British Racing Partnership's 1.5L Grand Prix cars

[BritishV8]

You probably loved the movie "Grand Prix"? That 1966 movie featured the fabulous Formula One cars of the early sixties, when displacement was limited to just 1.5L. The cars were small but beautiful. Technology was changing quickly, but each advance was still comprehensible to an average fan. It was also an era of particularly charismatic drivers. (Possibly none were more charismatic than Innes Ireland!)

I've just published an article about an especially interesting specimen of the 1.5L Grand Prix era: the "BRP-BRM". After only the Lotus 25, the BRP-BRM was the second Formula One car to feature aluminum monocoque construction. It was powered by a sexy dual overhead cam BRM V8 engine, whereas the Lotus team used Climax V8s.

Here's the link:
Kurt DelBene's 1964 B.R.P. (BRP-BRM) Grand Prix Race Car
(includes ~80 detailed color photos... enjoy!)

example photos:




Some of you ApexSpeed readers know your vintage formula cars a whole lot better than I do. If you spot inaccuracies or mistakes in the article, please don't hesitate to send me a message so I can make corrections.

[bear01011]

You are doing a fantastic job and great service with these articles! I'm not an expert on 1.5 liter GP cars but it all looks good to me. I buy and sell an average of two vintage cars a week, I'm going to bookmark your site because it is becoming a very good reference source.

[John Merriman]

Curtis, what a superb article and the photos are stunning too. Hats off to you. I have always admired the BRP cars and as a fan of the great Masten Gregory it's great to read about the F1 cars he drove. The Indy cars have appeal as well. Masten's run up to fourth from 31st must have been a hell of a sight to see!

As it happens, I was able to spend half a day looking closely at one of the original F1 cars in the paddock at Donnington in 1981 at a huge vintage event there. It was a pleasure to look over the car from very close range and when the beautiful BRM V8 started up....what can I say! Some place on my shelf I have 20 or 30 Kodachrome slides (remember slide film?) of the car.

At that event it was driven by a wealthy vintage car collector / driver who, I believe, was an high level executive with XEROX in London....or maybe it was IBM ! I can't recall his name but I do recall that he was killed some years later when an Indy car he was driving at Silverstone flipped.

Again, my compliments on a fine article. John M.

[marty7]

Having a quick look there is a reference to 64/2 beign rebult by Peter Bruin and Ferris de Joux. I believe Peter did the chassis work Ferris the fibre glass and Dewar Thomas rebuilt the engine. Dewar is still alive and well. He will know dates. He was present at the race track in Auckland when it was first run after it's rebuild. I remember him telling me about it.

Regards,
Marty

[provamo]

i saw this (?) car at sears point for some historic event this year..........what amazed me was how that TINY V-8 sounded just like a VEE EIGHT! impressive , i think the flat crank enhances the sound

gotta have a lot of respect for drivers of that era piloting what is essentially a fancy (early) formula ford with twice the power and half the tire LOL

[Brands]

Excellent Work! My Dad was friends with Innes Ireland and I got to meet him a couple of times as a small boy. He scared me a bit - very loud voice as I recall!