The short-lived triumph of the Brabham fan car

The history books show that the 1978 Formula 1 season belonged to Lotus. Designer Colin Chapman revolutionized the sport with ground-effect aerodynamics that gave its cars enormous downforce. In other words, so that they bloom really quickly.

The Lotus 78 took some early wins this year, but it was the Lotus 79 that really took the team into “one giant leap for humanity”: it was introduced in Belgium’s sixth race of the season and brought Mario Andretti to pole for more than a second and then lapped most of the field on the way to victory.

The American drove to the title in a year marked by the death of his teammate Ronnie Peterson, and at the same time Lotus comfortably won the constructors’ crown.

But it could have turned out so differently. Over in Brabham, Gordon Murray scratched his head trying to figure out how to turn the tables on Lotus. The team’s BT46 got off to a difficult start, partly because the car was having cooling problems, but also because it had no response to Lotus’s ingenious ground effect.

Read more below ↓

Murray went back to study the rulebook, and after reading the regulations, he stumbled upon something: the rules said that any device whose primary function was to affect aerodynamics had to be completely stationary. So what about a device whose primary function was different?

Read more below ↓

recommended videos

After speaking to a lawyer, Murray knew he had found his loophole and the South African set out to develop his lotus killer. The BT46B and after the new design was secretly tested at Brands Hatch, the car was made ready for the Swedish Grand Prix in Anderstorp.

The B-Spec car produced its floor-effect downforce in two ways: First, by adding lotus-inspired side skirts that, for lack of a better metaphor, acted like a suction cup under the car. The second was a rear-mounted fan that would suck in air from under the car, increase the power of the vacuum, and increase the speed of the car through corners.

Read more below ↓

The other teams protested immediately, but Brabham had been clever. Since more than half of the airflow produced by the fan was drawn through the radiator, it was argued that its main function was to act as a cooling device and therefore it could not be against the rules.

The authorities agreed and the car was released for racing. The team was so confident of its pace that owner Bernie Ecclestone instructed his drivers to take it easy in qualifying and to make absolutely sure they weren’t ruffling feathers overfilling the cars’ fuel tanks. Amazingly, the sandbagging didn’t work. John Watson and Niki Lauda qualified second and third.

Nobody knew for sure, but the race was a formality, especially when oil fell on the track and the Brabham just pounded through the track as the rivals were forced to slow down. Watson was eliminated early, but Lauda crossed the checkered flag in more than half a minute – a huge void in any era of F1.

Read more below ↓

It looked like the championship had been blown far, but politics got in the way. At first, Brabham’s rivals tried to claim the fan was dangerous because it stirred up stones and dust – a claim Murray denied. When that didn’t last, Colin Chapman and Ken Tyrrell made it clear to Ecclestone that the Formula One Constructors Association – the organization Ecclestone ran alongside his team responsibilities – would be over.

“We would have easily won the championship,” thought Murray when Top Gear recently visited their incredible auto collection, but after Ecclestone explained the pressure he was under, Murray “reluctantly” agreed to withdraw the car.

The Brabham fan car was retired with a 100 percent win record, the only car to have achieved such a feat in F1 history. And Murray has since given us more great fan cars, namely the McLaren F1 and the new T.50. God bless loopholes.

Read more below ↓

NOTE: This article first appeared on TopGear.com. Minor changes were made.

See also

Top Gear Philippines is now on Quento! Click here to download the app and enjoy more articles and videos from Top Gear Philippines and your favorite websites.

Continue reading

Post a comment