How F1’s most famous engine unlocked the potential of Brabham's forgotten gem

Want an example of how influential
the Cosworth DFV was in Formula 1
during its first flush in the late 1960s? Look no further than the Brabham BT26, a model that was transformed across its two-year period lifespan from disastrous defender of double world championships
to a potent grand prix winner only bested
by Jackie Stewart’s Tyrrell-run, DFV-powered Matra by the end of 1969.

All because of the Ford-badged Double Four
Valve V8, surely unrivalled as F1’s greatest engine, which
ever-pragmatic Jack Brabham accepted was the obvious answer to his team’s unravelling form at the end of the
model’s frustrating first year of active service.

He’d pulled a fabulous fast one when the ‘return to power’ 3-litre era began in 1966 as F1 engines doubled in capacity, astutely commissioning Repco – short for Replacement Parts Company – to adapt an Oldsmobile block he’d sourced in LA into a simple, powerful and crucially reliable V8. As Lotus effectively killed time before unleashing the DFV in the spring of 1967, on what was initially an exclusive basis with Ford and Cosworth, the Brabham-Repco made hay, the old man – at 40 – breaking a six-year points-scoring grand prix win drought to become a three-time world champion.

PLUS: The astute engine call behind Brabham’s unique F1 feat

Even the following year, with the DFV coming on song for Jim Clark and Graham Hill, tried and trusted still won the day: Brabham’s supposed ‘number two’ Denny Hulme undercut the boss to chisel out a title campaign based on consistency to make it two from two. Forever after, Brabham remained convinced his team
would have pulled off a title hat-trick in 1968, had Repco
kept it simple.

Instead, the Australian company strove for more power, trading its twin-cam type 740 V8 for the more complex four-cam, 32-valve type 860. Such was Repco’s ambition, it initially explored two approaches: one using a short-stroke magnesium block, the other for a new cylinder head design using a radial valve disposition. Brabham and
Ron Tauranac were concerned – for good reason.

In the end, the new engine featured an aluminium block with twin overhead camshafts and four-valve cylinder heads, but avoided the radial valve layout or short-stroke options. Still, the prolonged birth meant the V8 was late for the start of the season, when Brabham lined up its 1967-spec BT24s for the South African Grand Prix at Kyalami.

Hulme wasn’t driving one of them. He’d chosen to
defend his hard-won crown elsewhere, with Kiwi buddy
Bruce McLaren, who’d landed a DFV supply – no longer exclusive to Lotus – for his handsome Robin Herd-designed M7A. There were no hard feelings as far as Brabham was concerned, especially as he’d signed a young charger he
rated highly as a promising replacement.

Brabham signed Jochen Rindt to partner him for 1968 following champion Hulme's departure for McLaren, but the latest Repco was a disappointment

Photo by: David Phipps

Jack already liked the cut of Jochen Rindt’s jib in Cooper-Maserati F1 cars and certainly in Roy Winkelmann-run Brabham Formula 2s in which the Austrian had become dominant in the second-tier category. The admiration was mutual, too.

“I knew he was one hell of a driver, and we’d had some tremendous F2 dices together,” wrote Brabham in his autobiography, The Jack Brabham Story. “I was happy to race against him with one of his wheels almost in the cockpit with me, and vice versa it seemed. He was absolutely fearless, tremendously talented, and a really good bloke.”

At Kyalami, Rindt got his Brabham stint off to a decent
start by finishing third behind Clark and Hill in the Lotus 49s. But it proved a false dawn. The BT26 took its bow at Jarama
in May – by which time F1, Lotus and the whole racing world
was reeling from the death of Clark, killed in a senseless F2 crash at Hockenheim on 7 April.

The season turned into a huge missed opportunity because of the reliability headaches. The only time the Repco finished
a grand prix was at the Nurburgring

The BT26 was the last spaceframe Brabham from Ron Tauranac – the T of the BT model designation – although the migration towards full monocoques was clearly in mind. Tauranac came up with a multi-tubular chassis with stressed panels which allowed for lighter-gauge frame tubes, with a widened track relative to the BT24 in an effort to improve turn-in performance.

