The BritishV8 Pub

Can't have too many pictures!




Pretty mean looking car, eh? I think I read that only two of these cars were produced, that one of them was torn down and rebuilt into the 1971 car ("BRM P167"), and then while being shipped to a race that car was lost. The ship sank! Maybe Calvin will fill give us more trivia about BRM in CanAm.

I remember watching the UOP (think it was called) teams racing against each other at Laguna Seca (In Montery CA). It was the Indy 5000 cars (2 each) and the CanAm cars (2 each) racing each other. The Indy cars would scream at high RPMs through 6 gears out of turn 9 (which was a 40mph hairpin) before going up hill to start finish line. Then you would hear the "beasty" raw horse power of the CanAm cars which would just hit 2nd gear at start finish ( by the way an Indy 5000 car won the race for it out handled the CanAm around the track).

I was lucky enough to see 1175 lbs Porshe 917 (Had fans under the car that would suck it to the ground) that put out 1265 some horse power, race in its class and rip the compitition apart, before they banned it from racing. It was awesome to stand at the fence (which was maybe 35 feet away from the track at the time) at turn 9 (Hairpin) looking up the track to start finish, watching them come down from turn 8 to turn 9, slow to 40 mph to make the turn, then accelerate out of turn 9. As soon as their car was straight around the corner, they would lay 15" double wide rubber marks on the asphalt for about 300 yards, you would literally see the back end of the car shrink before your eyes and be gone out of sight blowing passed everyone. "IT WAS A RUSH" just to see this. Sorry not British but was lucky to see alot of CanAm racing.



P154 info below


Specific history of this car:
BRM, also known as the British Ferraris, entered the Can-Am series in 1970 with the BRM P154, of which only two cars were built. There were several failures during the 1970 season and unfortunately BRM's Chevy engines were not very reliable. George Eaton was hired as the main driver and Pedro Rodriguez joined for the last three races and a steady improvement resulted in a podium finish at Riverside for the talented mexican. Unfortunately until today it is not proved who drove which specific chassis at which race:


Tony Southgate, one of the main engineers behind the project, confirmes the following in writing about this specific car in 1987: “On returning to England after Riverside, we decided to revise the P154, to improve the aerodynamics and the suspension. A wind tunnel test later in 1970 produced the shovel nose and revised rear tail section plus wing. The work was started almost immediately. It was planned to convert the existing chassis and also built a new car to be raced in 1971 in the Interseries and the Can-Am series.”

With the arrival of the new car, BRM P167, which was driven to success by Redman, Rodriguez and others, BRM lost interest in the P154. A few years later, in the meantime the sistercar was lost to the ocean due to a tragic boat accident, Hepworth racing purchased for a client the entire P154 program. They kept the car until the late 1980s, before it was sold to Michael Wheatley. We believe that Wheatley only had the car a short while and sparingly used his BRM. P154 was then sold to a Mr Ulf Boman, Sweden, who kept the car in his private collection. The last owner, a well known historic racer, tracked down the car in Sweden in 1992 and purchased the car in order to race it in Germany. The car was restored entirely with great attention to authenticity and details. Within the last 16 years the BRM P154 has been driven to many wins in the Orwell Supersport Series and is now certainly one of the fastest existing Can-Am cars on the planet.
P154 is now presented in perfect, race-ready condition throughout. The car has an extremely high overall finish and will be sold with a Hewland gearbox and a correct and fresh 8.8-litre V8 big block engine, producing around 860bhp and 1.250nm of torque! It accompanies a very interesting history files which includes period press photos, letters from T. Southgate and D. Hepworth as well as old racing reports. If required, a very large spare package could be purchased with the car.

This is a very rare opportunity to purchase the only existing BRM P154 Can-Am car in the World. This unique car would be great for both race and show purpose and could be a center piece in any serious race car collection.


Curtis...... Graham Creswick gets the seat now right?

In 1973 Porsche raced the 917/30 developing more than 1100 bhp as a spearhead in turbocharger technology in the US CanAM Series, this ultra-powerful racing car literally destroying its opponents on the track. The result was a modification of regulations in the CanAM Series sending the almighty 917/30 straight to the museum.




