1950 BRM P15

The first of the V16 BRM P15 cars was revealed in December 1949, and in July 1999 the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone featured a 50th anniversary tribute to the marque with a paddock display of BRM cars and track parades by several of these cars.

This is the 1950 BRM P15 chassis no. 3 being driven on one of these parades by José Froilán Gonzalés. The photograph was taken from the paddock with the car at Abbey Curve.

Here's the car on display in the paddock with the light green finish that was first favoured but which was later changed to a much darker shade of green. The P15 had a supercharged 1,496cc V16 engine which was claimed to achieve 600bhp. It was notably unsuccessful in the 1950 and 1951 racing seasons, retiring from many races, but just when the Mk2 (P30) cars were starting to become more reliable the Grand Prix regulations were changed from 4½ litres unsupercharged/1½ litres supercharged to 2 litres unsupercharged for the 1952 season, thus rendering the cars obsolete. They were driven in Formula Libre races for a few years, and the only time I saw one in competitive action was in the Formula Libre race at the 1955 Aintree 200 meeting when Peter Collins won the race in P30/2.

On 1 September 2015 I showed photographs of this car and another P15 and a BRM P30 at this meeting.