As one of the most legendary names from the halcyon days of Formula One, Brabham has experienced a renaissance in recent years.

The Australian company, headed by four-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner David Brabham, the son of the three-time world champion Jack, launched its automotive division in May 2018.

Now celebrating its second birthday in the midst of the global COVID-19 crisis, the company is reflecting on having established a landmark production facility in South Australia, launched multiple variants of the BT62 globally and regained a presence in motorsport.

Brabham Automotive is currently Australia’s only original equipment manufacturer and while the world pauses to deal with the pandemic, its plans for the future are bright.

The marque's recently completed production facility is a workspace encompassing the engineering, design, manufacture and assembly of both parts and vehicles. It occupies 2,500sqm of a much larger facility housing Precision Buses, a division of Fusion Capital’s mobility hub and part of the largest Australian owned bus-manufacturing group in Australia.

The Brabham facility has numerous bays for different phases of vehicle assembly from chassis up, a finishing bay for final inspection, a dedicated carbon composite workshop, engineering offices with 3D printing facilities, meeting rooms and a customer engagement area, putting customer engagement at the forefront of the Brabham experience.

This space also houses Fusion Composites, a lightweight composite division of Fusion Capital that supplies Brabham Automotive with carbon fibre components. Fusion Composites also services the growing demand for lightweight materials in other industries such as aerospace, mass-transit, goods manufacturing and more.

Dan Marks, CEO of Brabham Automotive, said: “What we have created here is a production facility that suits our current requirements as a niche manufacturer but is also easily scalable as our business grows. There is plenty of space for us to scale-up both Brabham Automotive and Fusion Composites as activity in both businesses increases.”

The Brabham team is also growing, with experienced team members from McLaren, Aston Martin, Ferrari, General Motors, Jaguar, Koenigsegg, Lotus, Mercedes AMG, Tesla, Volvo, V8 Supercars and the Virgin Formula E racing team – all of them world-class manufacturers and racing teams - working on the design, engineering and manufacture of Brabham cars in Adelaide and the global activation of Brabham Automotive and Brabham Motorsport.

Brabham's first car, the BT62, launched in 2018 with its Ultimate Track spec with a 700hp 5.4 litre Brabham naturally aspirated V8, 6-speed racing transmission, extreme lightweight bodywork with 1600kg of downforce wrapped around a chromoly safety cell. Weighing just 972kg (dry), the BT62’s power to weight ratio surpassed that of vaunted rivals from McLaren, Ferrari and Porsche, justifying the BT62’s claim as the most dynamic driver’s car in the world.

The car quickly set about proving this capability with lap records around Australia, including the country’s most revered motorsport circuit – Mount Panorama at Bathurst. The automotive media was duly impressed, too. Top Gear called it "the world’s most track-focused hypercar."

The journey continued with the arrival of the BT62 ‘Competition’ in November 2019. The BT62 Competition is a stripped back, racing version of the BT62 aimed at gentlemen drivers and professionals alike. It’s also the sharp end of the Brabham Motorsport programme led by Sporting Director, David Brabham, which aims to see the marque compete in at Le Mans in 2022/23, with a watch and see brief on the finalisation of the Hypercar Le Mans regulations.

The arrival of the BT62 Competition coincided with David Brabham and Will Powell driving the BT62 to an historic debut racing victory at Brands Hatch – where Sir Jack Brabham took an F1 victory in 1966 - as part of the Dunlop Britcar Endurance Series final round for 2019.

Brabham Motorsport is now firmly established, with Brabham supplying its first customer competition vehicles in 2020 for the Dunlop Britcar Endurance Series. BT62 participation in this category of racing is expected to grow but, of course, all eyes are on the goal of entering, and winning, the world’s toughest endurance race – Le Mans.

The next step on the journey will be the launch of the BT62R in June this year, a fully road-compliant version of the BT62. This third variant in the BT62 family will share the same chassis and powertrain as its track-focused siblings, with revised suspension (including front and rear axle lift kit) and aerodynamics, and increased levels of luxury and comfort for those who prefer to drive their car to the track on public roads.