Brabham BT8 SC-3-64

(These are Allen Brown's original notes from his 1993/4 research. Apologies if they don't make complete sense in places!)

1964-5 - Roger Natham (UK)

Built for 1964 season and fitted with a 2-litre Climax for Roger Natham.  

Natham doesn't appear at the first race of the Autosport Championship but is listed as having three points from one race in 2-litre class after the second race. This implies he was fourth at Oulton Park on 11 April (Autosport 17 Apr 1964 pp 522,529). Missed the Aintree round on 18 Apr (AS 24/4/64 pp562, 576) but won BRSCC meeting at Mallory on 18 April instead. Then finished second at Maidstone and Mid-Kent MC's Silverstone meeting on 25 April. (Autosport 1 May 1964 pp599, 622). His points total rose to 15 after three races with a fourth in class at the Silverstone International (this being second in the 1151-2000 championship class) (Autosport 8 May 1964 pp642, 655).

The biggest win for the BT8 in 1964 was probably Nathan's outright victory in the Martini Trophy at Silverstone on 4 July, leading home Bob Anderson's sister BT8. He was later first in class in the Snetterton Guards Trophy on 5 July and won a support race at Snetterton on 19 July.

See Autosport Championship "final qualifying positions" (AS 18 Sep 1964 p438).

1965

Fitted with 4.5-litre Oldsmobile for 1965 and raced in the Lavant Cup at Goodwood on Easter Monday (no mention in AS 23 Apr 1965 p616) and in the GP support race at Silverstone in July.

First reported outing seems to be the Tourist Trophy at on 1 May Oulton Park (AS 7 May 1965 pp694-695) but he non-started having qualified down in 12th. The International Trophy support race at Silverstone on 15 May (AS 21 May 1965 p780-781) may have seen a long-delayed firsy start for the car but Nathan was shunted by a McLaren-Elva at Becketts on the first lap.

It finally managed a complete race in the Guards Trophy at Mallory Park on 6 June (AS 11 Jun 1965 p910), taking a fine third overall. First wins came at Ouston, where Natham won the sports car and libre races (AS 25 Jun 1965 p1006).

Jeremy Morgan (UK) 1965 or 1966

Barrie Smith (UK) 1967 (bought with two engines: a 2-litre FPF and a V8 Climax F1 engine stretched to 2 litres) and sold to the US.

Imported from England by William Ashplant. Fred writes:

'[I] never owned a BT8 Brabham, but [my] brother William imported one from England. The car arrived in very incomplete shape and was never driven by Bill. We have no idea what ever happened to the car.' (Fred Ashplant 18 Jan 2004)

The Vintage Motorsport article picks up the history of this car with Dave Fenton but does not give the year. Subsequent research showed that Kevin Smith was another intermediate owner.

Dave Fenton (US)

Kevin Smith (US)

Ed Loveday (Avon, Mass.) 1970 or 1971 with Climax V8 and later Hart twincam

Andy Peterson (Portland, OR) picks up the story:

"I worked for Ed Loveday in 1975-6 at a shop called "The Pitstop" in Avon Massachusetts. He had raced the car with the 2.0 Climax V-8 and one day a sticking throttle caused it to over-rev and about five laps later the engine came apart. During the time I worked for him, Ed built a sleek new body for the car, using the original mounting points so that he could race the car with either body. When he sold the car (I believe he told me to someone in Texas) both bodies went with it.

When that owner sold it as a vintage racer, he kept the body Ed built and hung it on his den wall. That was what Ed told me sometime in the early '80s. Last I was able to track Ed down (through his pilot's license), he lived down the road from the Plymouth MA airport.

I remember that Ed Loveday told me that the Climax V-8 had been used in the Tasman Series and had been blown up by Jimmy Clark. It sat on the shelf at Lotus for some period of time, and the British owner (whom I had thought Ed bought the car from directly, but apparently not by your history of it) had gone to Lotus and asked them to put together all of the parts to build it as a 2.0 version. Ed acquired the car with the Climax V-8 still in pieces and built the engine up.

Somewhere I have a picture of the car with the body that Ed built, taken just after he got it back from the paint shop. (I think I stuck it in the copy of Vintage Motorsport that had the article, but it's in a box.) He never raced the car while I worked for him, but he had it out within a year or so of my leaving his shop. I moved to Connecticut shortly after that, so didn't see Ed very often, and never saw the car raced.

The Pitstop, the shop that Ed ran, had originally just done racing car construction. At some point they started taking care of the street cars of the people whose race cars they built, then other customers on recommendation, then gradually any foreign cars (except French and Opels). Ed had been a machinists mate in the Navy, and he had a lot of talent to build just about anything. He was a well respected Lotus mechanic and had built up a number of Lotus racing cars. Last time I saw him, he was building a Lotus Elan racer for Don Tingle, who had a shop behind Watertown Square." [Andy Peterson 15 Sep 2005]

Jim Mullen (1978) with Cosworth BDA

Richard Greer (US) early 1980's. Retained 1993.

Mysteries:

• Who did Barrie Smith sell his car to (and when)?

• Where did Dave Fenton get his car (and when)?

• When did Kevin Smith own his BT8?

• Does Richard Greer still own his BT8?

Sources:

• Vintage Motorsport (November/December 1991 p48)