Brabham and Repco celebrate 40 years

In 1966 Brabham won the French, British, Dutch and German grands prix to claim the World Drivers' and Constructors' Championship in a car of his own construction -- a unique double that has never been replicated.

Brabham had already worked with Repco during the 1950s and the Australian company supplied parts for his dual championship-winning Cooper. "I went over to the Cooper factory in 1955," Sir Jack told CarPoint. "I met up with John Cooper and I won two championships in 1959 and 1960 with them."

Together Brabham and Cooper pioneered the rear-engined concept which rendered every other Formula One car obsolete overnight but a change of formula to 3.0-litres meant Brabham was potentially without an engine for the 1966 season.

"Early in 1965 I thought about doing a 3.0-litre engine so I went out to see Cooper. It was suggested that we use a Buick block so I went to America to get one but we ended up using an Oldsmobile.

"Repco worked on it and eventually turned it into their own engine and in 1966 we were very successful with it -- I won the Drivers' Championship that year and in 1967 (team mate) Denny Hulme won the championship with me second. We also won the Constructors' Championship. That meant a lot to us because we were building our own cars. It was the pinnacle for me. We won two years in a row."

Sir Jack will celebrate his 80th birthday on Sunday. "If I knew that I would live to my 80th year I would have taken things a little easier when I was young," he quipped.