Rennmax
Bob Britton with the Peter Williamson Rennmax BN1 chassis. Copyright Harry Hickling. Used with permission.
Bob Britton was one of Australia's leading builders in the late 1960s and early 1970s and was responsible for a series of highly competitive designs, most of which were based heavily on imported cars. Many of his most interesting cars stemmed from repair work, such as the successful series of Brabham BT23-based cars such as the Mildren, the Rorstan and the Rennmax BN3s.
The Rennmax story is a fascinating one but more information is needed. If you can help, please email Allen at allen@oldracingcars.com.
| Type | Years | Number built | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rennmax-Cooper | 1962 | 1 | The rebuild of the Noel Hall Cooper T51 (F2-16-59) into a Lotus 18 chassis type car. According to John Blanden's 'Historic Racing Cars of Australia' it used the wheels, brakes, engine and gearbox from the Cooper. |
| Rennmax BN1 | 1962-1964? | 6 or 7 or 8 | A Lotus-based single-seater incorporating elements of the Lotus 20 and 22 designs. Full details. |
| Mildren-Maserati sports car | 1964 | 1 | Lotus 23 style car using a Lotus 19 clone frame built for Alec Mildren and fitted with his 2.9-litre Maserati Type 61 engine. This also used parts from a Cooper T51, apparently the ex-Mildren/Ross Dalton F2-22-59 in this case. Raced in 1965 as the Mildren-Maserati. Sold to Ross Ambrose (Burnie, Tasmania) in 1966 or 1967, fitted with a 2.2-litre Climax engine and raced as the Rennmax-Climax. Ambrose then bought the ex-Reventlow/Scarab 4.4-litre Traco-Olds engine out of Tony Osborne's Argo Sports and Geoff Smedley fitted that to the Rennmax during 1969. In 1970, the "Traco-Rennmax" had passed to Geoff McHugh and then to Glenn Warren in 1973 or 1974. By 2005, it was owned by David Doubtfire (Melborne). |
| Rennmax Vee | ? | 7? | A batch built for Greg Cusack and Bruce Burr |
| Lotus 23 replicas | ? | Unknown | A series of cars that evolved out of Britton's Lotus 23 repairs |
| Rennmax BN2 | 1968 | 1 | A one-off design for Max Stewart based on the Brabham BT14 design. Full details. |
| Rennmax BN3 | 1969-1970 | 5? | A series of cars based on the Brabham BT23. The Rorstan and Mildren from 1969 were effectively the same construction. Full details. |
| BMW sports racers | 1970-1971 | 2 | The first was built for Doug McArthur in 1970, using the engine from a GT Chevron and now owned by Paul Gibson (Benalla, Aus). A second car built in 1971 for Ray Hanger with a Waggott engine is now owned by Ian Moyes and Jim Foulis (Melbourne, Aus). |
| Repco sports racer | ? | 1 | Built with a 5-litre Repco engine for Lionel Ayers. Owned by Jim Phillips in 2004. |
| Rennmax Vee 2nd series | ? | Unknown | This may have been the BN4 design. |
| Rennmax BN6 | 1974 | 1 | Monocoque. Prototype of BN7. One built for Doug Heasman. |
| Rennmax BN7 | 1975 | 3 | Monocoque. Three built for Terry Quartly, Andrew Miedecke and Ross Switzer. |
Thanks to Ray Bell and Bryan Miller for their help constructing these histories. This page last updated on 13 November, 2012 .
