- Ron Tauranac
Ron Tauranac was the
Australian designer forFormula 1 driverJack Brabham from 1962 until Brabham's retirement as a driver at the end of the 1970 season. Tauranac briefly owned and managed theBrabham team in 1971, but he sold the team toBernie Ecclestone in late 1971. He remained in England to assist with a redesign of aPolitoys Formula 1 chassis forFrank Williams in 1973 and helped Trojan develop a Formula 1 version of theirFormula 5000 car.After a brief retirement in
Australia , Tauranac returned to England to establish theRalt marque (a name he and his brother Austin had used for some 'specials' in Australia in the 1950s winning the NSW Hillclimb Championship in 1954 with the Ralt 500). The first "modern" Ralt was theRalt RT1 chassis, to be raced inFormula 3 ,Formula 2 andFormula Atlantic . The chassis proved very successful, winning the European Formula 3 championship in 1975 in the hands of Australian driverLarry Perkins . The 1978 season also proved successful for the RT1 chassis, winning the European F3 championship forJan Lammers .Tauranac designed the
Theodore Racing F1 car for the1978 season. The team was not very successful for various reasons largely unrelated to the quality of the chassis. Two new designs were created for the 1979 season, the RT2 for formula 2 and the RT3 for formula 3. The RT3 chassis proved highly successful, winning the 1983 European F3 championship forPierluigi Martini and five consecutive British F3 titles.A joint venture with
Honda resulted in the RH6 chassis which won the 1981, 1984 and 1985 titles.In October 1988 Tauranac sold the Ralt business to
March Engineering for 1.25m pounds sterling.Ron has remained involved with various aspects of the sport since departing from Ralt, including racing-school cars for Honda, a Formula Renault car, consulting work for the
Arrows formula one team, and continuing his relationship with Honda that goes back to their early Formula Two days as engine supplier to Brabham in the 1960s.He has now moved back to Australia but still retains an interest in the sport.
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