Brabham BT46 Poster

Type “Brabham BT46” into your search engine of choice, and chances are that the majority of images presented will be not the conventional Brabham Alfa Romeo that competed in 13 rounds of the 1978 World Championship and one round in ’79. Instead what you’ll see is this – the BT46B (or BT46/2, as it was called at the time). It started just one race, the ’78 Swedish Grand Prix and won, in the hands of Niki Lauda. Alfa Romeo’s flat-12 engine prevented Brabham designer Gordon Murray from incorporating substantial venturis on the underside of his BT46 in order to tackle the all-conquering Lotus 79s. Thinking laterally was one of Murray’s fortes, of course, and so he designed a revised BT46 with a giant fan at the rear – ostensibly for cooling the engine, but in fact drawing air through between the sidepods’ side skirts to reduce pressure. With his car handling on rails, Lauda stalked polesitter Mario Andretti for much of the race at Anderstorp, passed him just past mid-distance and disappea