User:Pyrope/Sandbox 5

Engine

Improvements made to the V16's design allowed the Mark II car (officially, the BRM P30) to win in limited-distance Formula Libre races in 1953, but by that time the Formula One regulations had been changed and so its 1.5-litre supercharged engine was no longer eligible for World Championship Grands Prix. That 2-litre formula lasted until the start of the 1954 Formula One season, when it was in turn replaced by regulations allowing naturally-aspirated engines of up to 2.5 litres, or 750 cc supercharged engines.

Rather than repeat the complexity of the 16-cylinder cars, consultant engine designer Stuart Tresilian began work on a far simpler straight-4 motor. This engine would have to last for a full 500km Grand Prix distance, something which the V16 had singularly failed to do. Tresilian chose an oversquare design, with bore and stroke dimensions of 102.87 mm (4.05 in) and 74.93 mm (2.95 in), respectively, giving a total engine capacity of 2,491 cc (152 cu in).^[2] The wide bore was chosen to allow for large valves, which were mounted at 90° to one another within a hemispherical combustion chamber head.

Chassis

Suspension

Anciallary components

Sources

• Collet, R. 1956. Prototype Parade No. 78: BRM. Model Maker, 6 (December 1956), 635-637
• Jenkinson, D.S. 1957. The 43rd Grand Prix de l'A.C.F.. Motor Sport, XXXIII/8 (August 1957), 460-462
• Jenkinson, D.S. 1958a. XVI Grand Prix de Monaco: Notes on the cars at Monte Carlo. Motor Sport, XXXIV/6 (June 1958), 342-343
• Jenkinson, D.S. 1958b. The 44th Grand Prix de l'ACF: Brief notes on the cars at Reims. Motor Sport, XXXIV/8 (August 1958), 553
• Laidlaw-Dickson, D.J. 1959. Prototype Parade No. 96: BRM 1958/9. Model Maker, 9 (September 1959), 405-407
• Muelas, F., Snellman, L. & Diepraam, M. 1999. Bonnier takes BRM by the horns. 8W, October 1999
• Proud, J.R. 1970. Prototype Parade No. 310: The Pale Green BRM. Model Cars, 7/6 (June 1970), 294-295
• "Car Model: BRM P25". ChicaneF1.com. Retrieved 2007-12-01. (World Championship statistics.)

Footnotes

Racing rebuilt Jaguars in Australia

At only 17 years of age Gardner borrowed an old MG TA from Bartlett and entered it for his first car race, at the local Marston Park airfield, which he won. A few years later, in 1953, Gardner bought Bartlett's race-winning Jaguar XK120 and after replacing the metal bodywork with fibreglass to reduce weight he used it to win many races over the following few years. Gardner's next car was another Jaguar: the ex-works C-Type XKC 037,^[1] that he bought as a write-off from the previous owner's insurance company. Jaguar supplied sufficient plans and drawings, and with his mechanical expertise Gardner was able to fully rebuild XKC 037. While he was reconstructing its chassis Gardner transferred the C-Type's engine and steering into the XK120, and on its completion the car was built up with a combination of C-Type and XK120 parts.^[2] Gardner's next step up the racing ladder was provided in 1957 when he bought another crashed Jaguar: D-Type XKD520. Between the three Jaguars Frank Gardner scored 25 wins from 26 starts in sports car classes, and took the New South Wales sportscar championship in both 1956 and 1957.

Move to the United Kingdom

In 1958 Frank Gardner decided to move to England to "see what it was all about over there".^[1] He sold the Jaguars and a five-year lease on the Whale Beach Service Station to fund his trip. On arrival he managed to find work as a mechanic in Aston Martin's racing department, working under Reg Parnell and John Wyer. Gardner remained with Aston for over a year, tending both the firm's sportscars – including the 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans-winning DBR1 – and the DBR4 Formula One cars. Although he was participating in racing at the very highest levels Gardner still maintained an ambition to drive himself, an ambition seriously compromised by lack of funds.^[1]

To get a toe back in the door, in 1961 Gardner took a job with Jim Russell's racing drivers' school at the Snetterton Circuit in Norfolk. Here Gardner was responsible for rebuilding cars that had been damaged by the school's pupils, and as many of them were Lotus 18 and 20 models he learned a significant amount about contemporary, cutting-edge, single-seat racing car design. Importantly for Gardner, once he had mended the cars Russell allowed him to race them, on the assumption that a car that had won a race was subsequently easier to sell.^[1] This season of Formula Junior racing was Gardner's first experience of racing both in Britain, and in a single-seater car. Nevertheless he took six victories, at tracks as diverse as Oulton Park, Silverstone, and the racing school's home circuit Snetterton.

Gardner's relationship with Jim Russell only lasted for one season, as at the end of 1961 Jack Brabham, an old acquaintance from the speedway tracks of Sydney, approached him to join the newly-formed Motor Racing Developments team. Once again Gardner's role was principally that of fabricator and mechanic, but in addition to this he was also the works Brabham Formula Junior driver. Although he failed to win a race Gardner's Brabham BT2 was commonly near the front of the field; he recorded three fastest laps, and took pole position at both Aintree and Silverstone.^[3] During the season Gardner experimented with small aerodynamic deflectors on either side of the BT2's nosecone, five years before Formula One teams started to run similar devices, but confrontations with scrutineers over their legality prompted Gardner to abandon them, rather than face "buggerising about with officialdom".^[1]

Sources

• Gardner, F., Bowden, D. & Kohrn, W. 2003. Genuine Trans Am guys speak up: Frank Gardner. www.ponysite.de. Retrieved on April 22 2008.
• Tayor, S. 2008. Lunch with... Frank Gardner. Motor Sport, 84/3, p. 84-92
• "Driver: Gardner, Frank". Autocourse Grand Prix Archive. Retrieved 2008-04-22.

Footnotes

Footnotes

Sources

• Taylor, S. 1969. Enter the March. Autosport, October 2, 1969. p 18-19