excellent

Brabham- The Grand Prix Cars is from the Hazelton series of formula one marque books that they put out from the mid to late 80's. It is also one of Alan Henry's better works, much better than the more recent team and driver biographies which tend to be very superficial.

With a foreword by former Brabham driver John Watson, the book is divided into 2 sections. Section one covers the Jack Brabham years in 3 chapters from the teams formation in 1962 through to the transition phase which began in 1970, as Black Jack was beginning to wind down his Grand Prix activities. Naturally there is a chapter devoted to the Brabham Repco years.

Section 2 covers the Ecclestone era in 5 chapters, beginning with the brief period that Ron Tuaranac spent in charge before Bernie Ecclestone took over, up to the Brabham BMW years with Nelson Piquet as the number one.

Photographs are scattered throughout the text, including a couple of interesting ones of Gordon Murray's racing days, before he became the reknown F1 designer for Brabham and McLaren. There are two sections of full colour images in addition to the black and white images. I note that there is an errata notice on the inside back cover, which displays a photograph omitted from page 226, which has an incorrect photograph - I don't know if this is true for all copies of this book. There is also a small appendix for all the Grand Prix results for Brabham cars, including the privateers. This appendix lists the results up to and including 1984.

The writing is much more substanial than Henry's later efforts, and he has interviewed a number of key former or current (at the time) Brabham personnell. A number of interesting issues are discussed - the Repco developments, the Alfa era, the trick hydro-pneumatic suspension and the brief introduction of fuelling midrace to mention just a few.

Brabham: The Grand Prix cars is highly recommended for those more interested in the golden age of Grand Prix racing, when Bernie was just a mere team owner rather the kingpin he is today. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately some may say) the book hasn't been updated to take into account the sad demise of this once great Formula One racing team.

This was a gift for my husband. He loved it and it came wonderfully packaged. So happy with this order.

A technically sophisticated by clearly presented story of the relentless pursuit of excellence exemplified by the development of this Formula 1 car.

I bought "Brabham" largely because a friend of mine is restoring two Brabhams-a BT 59 and a BT60B for a client. These cars were built in 1990 and 1992. Unfortunately, Alan Henry's account ends at the end of 1984. But that's my bad, not the book's fault. Henry's account is rather dry but nonetheless comprehensive and will give the reader an in-depth look at the Brabham/Tauranac and the Ecclestone/Murray eras.

I used to watch these cars race in the 70's