‘Incredible’ interest in Brabham BT62

AUSTRALIA’S fledgling supercar builder, Brabham Automotive, says it has already taken deposits for the first of up to 70 track-only BT62 supercars that are set to go into production at Edinburgh Parks, in Adelaide’s northern suburbs, in the second half of this year.

 

The company founded by 2009 Le Mans winner David Brabham – son of triple Formula One world champion Sir Jack Brabham – has described the interest in the $1.8 million car from potential buyers as “incredible” since it was revealed earlier this month at Australia House, in London.

 

It says production slots are already being allocated for initial deliveries of customer vehicles that should start late this year and be completed within 18 months.

 

Brabham Automotive gave the sales update when unveiling the latest BT62 pilot-build car at an event in Adelaide on Tuesday night.

 

The company also took the opportunity to announce that it would use South Australia’s new race circuit, the Bend Motorsport Park at Tailem Bend, as its new development base for the car that, until now, has been tested in secret at Victoria’s Phillip Island circuit.

 

About 100km south-east of Adelaide, the new 7.7km-long circuit is considerably closer than Phillip Island to Brabham Automotive’s new Edinburgh Parks factory that is being fitted out in a 15,000 square-metre facility that housed the ZF Lemforder car component business before it was dealt a lethal blow by the closure of the nearby Holden manufacturing plant and other Australian car-makers.

 

The deal with the Bend Motorsport Park was announced jointly by Mr Brabham and the circuit’s owner and managing director Dr Sam Shahin.

 

Mr Brabham, who had just tested the latest BT62 at the circuit that will host its first Supercars meeting in August, described the Bend as a world-class circuit and “a testament to the passion and hard work of Dr Sam Shahin and his team”.

 

“The track gives the car and the driver a great work out, and we look forward to working with the Bend team as our testing programme continues,” he said.

 

While the BT62 revealed in London recently was painted British racing green with gold highlights in tribute to Sir Jack Brabham’s Repco Brabham that he drove to victory for the first time at the French Grand Prix in 1966, the second example unveiled last night by Mr Brabham and fellow Brabham director Mathew Fitch – managing director of Brabham backer Fusion Capital – is painted predominantly white with green and red highlights.

 

The company says the new colour scheme “accentuates the shape and exquisite detail of the car’s carbon-fibre body, which is optimised for aerodynamic performance and blistering on-track performance”.

 

Powered by a 5.4-litre normally aspirated V8 producing 522kW of power and 667Nm of torque, the carbon-fibre-bodied car weighs just 972kg and can generate more than 1200kg of downforce at high speed.

 

The car has been under development for about two years, and will be limited to a production run of 70 in honour of the seven decades since Sir Jack Brabham launched his motorsport career.

 

As GoAuto has reported, the Brabham-backed Fusion Capital also has ties with two other automotive companies in South Australia – car component manufacturer Precision Components and bus-maker Precision Buses.

 

The latter is a joint venture with Australia’s largest home-grown bus manufacturer, Bustech, of Queensland. It is vying for a contract to build 400 buses for the South Australian government’s Adelaide Metro.

 

Precision Buses has supplied four evaluation buses to Adelaide Metro, two of them prototype electric buses and the other two light-weight, low-emissions diesel vehicles.

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