1966 BRABHAM-REPCO BT20 FORMULA 1 CAR

The 1966 Brabham-Repco BT20 Formula 1 car is a testament to old fashioned Aussie ingenuity, the Australians (and New Zealanders) have always been so far away from the large manufacturing industries of Europe and North America that they’ve had to learn to adapt, repurpose and invent things rather than just walk down the road and buy them. Great examples of this inventiveness are men like New Zealander John Britten and Australian Jack Brabham – the man who’s name adorns this race winning Formula 1 car.

In 1965 it was announced that the engine size in Formula 1 would be limited to 3 litres – this left the teams scrambling to find engines that could hold their own on the race track and form the rear load-bearing structure of an F1 car. Most of the teams opted for the Coventry Climax inline 4-cylinder engine but Jack Brabham and his partner Ron Tauranac decided to go down a different path and instead chose to work with Australian parts supplier Repco on developing the Oldsmobile F85 V8 into a 3000cc F1 engine.

It was a risky move but the real benefit came from the fact that the engine had been engineered to tolerate an original capacity of 5.4 litres, this meant that once the block had been downsized to 3 litres the internal components could be tuned for performance without fear of catastrophic failure.

The decision paid dividends almost immediately, the Brabham-Repco BT20 was introduced for the 1966 season and the chassis you see here saw its first race at French Grand Prix on 3 July 1966. It was piloted by New Zealander Danny Hulme to a strong 3rd place finish, followed by a 2nd place finish at the British Grand Prix shortly thereafter, Hulme then took another 3rd at Monza on 4 September. Two more podium places were taken by the car before the end of the season, landing the 1966 constructors trophy for Brabham-Repco and validating their gamble on the reworked American V8.

The car had been so successful during the ’66 season that it was rebuilt and raced again throughout 1967, winning the hotly contested 1967 Monaco Grand Prix and once again landing the Constructors Championship for Brabham-Repco. The chassis passed on to a series of privateer owners throughout the ’60s and ’70s where it was raced in hill climb events and local club races, by 2010 it had fallen into disrepair and a full €200,000 nut and bolt restoration was undertaken by Peter Rosenmayer of Stuttgart.

The Brabham-Repco BT20 is now in race ready condition and will be offered at the Monaco Auction held by RM Auctions on the 10th of May 2014 – within meters of the circuit that it took its 1967 race win.

Click here to visit the official listing.

Photo Credits: Tim Scott ©2014 Courtesy of RM Auction

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Magnificent Mercedes-Benz 540K to star at Bonhams' single-marque sale

Bonhams’ inaugural Mercedes-Benz auction will see a 540K Cabriolet “with a swinging Parisian past” go under the hammer, heading up a roster of 40 other important cars from the marque…

The majestic pre-War Mercedes-Benz 540K Cabriolet A is a rare delight, and this example is confirmed to be one of only 10 made to this particular specification (more powerful 5.4-litre engine twinned with traditional bodywork).

Unique Parisian provenance

Its first owner, the proprietor of Parisian nightclub 'La Roulotte', would proudly park it at the venue entrance while A-listers such as Edith Piaf and Django Reinhardt unwound inside. Employed in such a role, the car’s undoubted touring abilities appear to remain untested: the car has never left French soil since its delivery to Mercedes-Benz Paris in 1936. The original owner (who kept the car for 70 years) completed a full restoration, albeit retaining the original engine and bodywork, and it is now expected to achieve €1.8m - €2.4m when it crosses the block at Bonhams’ single-marque auction on 12 July at the Mercedes Benz Museum, Stuttgart.

Photos: Simon Clay for Bonhams

Hundreds of vintage, classic and modern Mercedes-Benzes can be found for sale in the Classic Driver Market.

AUCTION : 1974 HESKETH 308 FORMULA 1 CAR

few Formula 1 cars from the ’70s are remembered as fondly as the 1974 Hesketh 308, it was the first car built by the Hesketh Formula 1 Team – a team that could only have thrived in the decade of big sideburns, big tires and big disco.

After having used a March 731 chassis throughout the 1973 season (their first in F1), Lord Hesketh tasked Harvey “Doc” Postlewaite with the job of designing the team their own car for the 1974 season. Largely based on the March 731, the Hesketh 308 was first tested in Brazilian at the Interlagos circuit after the 1974 Grand Prix – many of the teams had stayed on after the race to test new cars and components so when the 308 was rolled out of the garage for the first time engineers from up and down the pit lane looked on with interest.

Stopwatches were removed from pockets and thumbs hovered over chronograph buttons, few in the paddock expected the new Hesketh to be competitive – the team was renowned for being fuelled by champagne more than gasoline and if it wasn’t for the talents of James Hunt it was widely felt that the team would be hovering at the bottom of the time sheets.

Hunt eased the car down the pit lane and out in the first corner, his warm up lap was slow and deliberate – he weaved the car left and right across the track to heat the tires, braked hard into corners to get the discs up to temperature and accelerated hard enough to spin the rear wheels – boosting rear tire pressure. As he came out of the final corner he planted the throttle, the car crossed the start/finish line at over 160mph and the chronograph buttons on the pit wall were all simultaneously struck by oil-stained thumbs.

Less than 110 seconds later, the lowly expectations held for the Hesketh 308 had been obliterated. Hunt’s first hot lap was a second faster than Emerson Fittipaldi’s pole-qualifying time in the McLaren and a full four seconds faster than his own qualifying time in the old March 731. A gauntlet had been thrown down and eyebrows were raised in garages along the pit lane and around the world.

Formula 1 cars with heritage like this don’t often come up for sale, and when they do the interest is significant. Surprisingly, the estimated hammer price on the Hesketh 308 is somewhere between €350,000 to €650,000 – I suspect that the white hot nature of the current classic car market and the halo effect of the recent movie “Rush” will lead to the 308 selling for closer to €1,000,000, if not a smidge higher.

If you happen to have a large wad of Euros burning a hole in your pocket and a penchant for Formula 1 history, you can click here to visit this car’s listing via RM Auctions. It’s due to be sold on the 10th of May 2014 in Monaco, the assumption being that if you’re going to bid in these amounts you probably own a hotel there already.

Photo Credits: Tom Wood ©2014 Courtesy of RM Auctions

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la fièvre du samedi soir :-))

Message sur le mur by Prinz Marcus von Anhalt.