What’s Strange about this BRM’s Front Suspension?

Photo by Peter Putterill

You are right, it does indeed include a drive shaft to the front wheel. In 1964 BRM, in partnership with Harry Ferguson Research, built an experimental four wheel-drive racing car using Ferguson’s 4WD System. BRM’s Chief Engineer, Tony Rudd, put his new recruit, Mike Pilbeam, in charge of the project. Tony viewed it all with very little enthusiasm. The car was built to the rules then governing Fl and became the BRM P67.

The first public appearance of the P67 was at the 1964 British Grand Prix held at Brands Hatch. That’s where these photographs were taken. It was not a very successful experiment. Soon 4WD was to be overtaken by improvements in racing tyre technology and indeed it is now banned under the rules governing Fl.

The car was never raced by BRM and was sold by them in 1966. The P67 had success in hill-climbs in the hands of a number of drivers. One of them, Peter Lawson, used it to win the 1968 RAC British Hill-Climb Championship. Very filling for a car from Bourne and indeed one designed by Mike Pilbeam, whose cars later dominated that form of motor sport just as earlier had those driven by Raymond Mays. 

Tony Rolt, a Director of Ferguson and a former racing driver, hears how the P67 is going.

In the late ‘thirties Tony drove an ERA in races and was the youngest driver to do so.

 
If you would like to know more information, visit the Raymond Mays room at Bourne's Baldocks Mill
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The BRM Celebration Day Committee would like to thank the Bourne Civic Society for allowing us to publish this series of articles. 

Baldocks Mill, which is run by the Bourne Civic Society, will be open on the day, where visitors can look at their BRM trophy cabinet, along with other items of BRM memorabilia. For more information, visit the Bourne Civic Society website.


A new article will be added every week, so please keep checking back for more information about BRM. 

Reproduction of this article is strictly prohibited. 

BRM at the Le Mans 24-Hour Race

The Rover Car Company approached BRM to produce a car powered by one of their small gas turbine (jet) engines with a view to taking part in the famous Le Mans 24- Hour Race. A prize had been offered by its organisers for the fir st gas turbine car to exceed 3,6001cm during the course of their race. The details were agreed and, in some haste, the car was built for the 1963 event. It was largely based on BRM’s 1961 Fl racing car.

It easily exceeded the set target distance and, had it been taking part in the race proper, it would have finished eighth! The drivers of the car were the BRM Team’s Graham Hill and Ritchie Ginther.

The 1963 Rover - BRM testing at Le Mans (Photographer Unknown)

The 1965 Rover-BRM at Le Mans (Photographer Unknown)

 

In 1965 BRM returned to Le Mans to take part in the 24-Hour race with an attractive small car powered by a much-revised Rover gas turbine engine. It was again to be driven by the BRM Team’s driver Graham Hill but this time his co-driver was the up- and-coming Jackie Stewart, who had now joined the team. The car finished the race in tenth place despite suffering a loss of power from damage caused to its engine early in the race.

The gas turbine engine suffers from a delayed response to the throttle and this was a major problem for the car’s drivers. On entering a corner they had to apply full power in anticipation of the need to accelerate when they exited it. They fine-tuned the car’s speed against the power delivery by the use of its purposely over-sized brakes! One advantage of these gas turbine powered cars was they need no conventional gearbox or radiator.

Bourne’s BRM Racing Team was the first to race a gas turbine power car.

If you would like to know more information, visit the Raymond Mays room at Bourne's Baldocks Mill
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The BRM Celebration Day Committee would like to thank the Bourne Civic Society for allowing us to publish this series of articles. 

Baldocks Mill, which is run by the Bourne Civic Society, will be open on the day, where visitors can look at their BRM trophy cabinet, along with other items of BRM memorabilia. For more information, visit the Bourne Civic Society website.


A new article will be added every week, so please keep checking back for more information about BRM. 

Reproduction of this article is strictly prohibited.  

A Real Car - Good to Drive and Fun

Jackie Stewart started his very successful F 1 racing career at the wheel of Bourne’s other famous racing car, the BRM. (Photo by Peter Putterill)

These were the words World Champion Driver, Sir Jackie Stewart, used to describe the Bourne built ERA racing car after driving one for the first time. The ERA he drove was the famous R5B, better known as “Remus”, driven in races in the ‘thirties by Prince Bira of Siam.

