Repco was founded by Geoff Russell in 1922, trading initially under the name Automotive Grinding Company from premises in Collingwood, Victoria. It was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in 1937. The company later passed through ownership by Pacific Dunlop, private equity, and ultimately Genuine Parts Company, which acquired Repco and the wider Exego group in 2013. Since 2021, Repco has held the naming rights to the Bathurst 1000 and the Supercars Championship.
The path to Formula One began in 1964 when the Australian/New Zealand Tasman Series adopted a 2,500 cc capacity limit. Jack Brabham approached Repco to develop a suitable engine, and together they adapted a single-overhead-camshaft design based on the Oldsmobile Jetfire 215 ci block — not the Rover or Buick versions of the same basic architecture, as is commonly assumed, but the Oldsmobile unit which used six cylinder-head studs per cylinder and had distinct differences in head design. A 2.5-litre engine was completed for the 1965 Tasman season.
When the FIA announced that Formula One's engine limit would double to three litres from 1966, Brabham saw an opportunity. Coventry Climax — the dominant UK supplier — had decided to exit racing engine development, and the expected Cosworth DFV was not yet public knowledge. Brabham used his friendship with Repco engineer Phil Irving to propose a 3-litre version using a longer-stroke flat-plane crankshaft. Repco's board agreed, and a small team under Irving produced the F1 engine designated the Repco 620 V8, retaining the two-valve-per-cylinder single-camshaft heads from the Tasman unit.
The Repco 620 V8 displaced 2,995.58 cc with a bore and stroke of 88.9 x 60.3 mm. In race trim it produced approximately 299 bhp — by far the least powerful of the new three-litre engines on the grid. However, it was also the lightest, most compact, and most reliable. Its modest power reduced stress on the chassis, suspension, brakes, and tyres, allowing Brabham's car to run competitive strategies that more fragile rivals could not sustain.
In the nine-race 1966 season, Brabham achieved three pole positions and four consecutive victories, winning both the drivers' and constructors' championships — a unique achievement for a driver-constructor. Jack Brabham remains the only driver to win the Formula One title in a car of his own construction. In 1967, a revised engine in the 700 series used a new Repco-designed block. The Cosworth DFV appeared midseason in the Lotus 49 with around 410 bhp, setting a new competitive benchmark, but it was fragile in its first season. Brabham and Denny Hulme each scored two victories; Hulme accumulated more consistent results and took the drivers' title, with Brabham second and the constructor retaining its championship.
For 1968 Repco produced a four-valve, dual-overhead-camshaft version of the V8, targeting 400 bhp at 9,500 rpm, though only approximately 380 bhp at 9,000 rpm was achieved in practice. The season was catastrophic: insurmountable valve gear unreliability plagued the engine throughout, and the lengthy lines of communication between the UK race team and Australian engineering base made diagnosing and correcting problems extremely difficult. Jochen Rindt, who had joined Brabham expecting a competitive car, managed two poles and two podiums but the team collected almost no points overall. Repco, having spent far more than originally budgeted and having sold very few customer engines, abandoned the Formula One project.
The Brabham works team switched to Cosworth power for 1969. A pair of older Brabham-Repcos were entered at the season-opening South African Grand Prix by local privateers Sam Tingle and Peter de Klerk but scored no points, marking the engine's last world championship appearance. LDS cars fitted with Repco engines also appeared in the South African national Formula One series during the late 1960s.
Outside Formula One, Repco had a long history in Australian motorsport including development work on the Maybach Specials in the 1950s. The company later produced the Repco-Holden Formula 5000 engine using modified Holden 308 V8 block and head castings, which dominated Australian Formula 5000 competition through the 1970s and powered Frank Matich to multiple national championship victories. A lighter Repco-Leyland variant using the Rover V8 was developed from 1974 and won the 1977 Australian Drivers' Championship with John McCormack.