BRM V16 Mk1 To Race At 2022 Goodwood Revival For The First Time In 70 Years

The 2022 Goodwood Revival has commenced and sees the return of the V16 BRM Mk1 for the first time on 70 years.

As part of the 60th anniversary of the team winning the 1962 Formula One Constructors Championship, BRM have brought the MK1 P15 V16 engined chassis number IV to be raced in the Goodwood Trophy.

The celebration is foe the 1st, 2nd and 3rd finish for the BRM team achieved by Gonzales, Parnell and Wharton who drove to this famous result.

This year the V16 will be driven by historic racing specialist Rob Hall who oversaw the construction of the car at Hall & Hall. The car was unveiled by the Duke of Richmond at last year’s revival.

The return to Goodwood Racing marks the reawakening of the BRM legacy with the Owen family’s key objective of going racing. The car taking part this weekend is one of the three P15s that were never built and is the first to be produced.

“We have been very clear from the start of the project that the final three MK1 P15’s are to be built so that they can be seen and be heard,” said John Owen, son of Sir Alfred Owen and BRM Director. “They form an incredibly important part of British Motor Racing and British engineering history and it is vital that this is not forgotten. What better way to demonstrate this to the next generation by actually racing?”

It was in 1952 that a V16 BRM was last raced at Goodwood in the Goodwood Trophy. Gonzales, Parnell and Wharton achieved the 1, 2, 3 victory.

“Other than upgraded magnetos, this car is totally original,” comments John Owen. “In the spirit of Goodwood, the Chassis IV V16 has not been modified to go faster or tweaked to handle better – it is fundamentally the very same car that raced in the Goodwood Trophy 70 years ago.”

The car’s initial outing at Shelsey Walsh in July was deemed successful and a decision was made to enter the car into the Revival.

Wearing the number 5, as a tribute to Froilan Gonzalez victory in September 1952., the car will be raced against other Grand Prix and Voiturette cars spanning either side of the Second World War.

There will also be a collection of other BRM cars joining the V16 P15 over the weekend.

Using the original post-war blueprints, specialist engineers from Hall and Hall have taken over the two years to painstakingly recreate the entire vehicle. Over 36,000 individual components have been engineered with authenticity to recreate the original car. The engine alone has over 4,000 parts, many of which were manufactured by the Hall and Hall team.

“Hearing that V16 engine again after so many years, was an incredible moment, and a dream come true,” said John Owen. “It’s a tribute to the tremendous skill, persistence and attention to detail of the engineering team at Hall and Hall, and I really can’t wait to unveil the car at the Goodwood Revival.”

Rob Hall did the initial shakedown run, “The car is fundamentally superb,” he said. “Of course, it still needs a few tweaks and adjustments, but this is to be expected in such a complex package. We took the engine up to 9,000rpm but got a ticking off from the circuit because I think we exceeded their 95dB noise limit!”

The V16 engine in a BRM has a unique wail and produced over 600 horsepower thanks to its ability to spin at an incredible 12,000rpm. This is far beyond race cars of the period and many race and road cars today.

Team Principal, Sir Alfred Owen, was a leading industrialist and a founding member of the consortium charged with building a world-class race car and bringing championship glory to the nation.

The car was built by the finest engineering minds that Britain had and was designed to take on the might of the Italian and German teams. Being raced by the likes of Juan Manuel Fangio and Jose Froilan Gonzalez added to the attraction. The vision was fulfilled in 1962.

“With the first of the three new Mk1 V16 now complete, we will turn our attention to the two remaining chassis numbers,” he added. “With all the technical hurdles now safely overcome, we are supremely confident we can create a truly magnificent, brand new, historically authentic yet entirely raceable 1950s Formula 1 car”.

Let’s see some more of this and bring back this kind of racing.