The Brabham BT62 may be history, but that’s not the end of the story.
David Brabham, the driving force behind the development of the record-breaking Australian supercar, promises there is more to come under the historic family name.
He is currently involved in negotiations over several potential projects after cutting ties with Fusion Capital, the Adelaide company responsible for the development and production of the BT62.
“The name is not dead in terms of the future,” Brabham said.
“Yes, there will be another chapter.”
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David Brabham
The end of the BT62 collaboration was announced earlier this year and Brabham gave insight into the failure of the BT62 production plan for the first time in an exclusive interview with CarExpert.
Only a handful of cars have been built by Fusion, although one set an unofficial lap record for Mount Panorama at Bathurst and one will compete in sports car racing in the UK this year.
“I don’t think it was the right project for them, but that’s just my opinion,” Brabham said.
“The partnership didn’t really work, we lost faith in the project.”
The BT62 was the first under the Brabham name after David, the youngest son of legendary Grand Prix world champion Sir Jack Brabham, won a long and costly legal battle to regain all rights to the family name.
This revived a car-making tradition that began in the early 1960s, when Brabham was one of the world’s most productive companies producing single-seaters and sports racing cars.
“Brabham has been around for 75 years. It’s been five years and a chapter,” Brabham said.
“This chapter was not significant compared to the past. . . But it relaunched the brand and brought it to market.
“We had a cool car and a cool project. But unfortunately it didn’t reach the level we had hoped for [Again, this is probably ok] and we felt that it would be better for our brand to be outside the project rather than there.”
The Adelaide investors still own the intellectual property rights to the BT62, but cannot use the Brabham name if they were to restart production.
But even though the Brabham BT62 BT62 is now dead, Brabham confirmed that it is working on future projects.
“You know, anything can happen in the future. Since we announced and publicized the end of the (BT62) relationship, a number of people have approached us. . . who are interested in what comes next.
“So we’re just figuring out what’s next.”
Brabham declined to answer any questions about the details of the projects, but confirmed that there is interest from people in several countries.
“Europe and Australia and America,” he said.
It’s likely it also has some sort of motorsport inspiration, but he’s deliberately keeping it vague about the timing and details.
“Motorsport is part of our (Brabham) DNA.
“We have a plan, we are not talking to people who have shown interest in the next chapter of Brabham.”
Meanwhile, Brabham is finalizing his plans to continue his racing career – which includes Formula 1 and winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race – with a BT62 in the UK.
He also drove one of his cars during a short visit to Australia to the Adelaide Festival of Speed and the Australian Grand Prix.
“It feels like therapy,” he said.
MORE: What’s next for Australian supercar maker Brabham?