Ronald Sidney Tauranac AO (1925 - 2020)

Born 13 Jan 1925 in Gillingham, Kent, England, United Kingdom

Ancestors

Died 17 Jul 2020 at age 95 in Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia

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Biography

Ron Tauranac AO is Notable.

Ron Tauranac AO was a British-Australian engineer and racing car designer, who with Formula One World Champion Jack Brabham founded the Brabham constructor and racing team in 1962. After helping other teams, he established the hugely successful Ralt marque with his brother in 1975, selling it to March Engineering in 1988.

Ron Tauranac AO was born in Kent, England.

Ronald Sidney 'Ron' Tauranac was born on 13th January 1925 in Gillingham, Kent, England, United Kingdom. He was the second son of Sidney Tauranac and Georgina Nunney. ^[1]

Ron Tauranac AO migrated from England to New South Wales.

The family migrated to New South Wales, Australia.

Ron married Norma Eileen Dixon in 1953 in Bondi, New South Wales. ^[2]

Ron was 'headhunted' by Jack Brabham, then an up-and-coming Formula One racing driver, to come to England and work with him to produce a winning F1 car at Jack Brabham Motors. Ron and Jack had become mates in Australia's racing circles before Jack had headed to England in the mid-1950s. The two engineers established Motor Racing Developments Ltd (MRD), deliberately avoiding the use of either man's name, and immediately started building cars for customers. Jack temporarily remained with Cooper and won both the 1959 and 1960 World Championships, after convincing Cooper to use their innovations. In 1962 Jack began racing their own cars, as the Brabham Racing Organisation, with the type number prefix being BT for Brabham-Tauranac. Their BT19 car swept all before them in 1966 and Jack remains to this day the only driver to win the World Championship in a car bearing his own name. Huge credit to Ron. New Zealander Denny Hulme won the following year's World Championship for Brabham and Ron was 'on top of the world' as an in-demand racing car designer. Ron's most-innovative cars included the 'lobster-claw' BT34. At the end of the 1970 season, Ron bought out Jack, however sold the organisation to Bernie Ecclestone in 1971, the cost of running a Formula One team successfully quite prohibitive. Within three years, he was back in demand as the builder of racing cars for customer teams with the Ralt marque; together with his brother, Austin.

In the 2002 Australia Day Honours, Ron was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for 'service to motor racing, particularly through the engineering design, construction and production of Formula 1 racing cars, providing young drivers with opportunities to compete at top levels, and sharing knowledge with others for the advancement of the sport'.

Aged 95 years, he passed away on 17th July 2020 on Queensland's Sunshine Coast. ^[3]

Sources

1. ↑ UK FreeBMD Birth Index Mar qtr 1925, vol 2a, page 1230; registered at Medway
2. ↑ New South Wales Marriage Index #12745/1953
3. ↑ Motorsport website: Ron Tauranac passes away aged 95; accessed 9 Dec 2022

See also

• Wikipedia: Ron Tauranac; accessed 9 Dec 2022.