Brabham Automotive was an Australian automaker launched by David Brabham and Australian investor group, Fusion Capital in May 2018. Brabham Automotive was based in Adelaide, South Australia, with representation also in the United Kingdom. Brabham Automotive ceased operations in January 2024.

Termination of collaboration between Brabham Group Limited (UK) and Brabham Automotive Holdings Pty Ltd (Adelaide, Australia)

Brabham Group Limited (BGL) and Fusion Capital, the majority shareholder, sole funder, and operator of the Automotive company that bears the famous Brabham name, announce that after six years of collaboration, the arrangement has now come to an end. The decision to end the relationship was made after careful consideration and what was in the best interests of all parties and the Brand.

The venture between the two companies enabled the group to design, build and sell high performance Brabham vehicles on a worldwide exclusive licence. The company’s global launch in 2018 at Australia House London introduced the beautiful Brabham BT62 high performance track car to the world’s media, ex-Brabham F1 drivers and VIP guests. The highlights of the BT62 and BT63 consisted of lap records at Bathurst Mount Panorama and Phillip Island, pole positions and race victories in Europe.

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Brabham Group

Bicester Heritage
Suite D, Building 123, Bicester Heritage, Buckingham Road,
Bicester, Oxfordshire OX27 8AL

Bicester Heritage operates on a ‘by appointment only’ basis

+44 (0)845 053 6821

History

Motor Racing Developments Ltd., commonly known as Brabham, was a British racing car manufacturer and Formula One racing team. It was founded in 1960 by the Australian driver Jack Brabham and the British-Australian designer Ron Tauranac. The team had a successful thirty-year history, winning four FIA Formula One Drivers’ and two Constructors’ World Championships, starting with two successive wins in 1966 and 1967. Jack Brabham’s 1966 Drivers’ Championship remains the only such achievement using a car bearing the driver’s own name.

During the 1960s, Brabham was the world’s largest manufacturer of open-wheel racing cars sold to customer teams, having built more than 500 cars by 1970. Teams using Brabham cars also won championships in Formula Two and Formula Three, and the cars competed in events like the Indianapolis 500 and Formula 5000 racing. In the 1970s and 1980s, Brabham introduced innovations such as carbon brakes and hydropneumatic suspension, and reintroduced in-race refuelling. Its unique Gordon Murray-designed ‘fan car’ won its only race before being withdrawn.

The team won two more Formula One Drivers’ Championships in the 1980s with Brazilian Nelson Piquet. He won his first championship in 1981 in the ground effect BT49-Ford, and became the first to win a Drivers’ Championship with a turbocharged car, in 1983. In 1983, the Brabham BT52, driven by Piquet and Riccardo Patrese and was powered by BMW’s M12 straight-four engine, secured four of the Brabham’s thirty-five Grand Prix victories.

The businessman Bernie Ecclestone owned Brabham during most of the 1970s and 1980s, and later became responsible for administering the commercial aspects of Formula One. Ecclestone sold the team in 1988. Its last owner was the Middlebridge Group, a Japanese engineering firm. Midway through the 1992 season, the team collapsed financially as Middlebridge was unable to make repayments against loans provided by Landhurst Leasing. The case was investigated by the United Kingdom Serious Fraud Office. In 2009, a German organisation unsuccessfully attempted to enter the 2010 Formula One season using the Brabham name.

In September 2014, David Brabham—the son of Brabham founder Sir Jack Brabham—announced the reformation of the Brabham Racing team under the name Project Brabham, with plans to enter the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship and 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans in the LMP2 category using a crowdsourcing business model.[83] The company also expressed interest in returning to Formula One, but did not have the financial capacity to do so.

In 2019, Brabham Automotive announced its goal to enter the 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship using a BT62 in the GTE class. The team competed in the 2019 GT Cup Championship.[86] It also entered the final two races of the 2019 Britcar Endurance Championship, winning on its debut.

In 2021, Brabham Automotive debuted their BT63 GT2 car at the season finale of the 2021 GT2 European Series.