Sir Jackie drove the car during the 2009 Goodwood Revival Meeting in a parade to celebrate ERA’s 75th Anniversary. Here he is seen being given a swift briefing on driving an ERA by Ludovic Lindsay, the car’s owner, and (far side) fellow ERA racer David Morris. Fourteen ERAs were present at Goodwood for the celebration.

Jackie’s fellow Scottish World Champion Driver, Jim Clark once drove this ERA and surprised its then owner, Ludovic’s father, by his speed. No watch timed Jackie’s efforts but he certainly was not hanging around!

If you would like to know more information, visit the Raymond Mays room at Bourne's Baldocks Mill
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The BRM Celebration Day Committee would like to thank the Bourne Civic Society for allowing us to publish this series of articles. 

Baldocks Mill, which is run by the Bourne Civic Society, will be open on the day, where visitors can look at their BRM trophy cabinet, along with other items of BRM memorabilia. For more information, visit the Bourne Civic Society website. 

A new article will be added every week, so please keep checking back for more information about BRM. 

Reproduction of this article is strictly prohibited.  

You Can't Mean That!

As he flashes by, Dick Salmon is telling Graham Hill to turn off the electric fuel pump that has been transferring fuel from a reserve tank to the main fuel tank of his BRM. Or rather it should have been doing that but it hadn’t.

The race is the Belgium Grand Prix of 1964 and Graham’s next task is to negotiate the frightenly fast Eau Rouge downhill curves just ahead of him. Had the electric pump done all that was expected of it he would almost certainly have won the race and the World Championship of that year. Not all the fuel had been transferred to the main tak and Graham ran out on the last lap when in the lead. The first and second finishers, Jim Clark (Lotus) and Bruce McLaren (Cooper), crossed the finish line with their cars too almost out of fuel.

Dick Salmon was part of the BRM Team for 17 years and at the end of 2006 his memoirs of those times were published by Veloce. He tells the story of someone at the “coal-face” of the team’s activities, from the troubled times of the VI 6 car to the successful times when BRM were the World Champions. Dick’s book is a valuable personal record of a very important part of Bourne’s history.

If you would like to know more information, visit the Raymond Mays room at Bourne's Baldocks Mill
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The BRM Celebration Day Committee would like to thank the Bourne Civic Society for allowing us to publish this series of articles. 

Baldocks Mill, which is run by the Bourne Civic Society, will be open on the day, where visitors can look at their BRM trophy cabinet, along with other items of BRM memorabilia. For more information, visit the Bourne Civic Society website.


A new article will be added every week, so please keep checking back for more information about BRM. 

Reproduction of this article is strictly prohibited. 

Bourne’s BRM F1 Team Wins at Monaco Not once, but Five Times

This photograph, taken at Monaco in 1963, shows Graham Hill and his BRM ahead of

Clark in a Lotus followed by Ritchie Ginther, also in a BRM, and John Surtees in a Ferrari. They are leaving what was then called the Station Hairpin. (Photographer not known).

Bourne’s BRM Formula One Team regularly left the town to go to Monaco to take part in its annual Grand Prix. In the years, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966 and 1972, the team returned with the Winner’s Trophy. For the first three of those victories the team’s driver was Graham Hill who also won the World Championship in 1962, along with the BRM Team. In 1966 BRM’s winning driver was Jackie Stewart. BRM’s driver in

1972 was the French Champion, Jean-Pierre Beltoise. That was to be the team’s last Grand Prix victory. Sadly BRM ceased racing in 1976.

Not a bad record for a motor racing team from Lincolnshire and, in particular, a small market town such as Bourne.

If you would like to know more information, visit the Raymond Mays room at Bourne's Baldocks Mill
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The BRM Celebration Day Committee would like to thank the Bourne Civic Society for allowing us to publish this series of articles. 

Baldocks Mill, which is run by the Bourne Civic Society, will be open on the day, where visitors can look at their BRM trophy cabinet, along with other items of BRM memorabilia. For more information, visit the Bourne Civic Society website.


A new article will be added every week, so please keep checking back for more information about BRM. 

Reproduction of this article is strictly prohibited.