Racing lines: BRM is born again
BRM was launched at RAF Folkingham in December 1949
Lincolnshire’s historic F1 manufacturer returns after a long-lost treasure surfaces
“As bad as it gets!” fired back Sir Stirling Moss when I once asked for his verdict on the BRM P15 V16, Britain’s first true Formula 1 car. “I can’t think of anything that was good about that car other than the brakes and gearbox – and the fact that it broke so early you couldn’t do many miles. An absolutely appalling car, boy.”
It’s fair to say that our much-missed hero never was one to varnish his opinion. But that damnation, forever frozen by his unhappy experience in the 1952 Ulster Trophy race at Dundrod, stuck for a car that was supposed to keep the British end up in the early years of the F1 World Championship. Instead, in the face of Italian domination courtesy of Alfa Romeo, Ferrari and Maserati, it became something of a national embarrassment: too complex, too unreliable, too much of a handful…
The P15 – universally known as the BRM V16 – became emblematic of the setting sun that cast lengthening shadows on our crumbling empire in the 1950s. But us Brits, how we love a glorious failure! In the decades since, the V16 has turned from national joke to national treasure, cherished for its rarity, the sheer pluck behind its creation – and that certain sound.
As a small boy at a British Grand Prix some time in the 1980s, I covered my ears as a pair of V16s paraded around Silverstone. While those around me unkindly professed amazement that they had made it as far as our vantage point at Stowe corner, the hairraising blare from those 16 cylinders, buried in the long, bluff snout, was like some symphony from hell. I had never heard anything like it – and was utterly bewitched.
*Bourne out of love*
They have the same effect today. At the Goodwood Revival last year, the four originals drew a constant crowd in the paddock, as did a very special fifth example: a new P15 taking its public bow, created in remarkable painstaking detail from original drawings.
Now, replicas, recreations, continuation cars – call them what you will – are a hot topic in classic and historic circles, and for good reason. But the BRM, created by those master craftsmen and marque experts at Hall & Hall, should be exempt from invoking furrowed brows.
Just taking on such a complex project deserves respect enough, but recreating a motoring da Vinci (even if Moss might have suggested a comparison to Munch’s The Scream was more pertinent) is no sacrilege. This project is simply safeguarding and enhancing the legacy of the long-defunct Bourne-based British Racing Motors, once considered Britain’s Ferrari.
*Bucking the trend*
Three new P15s are planned, taking the original chassis numbers of a trio that were never built in period. The creation of the second, Chassis V, has now taken an exciting turn following the recent discovery of a long-lost treasure.
The body buck for the original Mark 1 P15, handcrafted in 1949, has been unearthed following a five-year search. The jig was created to build the first six BRMs, which were unveiled at RAF Folkingham on 15 December 1949 and first ran at Goodwood in 1950. The V16 subsequently evolved during its active lifespan, as is the way with all racing cars, to improve cooling, handling and performance.
No longer of any use, that original jig was stored in the roof of a boathouse owned by George Gray, who was tasked with the building of Peter Berthon’s design. Its discovery 70 years later means that Chassis V can now be created as a direct echo of the original P15.
“With the discovery of the original body buck, we now have the opportunity to produce a car to the original shape and specification of Britain’s very first F1 car,” said Paul Owen, grandson of founding BRM backer Sir Alfred Owen.
Meanwhile, Rick Hall, a veteran of the team that ran in F1 until 1977, is rubbing his hands. “The simplicity and beautiful lines of this car will only really be appreciated in the flesh,” he says. “Very few people alive today will have had the opportunity to see this car before. Looking back at the original drawings, we were surprised at the amount of technical changes that were made to the car in period. We’re relishing the challenge of bringing it back to life once again.”
Fittingly, Chassis V was commissioned by a man with a keen eye for precision engineering: watchmaker, committed racing enthusiast and marque fanatic Richard Mille, who already owns two original P15s among his collection of BRMs.
“I knew I was becoming serious about BRM when I invested in the wonderful P115 H16 [raced by Sir Jackie Stewart in 1967 and another flop!], but there’s something I find particularly fascinating about the V16,” says the Frenchman. “Not only is it, to my eye, the most beautiful F1 car of its time, but it’s also the most technically complex, particularly in regards to the technology of the day.”
Each car comprises more than 36,000 individually engineered parts, which explains why it takes Hall & Hall two years to build one.
The third fresh P15 remains unassigned, but we can expect a first sighting of the ‘new original’ early next year.
*Different tune from the maestro*
By the way, while Moss retained not a whiff of lost love for the V16, it should be noted the acclaimed maestro Juan Manuel Fangio was much more polite about a car in which he won a heat of the non-championship Albi GP in 1953 – its greatest moment. The five-time F1 world champion even went as far as to proclaim the V16 “the most fantastic car I ever drove”.
Legends and old friends, Moss and Fangio agreed on most things, but the P15 V16 struck a rare discordant note between them – one that will never be forgotten.
*Good week*
*Toyota Gazoo Racing:* Three of the top four finishers on Rally Sweden were driving a factory Toyota Yaris, as Kalle Rovanperä claimed a third World Rally Championship career win. It followed 21 years after his father Harri scored his only WRC victory, also in Sweden.
*Bad week*
*Russian Grand Prix: *Cancellation was the only response for Formula 1 in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But as usual, Sebastian Vettel showed the sport’s paymasters the way on ethical matters. He said he wouldn’t go; F1 announced its decision two days later.