Brabham is a name synonymous with Australian motorsports success, from the exploits of the man himself to the team and cars that carried his name – it’s an Aussie legend.
Sir Jack Brabham was Australia’s first and greatest Formula 1 driver of all time. He remains (and will probably always remain) the first and only driver to win the world championship driving one of his own cars. He’d then go on to establish his own Formula 1 team, which won four Drivers’ and two Constructors’ World Championships in its 30-year history.
In the 1960s, Brabham was also the world’s largest manufacturer of open-wheel racing cars for sale to customer teams – with the outfit’s Aussie-designed cars winning races across the planet. But this one, currently for sale in Sydney, is a little more special than your ‘average’ Brabham race car.
WATCH a walkaround of this 1965 Brabham BT16 below.
As Lorbek Luxury Cars explains, this 1965 Brabham BT16 was raced by two-time Formula 1 World Champion Graham Hill in Formula 2 and then made its way Down Under where Aussie touring car champ Frank Gardner won the 1967 Horden Trophy with it, among other successes.
In 1992 it was fully restored, and it recently raced against three-time F1 World Champion Sir Jackie Stewart at the recent Race Against Dementia charity event, after which ‘The Flying Scot’ signed the rare car. It’s already one of only 12 ever made, but the association with these racing legends makes it even more exceptional.
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It’s powered by a 1.6L Coventry Climax BRM F2 engine – which sounds like not much, but when you consider it weighs less than 500kgs, that’s more than plenty. It might be old but it’s still a pretty fast machine.
Designed by Jack Brabham, raced by Graham Hill and Frank Gardner, and signed by Jackie Stewart – can you get any cooler?
Yes, they’re asking a lot for it: $499,850 (although it’s been sitting for a while, so you could probably bargain ’em down). But can you really put a price on a piece of motoring history like this? Check it out on Carsales here.
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