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BRM P25

BRM P25

Category	Formula One
Constructor	British Racing Motors
Designer(s)	Peter Berthon Stuart Tresilian
Technical specifications
Chassis	Steel spaceframe.
Suspension (front)	Double wishbone, with outboard coilover spring/damper units.
Suspension (rear)	de Dion tube, with Watt's linkage and double radius rods. Coilover spring/damper units.
Axle track	F: 51 in (1,300 mm) R: 50 in (1,270 mm)
Wheelbase	90 in (2,290 mm)
Engine	BRM P25 2,491 cc (152 cu in) DOHC straight-4. Naturally aspirated, front-mounted.
Transmission	BRM 4-speed manual transaxle, with integral ZF differential.
Weight	690 kg (1,521 lb)
Tyres	Dunlop
Competition history
Notable entrants	Owen Racing Organisation British Racing Partnership
Notable drivers	Mike Hawthorn Jo Bonnier Stirling Moss Ron Flockhart Harry Schell Jean Behra
Debut	1956 Monaco Grand Prix
Races Wins Poles F/Laps 22 1 1 2

The BRM P25 is a Formula One racing car that was built by the British Racing Motors team, and introduced during the 1955 Formula One season. The car was BRM's first Formula One machine since the aborted, V16-engined P15 of 1951, and was in many aspects a significantly more conservative design. The car was powered by a 2.5-litre straight-4 engine, designed and built in-house, that was housed in a spaceframe chassis. The BRM P25 made its World Championship debut at the 1956 Monaco Grand Prix but it was not until over three years later, at the 1959 Dutch Grand Prix, that it took BRM's first — and its one and only — Grand Prix victory, driven by Swede Jo Bonnier. During the interveing period much development work had taken place on both the chassis and mechanical components of the car, but despite these improvement by the late 1950s the mid-engine revolution was starting to gather pace, and the BRM was becoming outclassed. At the end of the 1959 season all but one of the cars built were broken up and their parts used to contruct the P25's successor, the mid-engined P48.

Design

Since the flop of the disastous V16 cars, the original British Racing Motors Trust had been wound up. The BRM company was subsequently bought outright by the Rubery Owen engineering conglomerate, whose managing director was Sir Alfred Owen, one of the BRM Trust's original backers. Owen created a subsidiary company, the Owen Racing Organisation, to oversee the BRM project. Despite the change in ownership the BRM team decided to continue with its original aim: to produce an all-British Formula One winner.

Engine

Improvements made to the V16's design allowed the Mark II car (officially, the BRM P30) to win in limited-distance Formula Libre races in 1953, but by that time the Formula One regulations had been changed and so its 1.5-litre supercharged engine was no longer eligible for World Championship Grands Prix. That 2-litre formula lasted until the start of the 1954 Formula One season, when it was in turn replaced by regulations allowing naturally-aspirated engines of up to 2.5 litres, or 750 cc supercharged engines.

Rather than repeat the complexity of the 16-cylinder cars, consultant engine designer Stuart Tresilian began work on a far simpler straight-4 motor. This engine would have to last for a full 500km Grand Prix distance, something which the V16 had singularly failed to do. Tresilian chose an oversquare design, with bore and stroke dimensions of 102.87 mm (4.05 in) and 74.93 mm (2.95 in), respectively, giving a total engine capacity of 2,491 cc (152 cu in). The wide bore was chosen to allow for large valves, which were mounted at 90° to one another within a hemispherical combustion chamber head.

