Brabham BT36-3

Jack Brabham began his Formula 1 racing career in 1955, and just a few years later, in 1959 and 1960, he won the World Championship behind the wheel of a Cooper-Climax. In 1961, he joined Ron Touranac to set up Motor Racing Developments for the purpose of building racing cars. In 1962, Brabham’s contract with Cooper ended and he was able to use his own surname. Brabham Racing Developments built the cars while the Brabham Racing Organization ran the works team.

It took only a few years for the young Brabham Racing team to achieve impressive victories. in 1966, they had four wins in a row at Reims, Brands Hatch, Zandvoort, and the Nurburgring. This accomplishment made Brabham the only individual to win the World Championship driving a car of his own making.

At the close of the 1970 season, Brabham retired from racing, his last race victory in one of his own cars coming in South Africa that year. In honour of his achievements and racing career, he was later knighted.

The Brabham BT36 was a development of the BT35 and was built using space-frame construction. It had an outboard suspension and inboard brakes. The GRP body was innovative, aerodynamic, and lightweight.

In total, 9 examples of the BT36 were built, plus a BT36x which was powered by a Repco V8 engine and used in the Hillclimb competition. The car was built for Mike MacDowell and won the 1973 and 1974 British Hill Climb Championships. The other 9 cars were built to Formula 2 specification.

This Brabham BT 36-3 was sold new to Bernd Terbeck (Hiltrup, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany) and entered most F2 races in 1971. Nürburgring in May, and a non-championship race at Hockenheim in October. Retained in 1972 and entered at Hockenheim in April, still fitted with its 1971 1600cc Cosworth FVA.  The car was returned to England for repairs and was offered for sale by Kaydon Racing (Cobham, Surrey) in August 1972. Returned to Terbeck who sold it to Heinz Stemmer (Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany). Later to Karl-Heinz Kühn, and then to Hans Peter in 1984. Stephan Jocher bought the car from Peter in 1996 and had it for two or three years. It was next seen when raced by Willy Markwalder from 2002 to 2004. To Heinz Rolf Wisskirchen 2006. Then unknown again until raced by Armin Zumtobel in Historic F2 in 2018.

Driven by: Bernd Terbeck. First race: Nürburgring (R3), 2 May 1971. Total of 2 recorded races.