BRM cars - the others

The British Racing Motors (unofficial) information centre.

- the "other" cars -

BRP-BRM V8 1.5litre Formula One
The British Racing Partnership (including the Stirling Moss family and Ken Gregory) ran various Formula One cars that they ran as private entries in the 1950s and early 1960s. The team eventually became a manufacturer in their own right. The first appearance of the Tony Robinson BRP monococque was in the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa 1963. The team withdrew at the end of 1964. The cars used BRM engines and gearboxes

Chrysler (Hillman) Avenger 1.6litre
This high performance version of the family run-about used a "Chrysler-BRM" 1600cc Avenger engine. The BRM conversion used a 16-valve alloy head operated by chain drive twin cams. The engine capacities were 1598cc and also 1798cc & 2000cc (which gave 205bhp). The car gave Chrysler/Hillman a package powerful enough to compete in rallying. Production of the car ran between 1974 and 1977.

Cooper T86-BRM V12 3litre Formula One
In 1968 Brian Redman & Lucien Bianchi scored third places at Spain & Monaco during the last year of the Cooper Grand Prix team's career.

Gilby-BRM V8 1.5litre Formula One
Amateur racing driver and wartime fighter pilot Sid Greene had set up the Gilby Engineering Co Ltd. From 1954 he ran his own private entrant racing team using Maserati 250F and Cooper T45 - Maserati F1 cars. Greene and designer Len Terry (later to design for the BRM works team) raced their own sportscar in 1960 and in 1961 produced a 1.5-litre spaceframe F1 car.

For 1962 another F1 car was designed around the Championship winning BRM V8. At the German GP around Nürburgring Sid's son, Keith, retired the car due to collapsed front suspension. At Enna, Italy Keith finished seventh. The Italian GP at Monza registered a non-qualification. The team closed at the end of 1962.

The Gilby-BRM was used by privateer Ian Raby during 1963 season. Ian's three World Championship races resulted in two non-qualifications and a 19th place in the British GP. Best result of the year was third in the Rome GP, Vallelunga, Italy. The car has survived via various owners (and even beach racing in Jersey!) and is said to be being restored.

Lotus Elan BRM
The light and small Elan of the 1960s provided a high performance roadgoing two seat sportscar at a reasonable price. The racing option for the Elan (Lotus 26R) could be provided with a BRM tuned version of the four cylinder twin-cam Lotus-Ford engine. One of the most active Lotus dealerships for this car was Mike Spence (who just happened to have driven for the Formula One teams of both Lotus and BRM.)

There were three versions of the BRM Weber side-draft carburettor racing twin-cam.
Phase I - 145bhp. at 6,500 rpm.
Phase II - 200bhp. at 6,500 rpm.
Phase III - ? bhp. at ? rpm.

McLaren M4A - BRM V8 2.1litre Formula One
One of the Formula Two chassis was rebuilt as a Formula One car to fill the gap in early 1967. A 3in. extention in wheelbase allowed the fitting of a BRM V8 2.1litre "Tasman" engine. Extra fuel tanks were fitted to the chassis sides to provide Grand Prix distances. The car got as high as second in the twisty Monaco Grand Prix, finally finishing fourth after being delayed by a flat battery. At the Dutch Grand Prix McLaren retired on the first lap after spinning into the catch fencing. The chassis was later burnt out and written off in an accident at Goodwood.

McLaren M5A - BRM V12 3litre Formula One
The M4A-BRM was followed by the real 1967 Formula One McLaren - the M5A. This was the first use of the BRM "customer" V12 whilst the works team were still using the H16 engine. In the Canadian GP team owner, Bruce McLaren, up to second place in the topsy-turvy rain-soaked race. What could have been a magnificent win first time out became a finish outside the points after a stop to replace a flat battery. The power of the engine was shown by a front row grid position in the Italian Grand Prix at the fast Monza track. The car was running fourth when a broken connecting rod ended the run. The American Grand Prix ended with a water hose failure. Mexican Grand Prix provided a last place finish with overheating problems. The last works use of the car was at the 1968 South African Grand Prix, where Dennis Hulme finished fifth.
Privateer Jo Bonnier used the car until it became a wall-mounted display in his home.