References

Sources

• Collet, R. 1956. Prototype Parade No. 78: BRM. Model Maker, 6 (December 1956), 635-637
• Jenkinson, D.S. 1957. The 43rd Grand Prix de l'A.C.F.. Motor Sport, XXXIII/8 (August 1957), 460-462
• Jenkinson, D.S. 1958a. XVI Grand Prix de Monaco: Notes on the cars at Monte Carlo. Motor Sport, XXXIV/6 (June 1958), 342-343
• Jenkinson, D.S. 1958b. The 44th Grand Prix de l'ACF: Brief notes on the cars at Reims. Motor Sport, XXXIV/8 (August 1958), 553
• Laidlaw-Dickson, D.J. 1959. Prototype Parade No. 96: BRM 1958/9. Model Maker, 9 (September 1959), 405-407
• Muelas, F., Snellman, L. & Diepraam, M. 1999. Bonnier takes BRM by the horns. 8W, October 1999
• Proud, J.R. 1970. Prototype Parade No. 310: The Pale Green BRM. Model Cars, 7/6 (June 1970), 294-295
• "Car Model: BRM P25". ChicaneF1.com. Retrieved 2007-12-01. (World Championship statistics.)

Frank Gardner

Frank Gardner

Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Australian
Active years	1964 - 1965, 1968
Teams	Brabham, BRM
Entries	9 (8 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First entry	1964 British Grand Prix
Last entry	1968 Italian Grand Prix

24 Hours of Le Mans career
Years	1962-1963, 1966-1967, 1969
Teams	Team Lotus Alan Mann Racing Holman Moody
Best finish	8th (1962)
Class wins	1 (1962)

Frank Gardner (born October 1 1931) is a former racing driver from Australia. He is best known as a Formula 5000, touring car and sports car racing driver. He participated in nine World Championship Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on July 11, 1964, but scored no championship points. He also participated in numerous non-Championship Formula One races. Gardner won the 1971 and 1972 British Formula 5000 championships, the British Touring Car Championship title on three occasions (1967, 1968 and 1973) the first two in a Ford and the last in a Chevrolet. After returning to Australia in the mid-1970s Gardner won the 1977 Australian Sports Sedan Championship driving a highly modified Chevrolet Corvair. Before taking up motor racing he had been a boxer and surf lifesaver.

Gardner at 1969 1000km Nürburgring with Porsche 917

Early life

Frank Gardner was born in Sydney, New South Wales, in 1931, the son of a fisherman. When Gardner was only 12 years old his father was hit and killed by a car while returning home from work one night. As a result, the young Frank Gardner went to live with his uncle Hope Bartlett, who had been a frequent competitor in Australian motor sport events throughout the 1930s. However, as a young man Gardner's interests were by no means restricted to the track. His sporting involvement included surfing, swimming, diving, rowing, sailing and boxing, as well as motorcycle speedway racing. After serving as an apprentice mechanic at his uncle's bus company, Frank Gardner decided to open his own garage. In order to raise the starting funds for the business Gardner fell back on his amateur boxing experience and turned professional. With the money raised through boxing Frank Gardner bought the Whale Beach Service Station in Avalon, some 35 km north of Sidney.

Motor racing beginnings

Racing rebuilt Jaguars in Australia

At only 17 years of age Gardner borrowed an old MG TA from Bartlett and entered it for his first car race, at the local Marston Park airfield, which he won. A few years later, in 1953, Gardner bought Bartlett's race-winning Jaguar XK120 and after replacing the metal bodywork with fibreglass to reduce weight he used it to win many races over the following few years. Gardner's next car was another Jaguar: the ex-works C-Type XKC 037, that he bought as a write-off from the previous owner's insurance company. Jaguar supplied sufficient plans and drawings, and with his mechanical expertise Gardner was able to fully rebuild XKC 037. While he was reconstructing its chassis Gardner transferred the C-Type's engine and steering into the XK120, and on its completion the car was built up with a combination of C-Type and XK120 parts. Gardner's next step up the racing ladder was provided in 1957 when he bought another crashed Jaguar: D-Type XKD520. Between the three Jaguars Frank Gardner scored 25 wins from 26 starts in sports car classes, and took the New South Wales sportscar championship in both 1956 and 1957.

