The man who built his own Formula 1 car... and won

He is held in high regard in our country. Sir Jack Brabham. 🏁🇦🇺🍻

I worked for Sir Jack for 20yrs at one of his dealerships in the UK. Wonderful man would always chat to us a d tell us many racing and engineering experiences. Oh and his real name was John. R.I.P BOSS

Three weeks after getting my driver's liicence in 1972 l managed to almost collide at speed with a police car coming in the opposite direcction on a rural road. My licence was suspended and l had to redo the driving test . The examiner. Ozzie Stevens, looked at the paper work and said: "Ah! Been playing Jackie Brabhams have we ?"

Mechanical engineer from Sydney, Australia, here. Thanks for the wonderful documentary. The late Sir Jack Brabham is a legend down here. I hope I am wrong, but I doubt whether we shall ever see his like again.

I’ve got a great book about Sir Jack and one of the things that was very apparent from the interviews and everything else was that in spite of the fact he was very much a self made man and had every reason to have an enormous ego he was quite a humble man who respected the other drivers and teams immensely. He openly admitted that many times his machine or himself didn’t quite have the speed to match his rivals so he would just try to make his car as reliable as possible and drive as consistently as he could and it often paid dividends. He was very judicious and wise as a driver/engineer and I think that’s one of the main reasons he survived through an absolutely deadly period in Formula 1 history. A true gentleman R.I.P. Sir Jack.

"Black Jack" as many car racing fans and the press called Mr. Jack, was so unique in the F 1 arena during his years of developing and racing a reliable product. His several Indianapolis "500" events he qualified and raced in were noted. In the 1969 Indy race, the talented Peter Revson made the Brabham-Repco V-8 history that almost made Revson the "Rookie of the Year" winner (which went to the greats of Mark Donahue instead due to his starting and finishing position). I was there at the '69 Indy...amazed at how that Repco engine sounded...somewhat like the "song" of the Novi powered cars had in earlier years. Master Jack...now that was one designer/car owner/driver the competition couldn't take for granted!

I had the great pleasure of meeting Jack at an F1 gala dinner. I was a starstuck fool and he was an absolute gentleman. He signed an autograph for me and asked me about myself. He was a true champion and a nice guy.

Ron was an Australian who grew up in a small town near Newcastle. Ron was also enlisted into the RAAF during WWII. He would later start RALT production open wheelers in the UK

Jack told the story in another documentary of how after the first race of the 1960 F1 season in Argentina, he and John Cooper saw that the rest of the field were catching up to their 1959 Championship winning car design, The response was that on the long flight back from Argentina to the UK, he and John Cooper redesigned the car to be more competitive with a new suspension system and improved aerodynamics. Worked well. The redesign was soon up and ruining. Running so well to win the 1960 World Championship again for Jack Brabham and Cooper cars. I suspect Jack had the most input into that process. When Jack later left Coopers to form Motor Racing Developments cars, Cooper drifted down the rankings and finally withdrew from F1. Jack was also a key person in convincing John Cooper that the Mini should be developed into the Mini Cooper using the Cooper shop hack Mini as a demonstrater . The shop parts getting hack Mini using the BMC A series that Cooper had on hand but highly developed into the power plant of the 1 litre Cooper Formula Junior racing car. This meant the developed engine was an easy swap into the Mini. Jack then chased Dunlop to get their new disc brakes to be made in a size that suited a Mini. The prototype was then taken by John Cooper to BMC who did not need much convincing to get the Mini Cooper off the ground to the benefit of both Cooper Cars and BMC.

Great story. In my youth, I read about Jack Brabham in the automotive press and he was one of my heroes. Good to learn more about him.

I had the pleasure of meeting Jack Brabham, a generous, humours and very kind man with none of the pretence and grandiose attitudes of other elite drivers, yet he commanded a instant, quiet respect. Repco may never have built a formula 1 engine, but was involved in manufacturing and supplying general automotive, motocycles, racing, marine and became a leading supplier of aftermarket parts and innovations. Repco supported some of the toughest and most brutal race events in the world, so their engineers knowledge extended from an education of what needed to work well rather than straight performance.

Jack Brabham is a legend in F1 racing and the Australian racing fraternity. Another great Australian engineer/driver was a bloke called Frank Matich. He made his name in F5000s and was very successful and highly respected in the Motor Racing world.

I remember reading an article in a motor mag in the 60's, The Olds block was tried and found wanting so Repco cast an entirely new block and heads, There were 2 names mentioned who did most of the work on the engine, one being Phil Irving, the man behind the design of the Vincent V twins and another Repco employee named Charlie Dean.

A key part of the story is yet another Australian - Phil Irving - who developed the Repco engine.

He raced against some of the greats, Moss, James Clark, absolute legends. Amazing

What a legend. They are building Brabhams in Australia now btw. In the old Holden factory at Elizabeth. Run by Jack’s son David Brabham.

I'm really glad you mentioned John Britten.The completely homemade engine and chassis (carbon fiber) VR1000 was and still is WAY ahead of it's time even today.He was an amazing man.

He’s something of a national hero is Sir Jack.

You beauty Bart. You omitted Jack giving Denny Holme and Bruce McClaren drives, cars and support- like an antipodean mafia in a deeply class ridden England. When Jack originally got to Europe he apparently tried to get a gig with Ferrari who sent him on his way and this experience helped fuel his desire to outdrive Ferraris into the ground. Not a bad ambition considering the windmill that Ferrari was, and still is.

Great commentary, well researched,and well presented. Easy listening, well done!