Jack Brabham remains the only driver to win a
World Drivers' Championship in a car that bears his name
Between 1961 and 1971, a quiet revolution rolled out of a modest factory in New Haw, Weybridge and rewrote the engineering map of world motorsport.
Brabham Cars 1961-1971 is the definitive account of the machines that carried an Australian and a British-Australian from ambitious constructors to world champions. It is the full ledger of the cars they designed and built together, from the early customer cars to the championship-winning Grand Prix machines that made Jack Brabham the only man to win a Formula 1 World Drivers' Championship and a Formula 1 Constructors' Championship in a car bearing his own name.
This is not a highlights reel. It is the whole story.
Every model. Every evolution. Every technical shift that turned clean-sheet thinking into a competitive advantage. The compact packaging. The spaceframe logic. The Repco-Brabham V8 gamble. The calm,
almost stubborn engineering philosophy of Ron Tauranac — a designer who preferred precision over theatrics and let the stopwatch do the talking.
From the BT3 that marked the team's arrival in Grand Prix racing, to the BT19 and BT24 that secured the 1966 and 1967 F1 titles, through the customer cars that filled grids across Europe, Australasia, Asia, North America and South Africa, this book maps a decade in which Brabham didn't just build racing cars — they built a business model that reshaped Formula 1.
There are no myths here. Just metal, mathematics and nerve.
For historians, engineers, restorers, owners and serious enthusiasts, this is the complete technical
and narrative record of one of the sport's most quietly dominant eras — when two Aussies proved that
clarity of thought could outgun horsepower, and that a small team with the right blueprint could take
on the world and win.
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Our Team
Peter Strauss is the passionate project owner and originator. A lifelong enthusiast and racer of many cars, including Brabhams BT6 FJ, BT11A and BT31 Tasman machines, Peter wanted a book focused heavily on the cars Jack Brabham and Ron Tauranac built together from Motor Racing Developments’ 1961 inception until Jack’s ‘retirement’ to Australia at the end of 1970. Peter’s book is about cars, not yet another Jack Book.
Mark Bisset is the author using the initial work by David Hassall. In his previous life as a CEO in 2014, and then began writing professionally for magazines including MotorSport, The Automobile, Auto Action and Australian Muscle Car in 2020. This is his first book.
Auto Action is a 55-year-old Australian motor racing magazine/publisher, much loved by local enthusiasts. They are publishing, promoting and distributing the book with the key team members Andrew Clarke, Director, and Caroline Garde, Designer.
My interest in racing cars started in 1966 when as a schoolboy, I visited Sandown Park Racecourse in Melbourne. I was lucky enough to meet Jack Brabham who spent about 10 minutes with me as a schoolboy and showed me his Formula One racing car. I became fascinated with Jack’s achievements and followed him until his retirement.
About 30 years ago, I started motor racing with sports cars, which eventually led to the purchase of my first Brabham, a BT6. I have been lucky enough to be the custodian of the BT6, BT11, and the last Repco-engined Brabham, the BT31. I have raced in Europe, America and Australia and have met some very interesting people through my racing exploits.
As I'm getting older, I have sold the BT6 and the BT31. Through my racing adventures, I was amazed at how few people were aware of Jack and Ron Tauranac’s build of 600 racing cars.
As there have been several books written about Jack, I thought it was time to put into writing and history as much detail as possible about the 600 cars they built. We have tried to obtain as much accurate information about the cars as possible. I'm sure there will be some omissions and mistakes I hope you will bear with us and enjoy the book we have produced.
~ Peter Strauss