Move to the United Kingdom

In 1958 Frank Gardner decided to move to England to "see what it was all about over there". He sold the Jaguars and a five-year lease on the Whale Beach Service Station to fund his trip. On arrival he managed to find work as a mechanic in Aston Martin's racing department, working under Reg Parnell and John Wyer. Gardner remained with Aston for over a year, tending both the firm's sportscars – including the 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans-winning DBR1 – and the DBR4 Formula One cars. Although he was participating in racing at the very highest levels Gardner still maintained an ambition to drive himself, an ambition seriously compromised by lack of funds.

To get a toe back in the door, in 1961 Gardner took a job with Jim Russell's racing drivers' school at the Snetterton Circuit in Norfolk. Here Gardner was responsible for rebuilding cars that had been damaged by the school's pupils, and as many of them were Lotus 18 and 20 models he learned a significant amount about contemporary, cutting-edge, single-seat racing car design. Importantly for Gardner, once he had mended the cars Russell allowed him to race them, on the assumption that a car that had won a race was subsequently easier to sell. This season of Formula Junior racing was Gardner's first experience of racing both in Britain, and in a single-seater car. Nevertheless he took six victories, at tracks as diverse as Oulton Park, Silverstone, and the racing school's home circuit Snetterton.

Gardner's relationship with Jim Russell only lasted for one season, as at the end of 1961 Jack Brabham, an old acquaintance from the speedway tracks of Sydney, approached him to join the newly-formed Motor Racing Developments team. Once again Gardner's role was principally that of fabricator and mechanic, but in addition to this he was also the works Brabham Formula Junior driver. Although he failed to win a race Gardner's Brabham BT2 was commonly near the front of the field; he recorded three fastest laps, and took pole position at both Aintree and Silverstone. During the season Gardner experimented with small aerodynamic deflectors on either side of the BT2's nosecone, five years before Formula One teams started to run similar devices, but confrontations with scrutineers over their legality prompted Gardner to abandon them, rather than face "buggerising about with officialdom".

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	WDC	Pts.
1964	John Willment Automobiles	Brabham BT10	Ford L4	MON	NED	BEL	FRA	GBR Ret	GER	AUT	ITA	USA	MEX			-	0
1965	John Willment Automobiles	Brabham BT11	BRM V8	RSA 12	MON Ret	BEL Ret	FRA	GBR 8	NED 11	GER Ret	ITA Ret	USA	MEX			-	0
1968	Bernard White Racing	BRM P261	BRM V12	RSA	ESP	MON	BEL	NED	FRA	GBR	GER	ITA DNQ	CAN	USA	MEX	-	0

References

Sources

• Gardner, F., Bowden, D. & Kohrn, W. 2003. Genuine Trans Am guys speak up: Frank Gardner. www.ponysite.de. Retrieved on April 22 2008.
• Tayor, S. 2008. Lunch with... Frank Gardner. Motor Sport, 84/3, p. 84-92
• "Driver: Gardner, Frank". Autocourse Grand Prix Archive. Retrieved 2008-04-22.

March 693P

March 693P

Category	Formula Three
Constructor	March Engineering Ltd.
Designer(s)	Robin Herd
Technical specifications
Chassis	Steel spaceframe.
Engine	Ford Cosworth MAE 1,000 cc (61 cu in) straight-4. Naturally aspirated, mid-mounted.
Transmission	Hewland Mk6.
Competition history
Notable entrants	March Engineering
Notable drivers	Ronnie Peterson James Hunt

The March 693P is a Formula Three racing car; the first car constructed by the then newly-formed March Engineering manufacturer in 1969. The car is unique, constructed as a prototype for the new company's future production formula racing vehicles, prior to sale to the general public. The 693P was raced three times by the March works team, driven twice by Ronnie Peterson and once by James Hunt, before the introduction of the production March 703.

References

Sources

• Taylor, S. 1969. Enter the March. Autosport, October 2, 1969. p 18-19