Lot 018: 1966 BRABHAM BT21X 'QUATTRO' HILL-CLIMB COMPETITION

As an offshoot of Jack Brabham Motors Limited, Motor Racing Developments was set up by the legendary Aussie racer Brabham himself and his great friend and race engineer Ron Tauranac. This talented partnership went on to produce a very long line of highly successful racing car designs under the Brabham name through their 1962-formed Brabham Racing Developments Ltd. which quickly changed to Motor Racing Developments Ltd. The mission for MRD was to construct single seaters and sports-racing cars for private owners whilst the Brabham Racing Organisation would run a works Brabham teams in various formulae including F1. The Brabham/Tauranac partnership lasted for just under twelve years. Tauranac carried on and then one Bernie Ecclestone bought in and then bought up the company to allow Tauranac to depart and set up the Ralt race team. With Ecclestone at the wheel customer car manufacture ceased so they could concentrate all their resources on F1. From a total of 343 World Championship races contested, Brabhams took 35 Grand Prix victories - an impressive ten per cent success rate. Motor Racing Developments Ltd. from New Haw, near Byfleet in Surrey produced just over 50 of these fantastically successful Repco Brabham BT21 series Formula 3 single seater racing cars. This particular car is understood to have raced as a works rear drive only Formula 3 car by the Formula Ford star and future Ferrari sports-prototype and Brabham driver Tim Schenken. Returned to MRD in 1968 it was rebuilt to accept an Oldsmobile/Buick V8 engine and Hewland gearbox but it had a testing accident at Goodwood and was then developed by specialist Chas Beattie to incorporate a Tony Marsh four-wheel drive system for Bryan Brown. It was unused and sold to Peter Blankstone, a well-known hill-climb specialist. Peter confirmed this car as one of the fastest of all the RAC British Hill-climb Championship contenders by setting FTD's at both Shelsley Walsh and Loton Park. Today it is offered in very clean condition throughout with the all important FIA Historic Paperwork and is an immensely potent and sophisticated special, with a special provenance, that will see it rise again in historic competition to those heights it used to occupy in period.