BRABHAM BT-18 FORMULA B
A mid-1960s creation of the renowned Australian racecar builder and international Formula 1 driving champion, Jack Brabham, the BT-18 was originally classified in Europe as a Formula 2 car – and soon after in the USA as a Formula B car. In Britain and throughout the Continent, BT-18s were common “ladder” cars to the Formula 1 pinnacle level of racing during the mid-late 1960s; light weight, rigid, very quick and featuring extraordinarily nimble handling qualities. They were superbly designed and crafted, yet practical rear-engine open wheel racecars for privateers to own and campaign. Their lightweight yet rigid tube frame chassis design incorporated the engine in the rear, designed as a structural member of the car.
While the engines used in these cars differed somewhat over time, the BT-18 that Tom Malloy purchased employed a classic 1600cc Lotus “twincam”— a high revving double-overhead cam 4-cylinder engine with potent output (180+ horsepower), and was both easy to operate and dependable. Competitive with the storied Lotus Formula 2 cars of the period, the Brabham BT-18 has been referred to as a masterpiece of engineering, aesthetics, and performance.
An open wheel formula car of towering pedigree, the BT-18 was a creation of Motor Racing Developments Ltd., otherwise known as “Brabham,” the illustrious manufacturer of Formula 1 racecars for legendary Australian racer Jack “Black Jack” Brabham. The company also extensively produced customer racecars for various classes or formulas. Founded in 1960 by Aussie genius designer/engineer Ron Tauranac and driver/engineer Jack Brabham, the company’s race team won four Formula 1 Driver’s championships and two Formula 1 Constructors’ championships over its hallmark 30-year history. Jack Brabham’s 1966 Formula 1 Driver’s Championship remains today the only such achievement in a car bearing the driver’s own name. Importantly, Jack Brabham was the first driver of a rear-engine car – the Cooper Climax – at the Indianapolis 500 in 1961, and Brabham cars (including Jack Brabham himself) logged many successes over the years in many versions of their cars at Indy.
For nearly a decade, from 1961 through 1970, Jack Brabham and partner Ron Tauranac developed their “BT” series of open wheel formula racecars, first for their own team exploits and then for specialized racecar and racing team clients. These cars were progressively developed for several European racing classes, principally Formula 3, Formula 2 and Formula 1. The cars were arguably the best of their respective breeds, substantially due to the mastery of their designer/developer, Ron Tauranac. For example, one of their Formula 2 cars won eleven consecutive races in the late 1960s against the toughest competition known. And in Formula 3, their BT-15 model won 42 races in the hands of drivers who were later to become future Formula 1 racing stars.
In American SCCA racing, Brabhams built a winning reputation in Formula B (later known as Formula Atlantic) with 1600cc twin cam engines such as in the Malloy BT-18. SCCA Formula B parameters were nearly identical to European Formula 2 guidelines during this era.
Although Jack Brabham himself became a racing giant on the world stage during the 1960s both as a driver and car builder, he began humbly. As a teenager he started racing when an American friend, Johnny Schonberg, persuaded him to watch a Midget dirt track race. Having migrated to Australia from America in the late 1940s, Midget racing (called “Speedcar racing” in Australia) was popular Down Under, attracting crowds reaching 40,000 spectators. Although fascinated by the sport, Jack Brabham didn’t like the idea of driving, saying the drivers “were all lunatics.” But he agreed to build a car with his buddy Johnny Schonberg in 1947.
At first Schonberg drove the homemade contraption, powered by a modified 500cc JAP motorcycle engine built by Brabham in his workshop. But in 1948 Schonberg’s wife persuaded him to stop racing, thus Brabham stepped up and took the wheel, excelling immediately. In 1948 Jack Brabham won the Australian Speedcar Championship, followed by the 1949 Australian and South Australian Speedcar championships, and the 1950–1951 Australian championships with the car.
These successes led to Jack Brabham’s interest in road racing. After he purchased and modified a series of road race cars from the British Cooper Car Company, Brabham’s rapid ascendance brought him to Europe where he became a Formula 2 star, ultimately an international Formula 1 champion and an Indianapolis 500 pioneer in the USA. Paralleling his American counterpart, Dan Gurney, Brabham’s influences on motor racing were tectonic and to this day still perpetuate.
Under the ownership of dedicated vintage racer and car collectorTom Malloy, the Brabham BT-18 has been raced religiously through the fast bends, hairpin turns, esses and straightaways of tracks throughout the western United States and beyond, across the USA and abroad. A few of the premiere tracks and events where Tom has raced the Brabham include; in California – the Palm Springs Grand Prix, Willow Springs International Raceway; Buttonwillow Raceway; Thunderhill Raceway; Sonoma Raceway; Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway; the Los Angeles Grand Prix; Tustin Thunder Grand Prix and many others – in addition to out-of-state events such as those at Portland International Raceway; Pacific Raceways in Seattle; Road Atlanta, Georgia; Road America, Wisconsin; and across the Pacific, at three celebrated racetracks in New Zealand. In 2009 the Brabham BT-18 was disassembled and completely restored in every detail to the highest standard of its marque. As recently as September, 2014, Tom won 1st place overall in the small displacement open wheel class at the annual Speedfest historic car races in Coronado, California.
