VALE: RON TAURANAC

Vale: Ron Tauranac

Revolutionary Australian race car designer and engineer Ron Tauranac has passed away at the age of 95.

By HEATH McALPINE

Tauranac is famous for his relationship with Australian triple World Drivers Champion Sir Jack Brabham, which spawned the successful Motor Sport Developments construction and factory Brabham race team in 1962.

Born in Britain on January 13 1925, Tauranac’s family emigrated to Sydney, Australia as a child, leaving school at the age of 14 to enter the RAAF as a fighter pilot.

A career as a draughtsman followed before he met Brabham at local racing events before their lives linked some years later when Tauranac returned to Britain where he worked with Cooper, then later Motor Racing Developments.

Success in various categories came for the Brabham team highlighted by the final of Sir Jack’s world title victories in 1966.

After Brabham’s retirement in 1970, Tauranac continued to manage the team until 1972 when he sold it to future Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone.

After this Tauranac continued to work in Britain where he designed a variety of chassis including a re-design of the Politoys Formula One for Frank Williams before retiring to Australia.

He later returned to England where Tauranac re-establish the Ralt brand, which was used by he and his brother Austin when constructing specials for hillclimb competition during the 1950s.

The Ralt name quickly became the dominant chassis in Formula 3, Formula 2 and Formula Atlantic, this included the 1975 European Formula 3 Championship for expat Aussie Larry Perkins.

The RT3 grew to dominate the Formula 3 category throughout Europe where Pierluigi Martini won the European title in 1983 and five consecutive British championships.

In 1988 Tauranac sold Ralt to March Engineering, but remained in the sport through a longstanding relationship with Honda, which dated back to his days with Brabham and a short stint at Arrows Formula 1 in 1997.

Tauranac returned to Australia where he remained active as design judge for the SAE Australasia competition for university students.

An Order of Australia honour was bestowed upon Tauranac in 2002 and he was inducted into the Motorsport Australia Hall of Fame in 2017 for his contribution to design and engineering.

Auto Action extends its condolences to the Tauranac family.