mk1-forum.net

Dear all,

I was working on my Mini Marcos mk1 project past Sunday when my dad and I pulled away some upholstery in the dashboard cut outs to find some paperwork. I bought the car from the first owner a few months back so he must have left them there. The engine was balanced before fitting as he told me that but I now found the receipt and it was done at Jack Brabham. After a search on the interwebs I found that he had a machine shop, didn't know that. Is there more information known about that? It is offcourse a famous name in the racing world but most of all because of his F1 team.

Kind regards,

Joost

Yep Jack was pretty hands on aswell! Apart from his machine shop, garage etc he also produced some branded accessories like exhausts etc.

Catalogue here : http://mk1-performance-conversions.co.uk/brabham.htm

Jack Brabham also had a tie up with Vauxhall for the HA and HB Viva carb conversions and exhausts. I remember ordering a HA carb Kit from Tony Chappell's Car Accessory shop in Cardiff around 1967/8.

Really cool, thanks for the link! I need to get the engine apart soon to rebuild it. The receipt is in really good nick as it was never exposed. Next with the receipt there was a brochure from Oselli. I think he bougt the special tuning clutch (mabe flywheel) and gearkit from there. The brochure seems different from the one on mk1 performance archive.

Didn't he do a Herald with a Coventry Climax engine? I seem to remember reading a report about it in Autocar/Motor in the mists of time!

I would love a scan of your paperwork to add to the main MK1 site.

M

Jack Brabham's Garages were all quite local to me.....this extract and link below was from a local news 'blog' when Jack Brabham died in 2014 and includes photos of his Worcester Park garage below still there in April 2000......before the flats also shown below were built on the site in 2001.


'Brabham Court' below is a short drive from the Cooper Garage site in Surbiton, Surrey........the Brabham flats were built in 2001 on the site of Jack Brabhams garage in nearby Worcester Park, Surrey.


"Many readers will have seen or heard today of the death of Sir Jack Brabham who was an Australian racing driver and winner of the Formula One champion in 1959, 1960 and 1966. He was also a founder of the Brabham racing team and a constructor of the Brabham race car. He is still the only person in history to have driven a championship-winning car that he designed and built himself.
But his real claim to fame and his proudest achievement must surely have been owning Jack Brabham Motors at the top of Central Road which was established in 1961. He also opened another garage in Ewell in 1965.
According to Adam Cooper in a May 1999 issue of Motor Sport:
"Through [the garages he] retained links with a little corner of suburbia which holds a lot of memories, since both Cooper and his own team were once based nearby. He’s almost certainly the only man to have driven an F1 car on the A3."
Sir Jack, who was knighted for services to motor sport in 1979 had a workshop in Chessington. The Cooper (also driven by Brabham) garage was in Surbiton.
The site at the top of Central Road (Worcester Park) where Jack Brabham Motors used to be until around 2001, now boasts 'Brabham Court' so it is nice to see Sir Jack hasn't been forgotten."
http://www.worcesterparkblog.org.uk/201 ... -dies.html

Other local Jack Brabham Garages were located at:-
Jack Brabham Ltd. 23 Stoneleigh Broadway, Epsom, Surrey KT17 2JE and Jack Brabham Ltd. 5 Ruxley Lane, Ewell, Surrey KT19 0JB.
The Stoneleigh garage has also been developed into a block of flats recently and the Ewell garage is now a Ferrari garage:-
http://www.autofficina.co.uk/

The Chessington Garage was on the Hook Road at the junction with Somerset Avenue.
https://www.acheritage.co.uk/Brabhamrace.html

Pretty sure this photo below was taken at the Brabham Garage in Stoneleigh, Surrey (despite at least one website saying it is Chessington) as I knew the garage very well having lived in the area for most of my life.....the car showroom was a corner shop and fronted the Broadway and is now an Estate Agents and the rear of the single story showroom building seen behind Jack still stands today, right next to the new flats built on what was the Petrol forecourt in Rosedale Road. (see Google maps)

I am a little surprised to learn that Jack had a machine shop in the UK, given that for the most part, Repco in Melbourne were supplying his F1 engines.

Jack also had a Ford Dealership in Bankstown (NSW, Aust). Dad bought a new XY Falcon from him. I'll see what paperwork Dad might still have.

Spider wrote:I am a little surprised to learn that Jack had a machine shop in the UK, given that for the most part, Repco in Melbourne were supplying his F1 engines.

Jack also had a Ford Dealership in Bankstown (NSW, Aust). Dad bought a new XY Falcon from him. I'll see what paperwork Dad might still have.

Doug Nye's 2004 book details a lot of his early days setting himself up in the UK from memory.

mini63 wrote:

Spider wrote:I am a little surprised to learn that Jack had a machine shop in the UK, given that for the most part, Repco in Melbourne were supplying his F1 engines.

Jack also had a Ford Dealership in Bankstown (NSW, Aust). Dad bought a new XY Falcon from him. I'll see what paperwork Dad might still have.

Doug Nye's 2004 book details a lot of his early days setting himself up in the UK from memory.

Cheers for that Michael. I do have that book. I recall him having a lathe (which he says he regrets selling) here in Sydney before leaving for the UK and that they had a shop for building Chassis, essentially a very high end fabrication shop.

I also recall from the Repco Story that they supplied all the engines (in that period that he was using them) and that they set up a small shop in the UK to look after them.

Jack may well have had a machine shop, I just don't recall it and given the support of his suppliers, I struggle to see why he'd have one.

I will look at the paperwork at home if the Oselli one is a new one. Also look up the address of Sir Jack Brabham's machine shop. Thanks for all the pictures and info, really interesting!

mab01uk, great photos and texts on the previous page, thanks.

Well,,,,, yes, there certainly was a 'Machine Shop' that Jack Brabham did have a hand in. It was establish in 1971, with ex-Coventry Climax engine guy, John Judd. The company was known as Engine Developments Limited.

The company still exists today, though a bit of a name change;-

http://juddpower.com/about-us/

Jack Brabham Motor LTD (as it is called on the receipt) was based in Surrey; 248 Hook Road, chessington. Funny enough under the LTD it says: Directors: J.A. Brabham, B.E. Brabham, P.L. Kerr . Dated 29 April 68. Just could read it with some good light that it was an 850 engine. This was the first engine which was in the car from the donor, in 70 the cooper s was fitted with it's subframe and running gear. The Oselli engineering LTD brochure is from November 71 and is different from the ones in the archive. Will scan the stuff in.

mr-marcos wrote:Jack Brabham Motor LTD (as it is called on the receipt) was based in Surrey; 248 Hook Road, chessington. Funny enough under the LTD it says: Directors: J.A. Brabham, B.E. Brabham, P.L. Kerr . Dated 29 April 68. Just could read it with some good light that it was an 850 engine. This was the first engine which was in the car from the donor, in 70 the cooper s was fitted with it's subframe and running gear. The Oselli engineering LTD brochure is from November 71 and is different from the ones in the archive. Will scan the stuff in.

1979/80, Chessington, Surrey, opening of the Jack Brabham Motors Garage attended by Chelsea players, Stirling Moss and others.....



http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/photos/che ... ostpopular

This is what was the Jack Brabham Garage at Hook Road, Chessington in more recent times.

MRDs workshop I think.