Raymond Mays 20

As well of being the “Father” of BRM, Raymond Mays was “Father” of the ERA of the 1930s and also (less well known) the “Father” of a road car using his own name.

The vehicle was based on the Standard V8 “20 horsepower” model in both touring and coupe versions. The engine actually produced 85bhp. at 5000rpm. from it's 2686cc.

Shelsley Motors Ltd., Bourne produced the cars during 1938-1939 (when the Second World War intervened).

Rover 200 BRM LE
The road car, a special edition based on the Rover 200 / 25 range, was first publicly shown as a concept car at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 1997 and was expected to be sold at around priced at £18,000 on the road.
The three door hatch-back became available in April 1998 at about £14,000. Originally the model was to be a special edition of 750 but finally a little over one thousand were produced. UK sales amounted to 795 units. The Belgian market was allocated 50 cars.

The BRM model was given stiffer springs, lowered suspension, alloy 16 inch wheels and a Torsen limited slip differential. Gearing changes giving a close ratio gearbox encoraged the top end of the 1.8 VVC 143hp. rev range to be used.

The cars were painted "Brooklands Green" with chrome trim and a BRM "dayglow" orange nose. The interior was fitted with red leather and aluminium.

Want to drive your own BRM ? - try the unofficial site for the Rover 200 BRM road car at http://www.roverbrm.co.uk/. The site says of itself - "This site has been set up for owners and enthusiasts of Rover B.R.M.s and will be of interest to other performance 200s, 25s and MG ZRs."

The photo is an publicity shot issued by the MG Rover Group.

Scirrocco-BRM V8 1.5litre Formula One
Chassis produced - SP-1-63 & SP-2-63

Wealthy American teenager Hugh Powell brought into Emeryson Cars Ltd. to provide his guardian, racing driver Tony Settember, with a team to go Formula One racing for the 1962 season. The year with the Emeryson-Climax 4-cylinder was not a great success.

For 1963 Powell took full control of the team, renamed it “Scirocco-Powell” and developed a redesigned chassis to take the BRM-V8 that had taken the 1962 World Championship. Two chassis were built Scirocco-BRM (SP-1-63) for Tony Settember and later a narrower Scirocco-BRM (SP-2-63) for the team’s second driver, the narrower Tony Burgess. The team raced under the USA national colours of blue and white.

The cars’ greatest day was when Settember took Scirocco-BRM (SP-1-63) to a second place in the 1963 Austrian GP, only beaten by ex-World Champion Jack Brabham. The story was not quite as good as it seemed as the non-championship race only had three finishers and Tony was five laps behind Brabham.

Otherwise the year was no more successful than 1962 and by the end of Powell closed the team and both cars were sold. In 1964 Belgian Andre Pilette raced SP-2-63 with a Climax V8 engine and the Belgian national racing colour of yellow. Having being recovered from long-term storage in a Bristol mill in 1991 the chassis was later rebuilt by Hall & Fowler. Hall & Hall (as Hall & Fowler are now known) are restoring both chassis.

Talbot Sunbeam BRM

I spotted this advert - no other information currently available.

"This is UK’s monthly Performance Tuning dated October 1988, 84 pages. In this issue there is coverage on: The Hartwell BRM 16-valve Sunbeam Lotus Talbots are reviewed in an interesting article. Good engine photos…"

Techcraft-BRM V8 1.5litre

The 1967 Techcraft-BRM was photographed in 2003 at the Museum of British Road Transport, Coventry .
The car uses the Ferguson 4WD system and a 1500cc. BRM V8 Grand Prix engine.

The car is described ........
"RAC Hill Climb Champion 1967-1968 driven by Peter Lawson
Engine later enlarged to 1600cc and later still returned to 1500cc
Later raced by Roy Lane of Warwickshire who rebuilt the car."

The car was later used by Dave Baumforth.

Back

e-mail

Home

V1.3 - 6 December 2003.