1950 BRM P15

I took this photograph at the now defunct Donington Park Museum in March 1996.

It's a 1950 BRM P15, originally known as a BRM V16 MkI, and is chassis no. 3. It's got 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.