I took this photograph on a visit to the Donington Park Museum in March 1996.
It's a 1959 BRM P25 and is
finished in the colours of the British Racing Partnership who had one of the
cars on loan in the 1959 season. BRM - British Racing Motors - was founded in
the late 1940s to produce a car capable of challenging the dominant foreign
racing teams, mainly Italian, in the major Grand Prix races. The first cars,
the 1½ litre V16 supercharged P15 and P30, promised much but delivered little,
only beginning to run well when the 1½ litre supercharged/4½ litre
unsupercharged Formula was dying out through lack of competition. The P25,
built for the new 2½ litre Formula fared little better and was just beginning
to become competitive when the rear-engined Cooper started to dominate the
sport. The engine of the P25, designed by Stuart Tresilian, was 'oversquare',
with a very large bore in relation to its stroke to accommodate the massive
inlet valves. These, with the large ports and carburettors, enabled very high rpm
to be achieved - some 9,000 rpm - producing 248bhp. The car made its debut in
1955, but it was 1959 before it gained its first major victory, a win by Jo
Bonnier in the Dutch Grand Prix. In an attempt to compete with the rear-engined
Coopers, BRM quickly designed a rear-engined car, the P48, which was
essentially a P25 with the engine at the back instead of the front. The P25's
were cannibalised to provide parts for this new car which made its debut in
late 1959 but it was unable to bring success to the team, and it was 1962
before they finally had a winner with the P578 which brought the World Drivers' Championship to Graham Hill. The Donington Park workshops rebuilt three of the
1959 P25 cars from original bits and pieces including the pale green car above,
chassis 2510, which was driven for the British Racing Partnership by Stirling
Moss, but is perhaps best known for its accident in the German Grand Prix at
Avus when brake failure caused Hans Herrmann to crash in spectacular fashion.
The large picture on the wall behind the BRM shows a 1936 Alfa Romeo 8C-35, probably the one once owned by Dennis Poore that was for a time part of the Donington Collection.
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