This is how the BRM Type 15 V16 comes back to life

The world’s craziest F1 engine comes back to life

It is quite tempting for the older Formula 1 fan to say that motorsport is no longer as exciting as it used to be. What nonsense. But something that is undeniably true is that today’s F1 cars don’t sound as good as their predecessors. Today’s hybrid six-cylinder sounds flat compared to the naturally aspirated V8s they replaced, and those, in turn, weren’t quite as melodic as the 17,500-rpm V10s of the 1990s. Let alone the V12 engines that came before that. Et cetera, and so on.

But all those engines have to bow low to the mighty BRM Type 15 V16, a post-war monster made up of 36,000 parts and sounded like swelling thunder and lightning—on a day when thunder was hungover and lightning just hit its toe against the table leg bumped. Google it, it’s worth it. Even if there is no computer speaker that can properly process the enormous complexity of its sound.

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600 hp at 12,000 rpm

In fact, everything about this BRM is complicated. Even Einstein had found it no easy task to figure out the physics of this motor. Here’s the most important thing to know: it was largely derived from the British aircraft industry, and despite having sixteen cylinders, the capacity of the first BRM engine was only 1,490 cc. It produced over 600 horsepower at almost 12,000 rpm. Mind you, this was in 1950. It would be more than 30 years before another F1 engine surpassed this.

‘Even Einstein couldn’t have figured out the physics of this motor easily’

Based on this, you may wonder why this BRM isn’t automatically counted as one of the greatest technical achievements in sport of all time. Summed up in one word: reliability. The BRM Type 15 V16 may be technically stunning, but it was also terrifyingly complicated. Just like the story of how he saw the light of day in the first place.

Some notes on the story behind the BRM Type 15 V16

‘Did the engine really have 600 horsepower? Did Fangio drive it 320 km/h?’ Simon Owen, grandson of BRM’s main character Sir Alfred Owen, ponders it. “We don’t think the BRM story has been told correctly. The company started in 1947, just like Ferrari, and in our heyday in the 1960s it was often BRM versus Ferrari. They survived, we didn’t – it all came to an end in the mid-1970s. But we want to shed light on what BRM has accomplished, because it’s truly an incredible story. And it starts with the BRM Type 15 V16.”

The people behind the new BRM Type 15 V16

That ‘we’ are Simon and his brother Nick, on behalf of their father John, along with their cousin Paul. They are all descendants of the Rubery Owen dynasty, at one point Europe’s largest privately owned company, employer of 17,000 people and the main driving force behind this thoroughly British motorsport story. Simon talks enthusiastically about the BRM archives, a large collection of blueprints, archival material and memorabilia that, in addition to a brand history, form an almost sociocultural account of Britain in this fascinating post-war period.

For now, the focus is on building three ‘new’ V16s that were originally planned and had even been assigned chassis numbers, in addition to the three that were actually produced. Simon’s father John, who was present at BRM’s test base at Folkingham Airport in Lincolnshire when Juan Manuel Fangio put the car through its paces, will receive a copy. ‘It was very special to watch people like the Bull of Pampas [José Foilán González] and Fangio managed to curb the power of the V16,” he recalls.

A dream comes true

“In a selfish way I’ve always dreamed of hearing that sound again. But now I’d like to share the sensation with others.’ The two remaining engines are still available; two unique relics for the well-endowed and knowledgable racing fraternity. The reincarnation is the task of the world-renowned historic motorsport specialist Hall & Hall, who is also a BRM expert.

The history of BRM

But before we get into that, let’s dive into the history of BRM. A month or two before World War II ended, a man named Raymond Mays sent a letter to British industry leaders with the idea of ​​creating a national Grand Prix racing team. Mays was one of those characters that you simply can’t make up. He attended the prestigious Oundle School where he met Amherst Villiers – who would later develop the supercharger of the Blower Bentleys and was immortalized in his friend Ian Fleming’s first James Bond book – and he was a successful racing driver in the early days. of motorsport.