Even compared with a stressed-skin monocoque, the spaceframe was a lightweight, easy to repair and responsive option – all very Brabham. Although Tauranac later admitted: “It worked quite well, but it might have been cheaper to build a monocoque in the long run.”

The new Brabham was only just ready in time for the Spanish GP, arriving on a specially chartered plane ahead of the final practice session. The reward for that work was for
the type 860 engine to explode on the main straight – a portent of things to come. John Judd, later to make his own name as a respected and dependable F1 engine tuner, recalled working on the Repco V8, having spent much of 1967 in Australia.

How to be an ace engineer: Engine designer John Judd

“The power output was OK, but when it came to racing it we had a large number of quality control problems,” he told Alan Henry for his book Brabham: The Grand Prix Cars. “We went down to Jarama for that second race of 1968 and Jack had that failure, caused by a valve seat falling out, so we had to scratch. Eventually, we sussed out that Repco was making the valve seats out of the wrong material, and they were shrinking.”

Repco's poor reliability meant the BT26 rarely saw the finish in 1968

Photo by: LAT Photographic

The season turned into a huge missed opportunity because of the reliability headaches. The only time the Repco finished
a grand prix was at the Nurburgring, where Rindt and Brabham finished third and fifth, way behind the inspired Stewart. But they also knew the car was fast. Rindt qualified on pole at the French and Canadian GPs.

One of the best ripping yarns from that year comes from the weekend of the Belgian GP, and a tale that highlights several aspects of that time: the wonderfully ingenious Heath Robinson approach of F1 people; the lengths they would stretch to fix a problem; and perhaps why, for all the frustrations, Rindt loved driving for Brabham in 1968.

The story is barely believable – but who could make this up? Following more difficulties in Saturday practice, the team stripped an 860 engine, pinpointed the valve seat problem and then Brabham flew home to the team’s Guildford base.

Meanwhile, Judd and Repco’s Norm Wilson collected a new engine from Heathrow. It was torn down overnight, machinist Ron Cousins drilled out the old valve seats, made new ones and installed them with help from Brabham mainstay Roy Billington – after the new heads had been cooked in Mrs Brabham’s oven back at Jack’s Surrey family home! The smoke from the kitchen at 3am didn’t exactly go down well. “I was pretty glad to be going as deaf as I already was,” quipped Jack. Once the engine was reassembled, it was flown back to Spa on the right-hand seat of the boss’s Piper Twin Commanche.

By season’s end, Brabham had long accepted Repco’s time
as an F1 force was up and that he needed a DFV. And with a heavy heart, Rindt accepted Colin Chapman’s advances to fatefully join Lotus, to replace the irreplaceable. Such a headstrong man could never be the pliant muse in the
manner Clark had been for so many years.

At Brabham, the team set about adapting what was now the BT26A to take the shorter DFV, and the benefits easily outweighed any problems. Meanwhile, Jack hired another rising talent to replace Rindt. Jacky Ickx was recovering
from a broken leg sustained at the 1968 Canadian GP when he switched from Ferrari. His relationship with Ford through his parallel JW Automotive GT40 sports car campaign and Gulf Oils greased the wheels, with Brabham sponsorship from the American fuel giant ameliorating some of the losses of giving up a free engine supply from Repco.

Already a GP winner following his breakthrough at Rouen, and fourth in the final standings in 1968, Ickx was an established star. But in direct contrast to Rindt, his single season at Brabham would prove far less harmonious – even if he was far more effective in a car and team that eventually found its groove with the DFV.

Insertion of a DFV for 1969 transformed Brabham's competitive fortunes

Photo by: James Mann

“Ickx was a fine driver, but on a personal level he and I never completely clicked in the way I had with Dan [Gurney], Denny and Jochen before him,” recalled Brabham in his autobiography. “Perhaps it was simply a generational thing.
I was 43, rising 44, and he was 20 years younger.”

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Was Ickx shy or aloof? Perhaps a bit of both. Whatever, it seemed he preferred racing for a team that would make him its sole focus. That didn’t seem likely at Brabham, given the boss was in the other car. Although as events would turn out, that was precisely the experience Ickx would find thrown at him mid-season in 1969 – to the old man’s considerable pain and discomfort. It brought out the best in the Belgian.

