Jack Brabham is the only person in Formula One to win a world championship in a car of his own name. A Brabham, is the car that New Zealand's only Formula One world champion Denny Hulme scored his championship in, and they were probably the most numerous single seat car to be raced in New Zealand in the 1960's.

The Brabham BT6 started life out as a Formula Junior car most of them powered by a Ford 1100cc engine. When these cars were imported into New Zealand most of them were re-powered with either 1500cc or 1600cc Ford engines top comply with the "National Formula" rules. This was the type of car that Giggs Alexander allowed me to measure, thus starting my project to build a Brabham BT6 replica.

The front suspension components, except for the steering rack on a BT6 are donor parts from road cars such as the Triumph Herald and Ford Cortina. The steering rack was an original Brabham part that I have had to replicate, the housing is a cast item and it looked simple enough so I thought I would have a go at making the pattern for the casting and it has turned out very pleasing. The internal parts I purchased from the UK, but I have since found everything I needed in New Zealand. The suspension arms, are steel tubes, nickel bronzed to bushings that I had made by one of the Constructor's Car Club members. Except for the bushing these are once again quite simple to make but the jigs are again the time consuming part. The rear suspension has to be completely engineered, I had a Christchurch firm make the patterns for the rear uprights, I have made the initial pair out of aluminium as a cost saving factor. This doesn't hurt the pocket so much if I have made a mistake with my drawings of the hubs and drive shafts. Once I have confirmed that everything is OK I will get some cast in magnesium as the originals were.

The pictures to the right of this text show a few steps in the building process, as you can see from the first construction photo, you need a strong jig to build these cars on, something that won't move when you are heating the chassis to weld it. In the second construction photo you can make out two of the jigs that I used to hold the cross tube at the top of the chassis for the engine bay bulkhead, I always double check my measurements before welding and then again, after I have tacked a tube in place, this cuts out any potential errors before the tubes are fully welded. The third and forth photos are of the completed chassis less the roll hoop, not very pretty but you get a good feel for all the tube fitting and welding involved. The fifth photo is just a shot of the pedal box configuration, the BT6 had both floor mounted pedals and this set up using modified 100E Ford Anglia parts. The sixth photo is a shot of the right front suspension, I put this together to check camber and caster settings after I had finished the suspension arms, just to make sure the angles were in the ball park before I set about building the other side.

I have only just scratched the surface of what it involves to build any replica, most people start with a kit from someone like Barry Leitch or maybe a rolling chassis like the Jaguar C Type that Dave Brown builds. When you go down this avenue it takes most of the development work out of your hands, which makes the job a faster and more pleasant process and you know when you receive a part in a kit it will fit.