There is a famous photo of him driving a Bugatti on a hill climb in Caerphilly, where he looks to the side in surprise as his broken rear wheel catches up with him. In 1933, he co-founded English Racing Automobiles, an idea he expanded upon by deploying his connections and charisma to a British racing team as a rival to the mainly French and German giants of the time. Patriotic industrialists like Oliver Lucas, Tony Vandervell, David Brown and Alfred Owen paved the way for a consortium backed financially or materially by more than 100 companies. Game on.

British knowledge and technical ingenuity

British Racing Motors was founded in 1947 in Old Maltings, behind the Eastgate House where Mays’ family lived, with former ERA ringleader Peter Berthon. The first BRM was to be a showcase for British knowledge and technical ingenuity. This is how the car came to its mind-boggling specifications. Its engine was directly inspired by the Merlin block that helped bring the glorious Spitfire warplane to its success. One of its showpieces was the two-stage centrifugal supercharger, a Rolls-Royce part with 124 components supplied to BRM from 24 third-party suppliers. The engine had a 135-degree V-angle and every nut, bolt and cleat was carefully crafted from the highest quality steel.

“The supercharger has two oil filters, two return pumps, two pressure pumps and crossover gearing,” Rick Hall says. ‘It turns out to be difficult to replicate some parts using modern techniques. Back then the men worked with lathes, milling cutters, belts and whatever else was available.’

The BRM Type 15 V16 is not big

“You look at the bike and you can’t believe it’s only 1,500cc, with a huge supercharger on it that spins four times faster. I knew the man who designed it. I have a Merlin engine downstairs, you can clearly see that this is in fact a scaled copy. Many parts of the V16 are like jewels, made with great care.’

“Back then, it didn’t matter how difficult something was – the attitude was simply: this is how we’re going to do it”

Hall adds: “The tachometer drive alone is made up of about 50 parts. Of course they could have just made a housing with a cable, but they insisted that they do it the same way as the aircraft industry. At that time, it didn’t matter how difficult something was – the attitude was simply: that’s how we’re going to do it.’ Very nice, but that stubbornness caused a lot of delays, and when the car finally moved, its rear wheels in fifth gear at 225 km/h still couldn’t find grip…

The pressure to deliver quickly became intense

During testing, the engine repeatedly stalled at 11,000 rpm and there were problems with the way the cylinder liners mated to the heads. This led to numerous explosive failures. The countdown to the BRDC International Trophy gala at Silverstone in August 1950, where the car was to appear, was underway, and Berthon lived almost permanently in the control tower at Folkingham Airport. This wasn’t just the introduction of a new race car, it was a matter of national prestige. Raymond Sommer completed three laps to qualify for the race, Mays one, but both BRMs gave up on the grid. It was embarrassing, of course, if only because the outside world had no idea what divine engineering madness was going on under the hoods. After all, a broken engine is a broken engine.

A young Stirling Moss would later struggle with the relentless boost of the supercharger during tests at Monza. Power is thought to increase from roughly 160 hp at 7,000 rpm to 380 hp at 9,000, and through to over 600 hp beyond 10,000 rpm. Imagine trying to race with that.

It soon got better

In 1953 BRM drove eleven races and even won a few. Fangio and González seemed to have the unhinged beast under control. He had a successful second life in Formula Libre. A lighter, friendlier second generation was given the go-ahead, with Tony Rudd – who would later pioneer ground effect at Lotus – was sent out by Rolls-Royce to oversee. In September 1952, Rubery Owen took over and the grand adventure could really begin. In 1962 Graham Hill won the Drivers’ Championship and the team the Constructors’ title. Among the BRM riders you will find names like Mike Hawthorn, Jackie Stewart, Dan Gurney, Pedro Rodríguez, Jo Siffert and Niki Lauda.

But if history remembers this V16 as a soft, then it is one of the greatest softs motorsport has ever known. ‘Many things can go wrong. We’re not going to reinvent the wheel, they already did,” Rick Hall said. ‘It’s the same piece of complex machinery. Until you see the level of design and engineering effort that went into it, you can’t fully appreciate it. It was supposed to be the most powerful Grand Prix car of all time. Making something so complicated reliable, at those kinds of speeds, was really years ahead of what could be imagined at the time.’