send copies of original spec sheets if required
Denis

[unipart]

Many thanks, Denis

Michel

[Denis Lupton]

An article by Greg Lilley on the 1000cc F3 website, recounts his experiences racing F3-6-65, which he bought from Tony Dean, in 1966.
This changes a lot of thinking on the Chassis Numbers on BT15's.
Denis

[Simon Hadfield]

Re post 10, BT15 F3-16-65, (frame number AM113) the car was with Mike Whatley and raced in F4 from 1975 to 78 and sold directly to Peter Dorricot from whom Stuart Rolt and I bought it in 1985, and returned it to the spec that Max Lane purchased it in. I have found letters from the Bowskills, Mike Whatley and Peter Dorricot whilst sorting old files.

[A Driver]

Originally Posted by Denis Lupton

Phillipe
Also saw the R&M Auction's ad,for BT15 #11, emailed them for any info, but no answer. BT15 - F3-11-65 - is locked up in Melbourne, Australia, so it's
NOT that car. In my records there is a BT15, Frame number AM11, with a Cap Chenoweth, in USA, may be that car?
Denis

I see this car is advertised again in a current auction at the previous auction house. Was any provenance ever established? Thanks.

[Andrew Fellowes]

Chassis features include four-wheel Girling disc brakes, original stamped Brabham rear magnesium alloy uprights, and an original radiator upgraded to a new high efficiency core, yet still tagged with a #11 medallion from the Surrey London Radiator Company. The original alloy body molded gas tank was fitted with a new “Fuel Safe” fuel c

[mike faloon]

Was rambling through the Bt 15s as one does and saw post #90, both the Goodwin cars at Monaco in 65 were orange, Picko Troberg's was yellow. Goodwin Racing had 3 BT15s, Don Rawson who worked on the cars recalls building them up at the start of the season, all were Natalie's favourite shade of orange. Dave Rees' last drive with Goodwin racing was at Rouen in 65 when he ended up down a ravine to quote Don. Perhaps the rebuilt car sold early in 1966.

[mgwk]

I see here there are references to my old BT15; we bought the car from Rodney Bloore of Sports Motors Manchester; they ran it for Peter Gethin in 1965, the year I had a Cooper T76; I crashed the Brabham at Goodwood badly enough to have to miss Monaco that year; from there it was a very quick car - should have won or come second with it at Reims - done on the line by Johnny Servoz for 3rd at Rouen..etc. I don't have the chassis number and I'm not clear about who we sold it to. The BT21's we had in 1967 - nos 24 and 28 - one was sold in bits to Frank Williams (24 I think) and 28 went to Len and Bluebell Gibbs.

[allenbrown]

Welcome Mike. Very useful info - many thanks.

[pantah]

On ebay (USA) very recently. AM32, which I was led to believe was in Australia

Known frame numbers:

AM32: 1965: Mike Loasby then unknown to 1974: Jack Nelson [USA] then 1979 Bruce Harrington, 1982 David Dexter, 1988 to present Patrick Ryan [AUS]

Can anyone shed any light on this? No chassis plate apparently. Recent owners by the names 'Dave Dexter' and 'Greg Cosar' possibly East Coast USA. Currently with twincam fitted.Oh... and BT18 rear uprights, although I know those were a common replacement / upgrade / modification in period.

[CB3]

The 'Colorado" car is on Arch Motors frame #AM32, the ex David Dexter et al car. The Australian car was constructed of bits on a new reproduction frame, as I understand it. I suppose both cars share some bits from the original car, but the frame on this one, which I now own, has been verified as the original Arch Motors frame. After 45 years of kicking around as obsolete, unloved, disassembled, damaged, picked-over, and traded piles of bits, the provenance can get a bit hazy, eh what?

[Pat Ryan]

My BT 15 AM32 was purchased from Greg Gosar in the November 1992 in a complete but dismantled state by Steve Pike for me on one of his Healey 100 buying tours. Greg was a gentleman to deal with and all was as inspected and described thus.’’ Chassis frame accident damaged, sold as is in need of total restoration………..total Price $6000”
Car was damaged on the back right hand corner where a wheel had come off or an upright broke.
Car came with an good 1100cc downdraft MAE fitted with twin down draft Webers , six speed Hewland in a large crate, and its SCCA etc logbooks. I proceeded to trace the cars history along with Steve who visited Jack O. Nelson who gave us a single choke weber (One barrel closed)and manifold along with a supply of plugs, another gentleman…..all free. Jack’s sons Pat and Kevin also drove AM32.
As Australia has very stringent rules regarding provenance (and to stop fakes even then ) I procced to send letters seeking history to all and sundry in the US ….Brabham register, SCCA etc. and had a couple of letters published in some of the historic magazines……..all to no avail.
I also contacted Duncan Rabagliati of the Formula 1 Register and found out about Mike Loasby. Another gentleman. Mike was kind enough to send me a broken gearknob………..done in the heat of battle as well as race programs and period photos of himself and car.
The car was a backdoor one, and had no Brabham Chassis Plate from new, as Mike and mates made the car using the previous years parts in a new frame, bought as that. Entered in period as Brabham or Brabham Loasby.
This might also help with population query on previous blogs.
Close inspection of the US car will reveal that it is not a 1965 BT15 frame. 15’s were built in 65 and 66 remember.
As I bought the car 19 years ago, when I did all the research , there was no motive to fake as a car was relatively inexpensive. I also wonder why, when the car only ever ran as F3 in England and FC in America the US a car with patently incorrect chassis and twin cam engine that it never used in the day is given any credence anyway.
My car has almost bullet proof provenance except for 1966-74 and its US log books from 1974. My experience with anyone concerning AM32 until now has been exemplary. All racers and all honest but above all generous as well. Maybe the US car owner is mistaken, as I would hate to see a lawyers feast.
Sad that Australia is often forgotten as a premier motor racing country.This is not the first time an Aussie car and identity has been misappropriated.