1967 Brabham BT21, Ford MAE

This chassis, BT21-6 was originally supplied new from the Brabham factory in 1967 to Portuguese racer Carlos Gasper. He enjoyed lots of success in European F3 races, winning at Circuito de Montes Claros in July of that year.

The following season saw more podium finishes, culminating with victory at Jarama in the Spanish GP support race.

During 1968, Gaspar sold the car to Irishman Bill Gowdy. He too campaigned it in several European F3 races through 1968 and 1969.

In 1971 the car passed to fellow Irishman Bob Beattie who changed the original Ford engine for a 1.6 litre twin cam and used the car mainly for hill climb events.

Fast forward a few years and the Brabham found its way to Dick Crosthwaite in the mid-1970’s. Without an engine and in a fairly poor state, Dick always intended to refurbish the car and get it running again.

Like all the best laid plans it didn’t happen as quickly as Dick would have wanted. In fact, the car was finally built and reunited with a 1,000cc Ford MAE over 40 years later in the spring of 2019!

Crosthwaite & Gardiner entered the Brabham in that year’s Goodwood Members’ Meeting, driven by Simon Diffey who qualified in the top ten. Unfortunately, a gearbox problem prevented him taking part in the race. The gearbox was subsequently stripped, inspected, rebuilt and tested to ensure it was repaired.

Presented in its original “Racing for Portugal” colour scheme, BT21-6 has undergone a bare chassis rebuild and is in excellent condition. The engine is freshly rebuilt, with a new Sam Wilson cylinder head, valves, cam followers, push rods, springs and rockers. The block has had new liners fitted and new main and big end bearings. It has been fully dyno tested in 2024.