Family business: The story of Brabham Automotive

Not far from Holden’s Elizabeth plant a new Australian-made car has taken shape, and it’s a radical departure from what we’ve previously known. The Brabham BT62 shares nothing in common with the Commodore, Ford Falcon and Toyota Camry aside from the country they were built in.

The brainchild of David Brabham, youngest son of three-time Formula One world champion Sir Jack, the journey to the BT62 was a long and arduous one that took detours through Germany’s high courts and some of the world’s best racetracks before finding a home in Adelaide.

The start

As absurd as it sounds, the Brabham family didn’t have the rights to use its own name in the late 2000s. A German company run by Michael Trick was selling modified BMWs under the ‘Brabham Racing’ banner and when David attempted to mediate a settlement he was rejected. That set off a protracted legal battle of the rights to the name that ended on Christmas Day 2012 when Brabham won back the unrestricted use of its own name.

But the case had taken a toll on David, who led the cause on the family’s behalf, both financially and emotionally. He admits he was left with £300 in the bank and his racing career was brought to a halt, while his son Sam had to put his racing aspirations on hold.

Initially David launched Project Brabham in 2014 as a crowdfunded, open-source racing team in a big to get the famous name back on the racetrack, but things took a turn towards the BT62 project when he met Dan Marks, one of the partners in Fusion Capital, an Adelaide-based investment firm with ties to the motoring industry.

“[Project Brabham] was a successful crowdfunding campaign but to go racing you need a lot more money,” David explains to Drive. “To go and find that investment was a challenge, so I had to take a different direction.

“Then [Marks and I] hooked up because a mutual contact said ‘you need to talk to these guys’ and that got us together, and here we are. It was quite incredible timing for everything. Since we’ve come together, certainly the journey for me personally - going through the court case to get the name back - was always a struggle. You never felt like things were quite falling into place, but since we met it’s just steamrolled since then.”

Marks, who has the role of commercial director for Brabham Automotive, and his partners Matt Fitch and Christian Reynolds run Fusion Capital, which has a diverse portfolio that includes automotive interests, hence the partnership with Brabham to bring the BT62 to life.

“Matt’s family business was Precision Components, so they were one of the largest component suppliers to Holden, Ford and Toyota,” says Marks. “At its height it had 250 employees working double-shifts. My background is legal, corporate, doing mergers, acquisitions and IPOs. I was doing work for Matt and Christian separately and we thought it would be good if we could set up an organisation together and look at advanced manufacturing post-Holden.”

Brabham admitted he received plenty of offers for help with the project, but the combination of Fusion’s automotive background and financial strength led him to make the tie-up.

“There’s a lot of people that approached us without any real substance behind them, hoping the Brabham name might bring something. The confidence I had in the Fusion group is they were well-funded, well-skilled and we share the same vision,” he says.

Which is where the decision to build the BT62 in Adelaide came into the process. Precision Components workforce are highly-skilled and familiar with the demands of the automotive world, as well as having a suitable manufacturing site in Adelaide. Building high-volume passenger cars and SUVs may no longer make sense in Australia, but Marks says manufacturing the low-volume, high-quality BT62 does.

“We will, as a country, not compete with China, Vietnam and Thailand with low-value products,” Marks says. “We have to take engineering up to the next level and focus on low-volume, high-quality and scalable products.”

For David, the ability to build the first product of the new Brabham venture in Australia is ideal, but it’s only the beginning for a company that has global aspirations.

“I think it’s really unique for the Brabham brand to start in Australia, we will obviously spread out overseas, like Jack. It’s gone full circle, where Jack started, where we all started, and now the next chapter is starting in Australia and that’s really important for me,” David says.

Not that either man is expecting smooth sailing as they embark on this ambitious adventure.

“Make no bones about it, it’s not easy,” Marks admits. “If it was easy more people would be doing it, and there’s not. No-one else is doing it in Australia and not many people are doing it around the world.”

The car

Naturally for a family steeped in motor racing heritage, David decided to return the Brabham name to the racetrack as a first step. But instead of jumping into an expensive and complex motor racing program, Brabham Automotive opted for the slightly less expensive and fractionally less complicated program of developing the ultimate track car.

So the BT62 is free from both road car regulations or racing rules, allowing complete freedom in the design. The result is a mid-engine supercar that weighs just 972kg, is powered by a 522kW naturally-aspirated V8 engine and draped in carbon fibre bodywork.