The new-powered BT26A took its bow at Kyalami at the first round of 1969, in full bi-plane mode, a wing not only sprouting from the back but also over the nose. Brabham had joined Ferrari (and undercut Lotus) by experimenting with the first aerofoils fitted to F1 cars at that eventful Belgian GP the previous year, and now preposterously high wings on spindly stalks had become the thing to have.

Brabham was sidelined – almost permanently. His testing crash at Silverstone was a terrifying experience, even for such a hardened old soul

Brabham immediately justified the DFV switch with pole position in South Africa, outqualifying Rindt in the Lotus 49 – perhaps he allowed himself a small smile at that. But it was Stewart who would lead the race from start to finish, while Brabham’s day collapsed along with his rear aerofoil.

He just held on to the huge moment that caused, then pitted for it and the front wing to be removed. Without them, the engine was then over-revving wildly, so he prudently retired to save the expensive new motor from blowing on its team debut. But further indications of a Brabham revival came in the second of the two British non-championship F1 races that spring.

At Silverstone’s International Trophy, Brabham
made the most of Goodyear’s rain tyre to build a big lead – which was needed when he started to run low on fuel in the closing stages. Rindt closed in, but Jack made it home to
win what turned out to be his last F1 victory not only at Silverstone but on British soil.

PLUS: Jack Brabham's 10 greatest drives

But those pesky wings… they were causing major bother. At Montjuic for the Spanish GP, both Rindt and Hill in the Lotus 49s were lucky to escape big shunts caused by further collapses, while Ickx too experienced disconcerting trouble. His Brabham’s rear suspension failed as a consequence of the twin wings breaking up. Something had to give – and it did, mid-weekend in Monaco when the spindly aerofoils were banned.

Aerofoils were not always reliable for Brabham, but he demonstrated what the BT26 could do by winning the International Trophy in 1969

Photo by: LAT Photographic

There and newly wingless for the race, Ickx suffered another rear suspension failure, while Brabham collided with John Surtees’ slowing BRM. Still, a third BT26A – run in smart dark blue for Piers Courage by that enthusiastic dreamer Frank Williams – inherited a happy second place to Hill’s Lotus 49.

By the Dutch GP, Brabham – like Lotus and the rest – was experimenting with integrated wing solutions in this new quest for aerodynamic downforce. The BT26A sprouted an upswept aluminium frame supporting a rear aerofoil above the engine cover, Ickx and Brabham finishing fifth and sixth at Zandvoort. But then Brabham was sidelined – almost permanently.

His testing crash at Silverstone was a terrifying experience, even for such a hardened old soul. Running on a near-empty circuit trying out experimental tyres for Goodyear, Brabham’s car snapped into understeer at Club when the left-front tyre popped off its rim and deflated. Brabham hit the earth bank just a couple of feet back from the track on the outside of the fast right-hander, and the ensuing damage to the front-left corner trapped the dazed driver by his left ankle. That’s when it got scary.

In a considerable amount of pain, Jack couldn’t switch off the ignition and fuel pump because the instrument panel had been buckled in the impact. He sat there for what felt like an age… and with fuel leaking onto the track.

“The throttle was jammed wide open, and behind me the engine was absolutely shrieking,” he recalled. “I was seeing stars and flashes of coloured lights. The pain in my twisted and trapped legs and feet was just unbelievable… I bent back the bodywork just enough to jab the kill switch with a finger-tip and the engine cut. The silence was deafening.”

It was then that he chose to use his onboard fire extinguisher – a recent safety addition to F1 cars – to douse the glowing exhausts rather than wait for a fire to ignite. Finally, the Brabham crew arrived on the scene, with young mechanic Ron Dennis taking charge to free the boss. His left ankle was a mess, and he wouldn’t return to racing until Monza in September.

