Bathurst record holder set for the road

The Brabham BT62 will become a road-going supercar in Australia with the inclusion of the upgrade equipment needed to take it off the track.

As production of the BT62 begins in Adelaide, Brabham Automotive founder and boss David Brabham has confirmed to carsales.com.au that the car will be certified for road use Down Under.

He hinted strongly that the $1.8 million purchase price for the hand-built supercar, which has just cracked the sports car lap record at Mount Panorama with a landmark time of 1 minute 58.760 seconds, will not be affected despite a previous announcement that it would add an extra $270,000 to cars.

Brabham says research has shown that most track-day owners prefer to drive their cars and that has changed the focus for certification.

“There has been a lot of interest in the road-compliant version,” Brabham revealed.

“A lot of people want to drive to the track, not just put the car in a trailer.”

Brabham, together with his commercial director Dan Marks, says the BT62 project is ramping-up quickly after early displays in Britain and the USA last year, as well as a demonstration drive up the hill at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in the UK, then the hot laps at Bathurst with Luke Youlden at the wheel.

“We’re ready to go in Australia. And the lead time for delivery is seven to 10months, depending on configuration.

“I think you always want to be further down the road, but when you step back and look we’ve come a long way.

“We’re pretty happy. It’s a time in history. The whole project is…”

Brabham also revealed for the first time that one car is already definitely sold.

“The first car will be delivered in Germany in quarter three. It’s one of the celebration series. We’ve had a lot of interest in Europe.

“So in quarter three we can say we are a car manufacturer.”

Brabham will not discuss details of the owner or the colour scheme for the car, although it is one of the 35 liveries that celebrate Brabham’s victories in Formula 1.

Marks says Brabham Automotive is gearing up to build 70 cars, and is well aware of the certification requirements for the various levels of production.

He is one of the keys to the project through Fusion Capital, the Adelaide-based company which has provided seed funding and a lot of the production expertise for Brabham Automotive.

As the Brabham team focusses on the road-car changes — everything from bigger mirrors, air-conditioning and a reversing camera to changing the ride height and adding extra lock to the steering for parking — he is also pushing hard on a program that will take the BT62 into motorsport.

“My vision is to build the road car, go racing, go to Le Mans, win Le Mans, then win world championships,” Brabham said.