David explains the philosophy of the car was to try and give it a similar feeling to the machines he drove throughout his own racing career; which included outright victory at Le Mans in 2009 with the Peugeot 908 prototype and GT1 class wins with Aston Martin in 2007 and ‘08.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to drive a lot of vehicles, race cars, from GTs all the way to LMP1,” he says. “So when I think back to the GT1 era, which was close to a prototype, and this one is another step up, I wanted a car that was in that range. That to me was the ultimate car. It had to have racing DNA in it because that’s what the brand is and when you look at the car it has pure racing DNA in it.”

While it may miss out on a fancy carbon fibre monocoque like a McLaren or a turbocharged engine or hybrid boost as is the modern trend, there’s no denying the BT62 is seriously quick. It uses the same principles that saw Sir Jack become the only man to ever win the F1 world driver’s title in a car of his own construction - light, strong and powerful.

At the Bathurst 12-hour in February Supercars racer and Bathurst champion Luke Youlden took the BT62 around the 6.2km circuit in 1:58.67secs - the fastest lap ever recorded on Australia’s most famous circuit.

David has been hands-on throughout the development of the car, which has involved extensive track testing in both Europe and Australia. The company is now a regular visitor to The Bend Motorsport Park in South Australia where Brabham, Youlden and others push the BT62 to its limits.

While he admits he is caught up in the day-to-day running of the project and the need to keep pushing it along, when we ask David what it was like to drive the BT62 for the first time he takes a moment to reflect on the journey he has undertaken.

“Pretty special,” he says. “I would say all the way through, even the first test and the launch you’re still so busy in your head about what’s going on it’s difficult to step back and go ‘Wow! Look at what we’ve done.’ I would say only now I look back and go ‘wow, we’ve come a long way.’”

The next step is of course selling the BT62 to customers. With a starting price of $1.8m it’s not a cheap car but both Brabham and Marks are pleased with the market response and are confident all 70 examples of the model will sell.

Unplanned customer demand for a road-going version (pictured, above) has led to the development of a conversion kit - for an additional $270,000 - which will raise the ride height and add some creature comforts such as air-conditioning and door locks.

The first customer car is set to be delivered to a buyer in Germany in the third quarter of 2019, which will be the next major milestone for the fledgling brand.

The future

The BT62 is only the beginning, as Brabham and Marks have big plans for Brabham Automotive which includes a range of road cars and a racing program.

Not surprisingly, given his own career, David has set his sights on taking Brabham to Le Mans, with plans to enter the GTE class by 2021. That will pit a racing version of the BT62 up against some of the biggest names in the automotive world - Ferrari, Porsche, Ford, Chevrolet and Aston Martin.

That’s a task that would intimidate a lot of people, but not a Brabham.

“Jack went up against Ferrari, and they were 10 times bigger than he was,” David says with a shrug. “From the Brabham side we are not afraid of a challenge. That’s what resonated with Fusion and ourselves, there’s a ‘go get ‘em’ attitude.”

David has a bold future for his family business in his mind, saying: “My vision is to build a road car, continually build road cars, go racing, go to Le Mans, win Le Mans, win championships.”

The legacy

It has been a busy decade for David, winning back his family name, creating a car company and resurrecting local vehicle manufacturing before he embarks on his plans to take on the world on both road and track.

Which leaves us with the question: What would Sir Jack think of this latest endeavor?

“He’d have a smile on his face,” says David. “It’s a shame he wasn’t around to see it, to be fair. It’s his legacy that we’re carrying forward, his contribution to Australian sport. We hope that Brabham Automotive can do the same, by creating cars in Australia and going racing and winning races like Le Mans and the World Endurance Championship. That would be a fantastic achievement.”

For David creating Brabham Automotive isn’t just about building cars, it’s about a future for his son Sam and the rest of the Australia’s first family of motor racing.

“What makes Brabham, particularly with Brabham Automotive [both] the brand and the car, is there’s a family link that’s really strong. I’ve tested the vehicle, I’m involved in the development, involved with Dan selling cars, so you’ve got that real family link which I don’t know many car manufacturers can claim that.”

He adds: “That’s why I talk about that long-term family legacy. Obviously I’m not going to be around forever, but if something did happen to me there are family members to pick up where I went.”