The Brabham BT46B was designer Gordon Murray’s answer to the Lotus 79, which was the first car to take full advantage of ground effects, and simply dominated the F1 season at the time. Today, Gordon Murray is best known as the designer of the MacLaren F1 supercar, but even then, the innovative and fertile mind of Murray was already recognized. The BT46B could have challenged and beaten the Lotus 79, had Formula 1 constructors not conspired to have it banned. Thus, the BT46B is said to be the race car with a 100% winning record because it won its first race outright and was banned after that race, the 1978 Swedish Grand Prix.
As is known now, ground effect aerodynamics lowers the pressure beneath the car, allowing the air passing above to exert pressure on the car body itself, which increases traction. At that time, the BT46 used an Alfa Romeo flat 12 producing 520 horsepower, which performance calculations would show gave the car a 50
horsepower advantage over the competing Cosworth DFV. But the breadth of the engine prevented the use of the venturi tunnels beneath the car, which promote the ground effects. Gordon Murray’s solution to lower the pressure beneath the car was to install a fan at the back of the car, which would suck out the air under the car. Skirts at the sides of the car allowed the low pressure to be formed. Driving the fan was a clutch system.
Officially, the fan was a cooling device for the race car’s radiator, and one was mounted at the rear to indeed help with cooling. But when the car showed its cornering-on-rails performance, no amount of subterfuge could conceal the fact of the fan’s true purpose. It was so effective that observers at the time noted that when the driver revved the engine, the car would sit down on its suspension. The drivers themselves had to modify their driving style in the corners, because stepping on the throttle would actually make the car go faster and allowed the drivers to pass on the outside of a corner.
The BT46B, together with the Lotus 79, are examples of an F1 era where innovative, and sometimes crazy, ideas were tried and tested on track. Because of the myriad regulations in effect in F1 today, it has lost a lot of its excitement and followers even though innovative and groundbreaking ideas continue to be developed.
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