1962 BRM P578

This car, which I photographed at the Donington Park museum in September 2014, had been in the Donington Collection since its early days.

It's a 1962 BRM P578, though strangely the display board says 'P56', and the 1974 book about the Donington Collection also calls it by that name. The forerunner of this car was the 1961 BRM P57 which had a 4-cylinder inline 1,496cc Coventry Climax FPF engine, and when the 1962 car was introduced it had a 1,498cc V8 BRM P56 engine and was called the BRM P578 in acknowledgment of the V8 engine. I don't ever recall the car itself being called a BRM P56. The BRM drivers for the 1962 season were Graham Hill and Richie Ginther who had contrasting fortunes. Graham Hill won four of the nine races and that with two second places gave him the World Drivers' Championship, which was helped by his nearest rival Jim Clark having a series of retirements despite winning three races. Richie Ginther was also plagued with retirements, and his only points scoring finishes were a second and a third to leave him in eighth place in the Championship. The 'stack-pipe' exhausts seen on this car were eventually abandoned as they tended to fall off one-by-one.