RETURN THE HISTORY OF BRABHAM TO PART 2: 1966-71 POWER
PICTURES
The ‘old man’ with the long (fake) beard and walking stick gingerly waddled to the green and gold Formula 1 car sitting on pole position. Jack Brabham was all too used to the wise-cracks about his age, so couldn’t resist a comical retort. But behind the stunt and the good-natured laughter it triggered, there was also a dash of genuine niggle. Yes, he’d turned 40 in April, and yes, before this season he hadn’t won a pointspaying grand prix for almost six years. But look at him now, here at Zandvoort for the 1966 Dutch GP – already a winner twice and leading the standings.
In F1’s ‘return to power’ season, as engine capacities doubled to three litres, Old Man Brabham had pulled a technical masterstroke and was winding back the clock. Zandvoort was the third in a string of four consecutive victories that happy summer of 1966 – shades of the Cooper glory days. For doughty Brabham and his tight-knit team, the 1960s were finally beginning to swing.
He’d built up to this since November 1963 when it was announced that F1 was due an upsize. More speed, more acceleration, more wheelspin, more noise: drivers rubbed their hands. Yet in an echo of the 1961 downsize, major players still wouldn’t be fully prepared for the change. It didn’t help that in February 1965 Coventry Climax struck a blow by refusing to build an engine to the new regulations. The company previously best known for its fire pump engines had been the power behind