That’s when Ickx, to his credit, stepped up. At Clermont-Ferrand for the French GP, he only just lost second place to Matra’s Jean-Pierre Beltoise after a terrific scrap, then inherited a runner-up finish at Silverstone when Rindt’s Lotus let him down after his own titanic duel with Stewart. Incidentally, that weekend Graham Hill made up for his
own frustrations at Team Lotus by taking the Brabham out
for a spin in one of the practice sessions, lapping quicker
than Ickx. Imagine that today.

Following his team boss's injury, Ickx showed mettle to lead the squad and win at the Nurburgring

Photo by: Rainer W. Schlegelmilch / Motorsport Images

Then, the Nurburgring. Ickx took a superb pole from Stewart in 7m42.1s, just 0.3s ahead. In the race, he initially
only ran fourth, but passed Rindt and Jo Siffert, then caught and engaged leader Stewart. When the Scot began to struggle with gear selection problems, a great win was secured – at a circuit where Ickx always shone.

Another victory followed at the non-championship Oulton Park Gold Cup, but by Monza – where Ickx struggled with a down-on-power engine – there was already talk that he’d return to Ferrari for 1970. That would seal it for Jack. He had planned to retire, especially after the nasty scare at Silverstone. But without a team leader, what choice did he have? He’d roll out for one last and, as it turned out, memorable campaign for the first season of the new decade.

But for now, there was a decade’s racing to finish – and in some style. In Canada, a year on from his own broken leg, Ickx led Brabham to a fine team one-two for his second points-scoring win of the year. Brabham then battled with Courage at Watkins Glen, where Rindt finally took his long-awaited maiden grand prix victory. Jack was less than impressed with the gloves-off duelling style of Frank Williams’s characterful driver, who raced on the edge to flick stones back at his adversary. Pots and kettles…

Ickx's legacy tends to be dominated by the six
Le Mans wins, while in F1 terms the years at Ferrari and
Lotus catch the most attention. But his brief spell with Brabham should not be overlooked

Then at the Mexican finale Ickx and Brabham closed out the sixties with a two-three finish, behind Hulme’s McLaren. Ickx was classified a distant second to dominant Stewart in the drivers’ standings, with Brabham beating Lotus to runner-up in the constructors’ by two points. A season of more turmoil, then, but a fair share of success too with that potent DFV behind the drivers’ shoulders.

Today, the BT26A is something of a forgotten gem, sandwiched between the Repco-powered double title winners of 1966-67 and Jack’s last-hurrah BT33 of ’70, Tauranac’s first full monocoque design.

Chassis #3 pictured here, and currently for sale via historic racing specialist Fiskens, is the Ickx car – the one in which he took victories at Oulton and Mosport, finished the season in Mexico, and also raced in France, the Netherlands and Spain. In its post-period F1 life, American Doug Champlin bought and raced it in the 1970 SCCA L&M Continental Championship series in the USA and Canada, then kept it for many years, before it was restored to its current 1969 Canadian GP spec under Roger Meiners’ ownership in the mid-1980s – the right and obvious choice.

As for Ickx, his legacy tends to be dominated by the six
Le Mans wins, while in F1 terms the years at Ferrari and
Lotus catch the most attention. But his brief spell with
Jack Brabham should not be overlooked – much like the
neat, tidy and downright pretty F1 car he helped unlock
from its underwhelming frustration.

Ickx ended 1969 as the runner-up in the standings, and notably led home his boss in a 1-2 at Mosport

Photo by: David Phipps

Race record

Starts: 52
Wins: 2
Pole positions: 5
Fastest laps: 2
Podium: 7
Championship points: 53 (Only the best-placed car from each manufacturer, best five results of the first six rounds, and best four of the last five rounds counted)

Specification

Chassis: Tubular steel spaceframe with stressed-skin sections
Suspension: Double wishbones, coil springs over dampers, anti-roll bar
Engine: Ford Cosworth DFV V8
Engine capacity: 2,993cc
Power: 410bhp @ 9000rpm
Gearbox: Hewland DG300 5-speed manual
Brakes: Steel discs
Tyres: Goodyear
Weight: 500kg
Notable drivers: Jack Brabham, Jochen Rindt, Jacky Ickx, Piers Courage

It is often overlooked in the history of Brabham, but the BT26 was an effective piece of kit

Photo by: James Mann