The fan was driven by the gearbox, which also caused Murray a few headaches. “The gearbox was heavily modified and had four separate clutch assemblies. The first clutch assembly was the standard engine to transmission input clutch and this disengaged the fan drive. The second clutch was a sprag (or one-way) clutch which was located in the hub to decouple the fan inertia from the gear change mechanism so as not to slow down the gear change time.”
“The third clutch was a torque limiting clutch also situated in the fan hub and this device was used to ease the shock load on the fan assembly when the driver ‘dropped’ the clutch at the start of the race e.g. the fan was not asked to accelerate from 0 – max revs instantaneously. The fourth clutch was for the mechanics to use in the pits when they wanted to warm the engine up without the fan operating. This was a simple dog clutch to disengage the fan drive.”
Three BT46Bs were taken to Anderstorp for the Swedish Grand Prix. Niki Lauda easily captured victory after he easily powered ahead of Mario Andretti’s Lotus 79.
Moments after the podium celebrations, directors of the rival teams were meeting with FISA officials to try to get the Brabham banned.
Several team managers argued that the fan car was in fact “cleaning” the race track and blowing objects to the following drivers.
“This story was put about by Colin Chapman and his drivers in order to try and get the fan car excluded. In fact, the maximum efflux speed of the fan at full revs was only 55mph and any dust or objects, which came out of the car, were obviously dispersed tangentially to the fan’s axis.”
Was Gordon Murray deeply disappointed to see it banned after the Swedish Grand Prix?
“This is the greatest misinformation regarding the fan car as the car was never banned,” Murray replied. “The CSI (Commission sportive internationale) sealed the car in Anderstorp and measured the airflow back at the Brabham factory the following week. They confirmed that more than 50% of the air was used for cooling and decided the car was legal. It was the Constructor’s Association who put pressure on Bernie (Ecclestone) and me to withdraw the car from any further races!”
photo:WRI2
“The third clutch was a torque limiting clutch also situated in the fan hub and this device was used to ease the shock load on the fan assembly when the driver ‘dropped’ the clutch at the start of the race e.g. the fan was not asked to accelerate from 0 – max revs instantaneously. The fourth clutch was for the mechanics to use in the pits when they wanted to warm the engine up without the fan operating. This was a simple dog clutch to disengage the fan drive.”
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Three BT46Bs were taken to Anderstorp for the Swedish Grand Prix. Niki Lauda easily captured victory after he easily powered ahead of Mario Andretti’s Lotus 79.
Moments after the podium celebrations, directors of the rival teams were meeting with FISA officials to try to get the Brabham banned.
Several team managers argued that the fan car was in fact “cleaning” the race track and blowing objects to the following drivers.
“This story was put about by Colin Chapman and his drivers in order to try and get the fan car excluded. In fact, the maximum efflux speed of the fan at full revs was only 55mph and any dust or objects, which came out of the car, were obviously dispersed tangentially to the fan’s axis.”
Was Gordon Murray deeply disappointed to see it banned after the Swedish Grand Prix?
“This is the greatest misinformation regarding the fan car as the car was never banned,” Murray replied. “The CSI (Commission sportive internationale) sealed the car in Anderstorp and measured the airflow back at the Brabham factory the following week. They confirmed that more than 50% of the air was used for cooling and decided the car was legal. It was the Constructor’s Association who put pressure on Bernie (Ecclestone) and me to withdraw the car from any further races!”
photo:WRI2