282 | GOODWOOD REVIVAL SALE
The Brabham BT8 sports-racing prototype offered here is one of
nine built for the 1964 season, a year in which MRD made a total
of 53 cars for Formulas 1, 2, and 3, sports car racing, the Tasman
series and Indycar. A further three BT8s were constructed during
1965/66. By the decade’s end, Brabham had become the world’s
largest manufacturer of open-wheel formula racing monopostos
and had sold around 500 cars of all types. Throughout the 1960s,
production Brabhams dominated virtually every class for which they
were eligible, thanks to a winning combination of sound engineering,
basic strength, ease of use and inter-changeability of spare
parts. Tauranac’s designs were somewhat conservative, retaining
spaceframe chassis and outboard suspension, but this made them
easy for the privateer to repair and maintain, important factors when
budgets were tight. They also worked on any circuit.
The BT8 was a development of Brabham’s first sports-racer – the
BT5 of 1963 – and by far its most successful two-seater design;
the successor BT17 was a flop and thereafter the company would
concentrate on single-seaters.
The fifth of the series, ‘SC-5-64’ was built to the special order of
Texan Tom O’Connor’s famed Team Rosebud and made its debut
in 1964 at the Goodwood Easter Monday meeting, driven by none
other than ‘Black Jack’ himself in the Lavant Cup race, it won its
class and finished 3rd overall. This car was constructed for O’Connor
with virtually the ultimate spec available for a 2-litre sports-racing
car of the period, powered by a 1,880cc BRM V8 engine, this being
an early ‘stretched’ version of the Bourne firm’s Formula 1 World
Championship Winning 1½-litre Formula 1 unit, and also used BRM’s
coveted own designed and manufactured six-speed gearbox.Having won first time out with Brabham in Europe, ‘SC-5-64’ was
shipped out to Team Rosebud in Texas and driven by Ex-Works
Team Lotus Grand Prix driver Trevor Taylor, mostly in the USA, scored
frequent victories. Around 1967 the car in the illustrious company
of the Rosebud Team Ferrari 250GTO passed to the Victoria, Texas
Technical School under whose auspices it was driven by Boyd Grice
and Paul Scott. Scott was the car’s next owner, followed by Darryl
Johnson (1973) and Dee Johnson (1974).