British Racing Motors (or BRM as it was more widely known) was created to put the UK at the forefront of the Grand Prix world as the FIA Formula One Championship became the top level of motor racing in 1950.

BRM had always been "the English Ferrari" in its aim to produce the chassis, engine and gearbox to its own design and within its own workshops. Ferrari have major industrial backing, the likes of Lotus & McLaren have been able to take advantage of a wide choice of outside suppliers but BRM eventually succumbed to high ideals and low resources.
The team was soon under the control of Alfred Owen of the Rubery Owen industrial empire based at Darlaston in the Black Country of England. It took years to bring the cars from their base at Bourne, Lincolnshire to the starting grid and a further decade to reach a fully competitive level, leading to the World Championship success of 1962.
The team remained a championship chasing concern during the mid sixties and a regular race winner into the early seventies. The team then started its slide out of the F1 top rank and then out of GP racing altogether. Rubery Owen even decided to sell its BRM collection of racing cars during the Motor Show at Earl's Court, London, in October 1981.