Not a car that many people will probably relate to, however it is one of the most controversial cars designed.
But more on that later.
The BT46 made its debut in 1978, for the Bernie Ecclestone owned the Brabham team, and was designed by Gordon Murray, one of the pioneers of aerodynamics.
The Brabham BT46 was powered by a 3 Litre Straight 12 Alfa Romeo engine pushing out 520Bhp, which at the time was around 50Bhp more than the most of the other teams throughout the season.
With a driver line-up consisting of Niki Lauda and John Watson, the season looked to be a fruitful one, and was proven when the car was immediately competitive. However a win was lacking and at the Swedish Grand Prix, Murray introduced a inventive new feature to cope with the team to beat, Lotus with the 79. The 79 was a revelation in aerodynamics and was proving unbeatable.
At Anderstorp, the chassis BT46/B was unveiled.
Otherwise known as the “Fan Car”.
Murray stated that the fan was there to provide extra cooling to the Alfa engine to aid reliability.
However, it was noticed that when the drivers blipped the accelerator the car was ‘sucked’ down onto the tarmac, giving the car a huge advantage.
Unsurprisingly, the rest of the teams protested against this addition, and even though Ecclestone who was head of FOTA at the time had said it would only be used for three races, the FIA deemed this illegal, and the BT46/B only raced in Swedish Grand Prix.
However it was a race that would stay in the record books. Lauda went on to win the race, meaning the BT46/B is the only F1 car in history with a 100% win record.
The BT46, in its original form only won one more race, the Italian Grand Prix that year.
However it will go down as one of the most ingenius and controversial cars ever.
Again a stunning article. It shows just how good it was by getting a 100% record -although it had an easier time with just one race- and that we still talk abotu it so many years on.
I get why it was banned but I’m a bit gutted that something so good was only raced once. F1 is all abotu pushing boundaries esp with design and this was ingenious.
The BT46 had a flat-12 engine, not a straight-12 (also called inline-12).
It was my privilidge to drive the Fan Car at Goodwood twice once in 2001 (when I opened the course) and the second in 2003. I met Niki Lauda who talked very enthusiasticly about it and gave me some tips about driving it quickly.
The car is still owned by Bernie and is in perfect condition but we never run it anymore, which I think isa shame