You Know You Want One Of These Surprisingly Cheap Brabham F1 Cars

Brabham is one of the most legendary Formula 1 teams of all time. That’s largely because the team’s founder, Sir Jack Brabham, won the 1966 drivers’ championship in a Brabham, thus becoming the only F1 driver to have won the title in a car he designed himself. The team won plenty more races and championships throughout the 1970s and 80s, but unsurprisingly if any of them ever popped up for sale they’d be likely to fetch a pretty penny.

The ones from the 1990s are a different matter, though. By this point, Brabham was running out of money, the good results dried up, and the team eventually folded halfway through the 1992 season. Four cars from this era have come on the market, and there’s something for everyone at comparatively reasonable prices.

1992 Brabham BT60B

Let’s start with the good stuff. First up is this 1992 BT60B - the last Brabham F1 car. Results at the time weren’t good, far from it - the drivers failed to qualify the car on multiple occasions. One of those drivers, however, was a certain Damon Hill. He was making his F1 debut that year, and the car for sale is the exact one he drove to 11th place in the Hungarian Grand Prix, which was also Brabham’s last race.

Not only does the car have some serious provenance (and a wicked pink livery), it’s recently been restored, the Judd V10 engine is in perfect working order, and it comes with everything needed to run it. £250,000 seems a bit of a bargain!

1990 Brabham BT59

Want to buy an early-90s Brabham but a pink ex-Damon Hill car doesn’t take your fancy? Then don’t worry, because, here’s an alternative! For £230,000 you could get this BT59 from 1990, as raced by Jack’s son, David Brabham.

This one too is ready to go, though it ‘only’ has a Judd V8, as opposed to the V10 of the 1992 car. In period it wasn’t the most competitive, either. Brabham spent his race weekends alternating between retirements and failing to qualify, and whilst teammate Stefano Modena had a slightly better time, the team scored no points.

So what if it doesn’t have the significance or the engine size of the 1992 car? That gloriously sleek chassis and smart blue and white livery more than makes up for it.

1991 Brabham BT60Y

Owning an F1 car would be fun, but do you know what would be even more fun? Restoring an F1 car! At £60,000, this 1991 BT60Y would surely be the perfect base. As driven by Mark Blundell and current F1 commentary star Martin Brundle, it needs a bit of work to make it look right, but also needs a few important internal bits as well, like a gearbox… and an engine.

Back in the day, these were powered by Yamaha V12s which were neither very powerful or reliable, so finding one of those might be difficult. You could put something else in there, though.

1991 Brabham BT60Y

But wait: we can go cheaper. For £30,000 you could get a different BT60Y. This one spent much of 1991 acting as the team’s spare car, and it’s
not exactly in great condition. A lick of paint here and few sponsor stickers there, however, and it could be made to look as good as new once more.

This one also needs an engine, but at this price, why bother spending any more money on it? Just keep it on your drive and let the world see that you own a Formula 1 car.

So, what do you buy? Something ready to race, or the world’s coolest project car? The adverts claim that there are plenty of spare parts available so alternatively, you could buy all of them and start your own historic racing team. Decisions, decisions…