Education
At the age of 15 he left school to work, combining a job at a local garage with an evening course in mechanical engineering. Brabham soon branched out into his own business selling motorbikes, which he bought and repaired for sale, using his parents' back veranda as his worksho
Career
Brabham started racing after an American friend, Johnny Schonberg, persuaded him to watch a midget car.
At first Schonberg drove the homemade device, powered by a modified JAP Due to the time required to prepare the car, the sport also became his living. Brabham won the 1948 Australian Speedway Championship, the 1949 Australian and South Australian Speedcar championships, and the 1950–1951 Australian championship with the car.
After successfully running the midget at some hillclimbing. He bought and modified a series of racing cars from the Cooper Car CompanyRedeX Special painted on the side of his Cooper-Bristol—did not go down well with the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport Brabham competed in Australia and New Zealand until early 1955, taking "a long succession of victories", including the 1953 Queensland Road Racing championship. During this time, he picked up the nickname "Black Jack", which has been variously attributed to his dark hair and stubble, to his "ruthless" approach on the track, and to his "propensity for maintaining a shadowy silence".After the 1955 New Zealand Grand Prix in the United Kingdom, to try a season of racing in Europe, then the international centre of road racing.
Brabham and Tauranac set up a company called Motor Racing Developments Ltd. (MRD), which initially produced customer racing cars, while Brabham himself continued to race for Cooper. MRD initially produced cars for Formula Junior. A newly introduced engine limit in Formula One of 1500 cc did not suit Brabham and he did not win a single race with a 1500 cc car. His team suffered poor reliability during this period and motorsport authors Mike Lawrence and David Hodges have said that Brabham's reluctance to spend money may have cost the team results, a view echoed by Tauranac.
In 1966, a new 3-litre formula was created for Formula One. The new engines under development by other suppliers all had at least 12 cylinders to develop a new 3-litre eight-cylinder engine for him. Repco had no experience in designing complete engines. Brabham had identified a supply of suitable engine blocks's aluminium alloy 215.
The combination of the Repco engine and the Brabham BT19 at Reims-Gueux and Dan Gurney he hobbled to his car on the starting grid before the race wearing a long false beard and leaning on a cane before going on to win the race. Brabham confirmed his third championship at the Italian Grand Prix.
The season also saw the fruition of Brabham's relationship with Japanese engine manufacturer HondaTrophées de France, a championship consisting of six of the French Formula Two races.
In 1967, the Formula One title went to Brabham's teammate Denny Hulme.
Brabham raced alongside his team mate Jochen Rindt. At the end of the year, he fulfilled a desire to fly from Britain to Australia in a small twin-engined Beechcraft Queen Air Partway through the 1969 seasonFinding no top drivers available despite coming close to bringing Rindt back to the team, Brabham decided to race for one more year. He began auspiciously, winning the first race of the season, the South African Grand Prix, and then led the third race, the Monaco Grand Prix until the very last turn of the last lap. Brabham was about to hold off the onrushing Rindt (the eventual 1970 F1 champion) when his front wheels locked in a skid on the sharp right turn only yards from the finish and he ended up second. While leading at the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch, he ran out of fuel at Clearways and Rindt passed him to take the win while Brabham coasted to the finish in second place. After the 13th and final race of the season, the Mexican Grand Prix, Brabham did retire. He had tied Jackie Stewart team during the 1970 World sportscar Championship He then made a complete break from racing and returned to Australia, to the relief of his wife who had been "scared stiff" each time he drove.