It would sprint from 0-100km/h in just 1.9 seconds, and set the 0-160km/h split in 3.9 seconds. Oh yes, top speed was in excess of 400km/h. No question, this baby was quick. Quicker than a Bugatti Veyron. It was so dominant in CanAm racing, in fact, that at the end of the 1973/4 race season, the rules were changed to exclude the 917/30 from participating.What’s even more staggering, is the 5.4-litre turbocharged motor was only air-cooled.







Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/2009 10:05PM by 74ls1tr6.

Awesome - I learned a lot from this one.

Graham's turn!

Back to the world of MG.......
In 1980 when British Leyland was deciding the fate of the MG marque and the Abingdon plant, a political battle ensued that included a heated debate in the House of Commons. A consortium led by another famous British marque proposed to buy Abingdon and the rights to build MG and offered an updated face lift as seen in the photo.

What manufacturer was this?

Aston Martin.

Right you are Bill! - imagine the possibilities of an Aston inspired MG.......

Ok, here's one. What was the first year that the British auto market saw a V8 powered car introduced, and by what maker?

The first British V8 was the 3.5 L Rolls-Royce V-8 (1905) followed shortly by Darracq.

Darn Rick you're older than I thought, I was thinking of something a bit more recent, but you're correct I guess. My mistake.

Well then, Bill....I would say we need to continue on with your query....but perhaps a hint in regards to decade(?) from you would be in order?

:)

The 50's.

Purely a guess......Allard.

Oh my, I'd forgotten about the Allards, always considered them more race cars than production models, but they were road legal. I was thinking of 1959 when both Rolls Royce and Daimler introduced new design V8s the same year. Daimler had two different engines the small 2.5 and a larger 4.5 litre version. You're up Rick.

I was pretty surprised to hear about the 1905 Rolls engine. I'd love to see a photo of that!

I had to look up Darracq - never heard of them - it turns out they were a French company.

Graham said earlier: "imagine the possibilities of an Aston inspired MG..." Well, I remember very clearly the first Aston Martins I saw at a car show - and of course those James Bond cars! That was before I built my V8, and I've always considered my car "Aston-inspired". Evidently, I wasn't the first to make the MGB GT V8 / DB4-GT connection. The term "poor man's Aston Martin" appears in this 1973 article: [www.britishv8.org] (paragraph 7)

Calvin's DB4 GT Zegato photo is so perfect. So inspirational! Here it is again.

Wikipedia has a bit of info
[en.wikipedia.org])
Interesting that the engine displacement was 215 cu.in. (3.5 litre)

Sorry, but the URL needs a RH bracket after 1905...otherwise it doesn't seem to open correctly to the V8 page...not my fault, honest!



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 01/27/2009 06:58PM by ex-tyke.

Years in production : 1905 - 1906
No. made : 3

Engine : 8 cylinder 90 degree V configuration

Bore & stroke : 3 1/4" x 3 1/4"

c.c. : 3,535

Transmission : Cone type lutch, 3 speeds and reverse

Chassis : Pressed steel, semi-elliptic springs front

Dimensions : Wheelbase 106 "


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Performance At low governor setting 1st gear 8 mph (12.9km/h), 2nd gear 13.5 mph (22.5 km/h), 3rd gear 21.5 mph (34.6 km/h); at high governor setting a top speed of 26 mph (41.8 km/h) could be achieved thus exceeding the legal speed limit.

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The Rolls-Royce Legalimit with its 8 cylinder engine, the cylinders being in a vee, was to be as silent as an electrically powered town car.The crucial feature was a gearbox layout restricting the top speed to the legal limit of 20 mph. This task added to the work of the already overworked Royce who was suffering from declining health due to having been burdened with far too much work over the recent years.
Because ever-higher power and speed was already being expected from motor cars, expectations for the project were not promising. Although some really brilliant technical solutions graced the V8 engine, only three Rolls-Royce Legalimits were produced and the model is the only one amongst all the Rolls-Royce types of which none has survived.


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We're waiting for Rick to ask the next question, right?

I'll get there.....patience is a virtue. :) I had to deal with some snow removal first thing today. :(

OK....here's an easy one....Carl Floyd is disqualified on this question. :)

Ken Costello had a "part" in what '60s movie?

Could it be the movie where he was towed around an oval track at high speed in a fake car for the movie of.......?

"Someone should jump right in here and answer this because your just dying to ask the next trivia question"