test of a BT49 chassis. He was not happy to employ a two piece composite chassis, preferring to develop a technique which produced a seamless monocoque of carbon fibre/kevlar composite over a nomex honeycomb. This structure was reinforced, like his earlier designs, by machined aluminium bulkheads. Engine and transmission At Murray's request, BMW designed a special version of their M12 inline four engine. Differences from the standard upright unit were few, mainly concerning the oil scavenging system and the cradle in which the unit was mounted. Like the upright version the unit was not a stressed component. Mounting the engine on its side meant that the power takeoff from the unit, previously at the bottom, was offset to one side. A special 7-speed 3-shaft gearbox from American gearbox specialists Weismann was produced to deal with this. Racing history At the end of 1985, Piquet left Brabham after seven seasons and two world championships, joining Williams which made him a much better salary offer. Marc Surer also left the team. Riccardo Patrese returned to Brabham, and was joined by Elio de Angelis. The aerodynamic concept worked, in that the car produced plenty of downforce without increasing drag which allowed the cars to run less wing and be among the fastest in a straight line at the faster tracks like Hockenheim, Monza and the Österreichring (where Warwick was actually the quickest through the speed trap at heading into the Bosch Kurve). However, the tilted over engine and specially designed gearbox also produced many reliability problems including oil surge and a lack of throttle response that only compounded the already poor response of the BMW turbo (four cylinder turbos generally suffered more 'turbo lag' as a result of only using a single turbocharger, while V6 and V8 engines used twin turbos and suffered less lag). This saw the Brabhams off the pace on the slower circuits such as Monaco (where de Angelis qualified 20th and last for his final race, though amazingly Patrese managed to qualify 6th), Detroit, and the then new circuits of Jerez and the Hungaroring where acceleration counted for more than outright speed. The team scored just two points all season, both by driver Riccardo Patrese with sixth placings in San Marino and Detroit. As in 1985, the Brabham's performance was severely hampered by inconsistent Pirelli race tyres. While the car's problems were primarily engine and gearbox related, most of