BRM P57
racing automobile
The BRM P57 (originally referred in 1961 as the BRM P48/57 and in 1962 as the BRM P578) was a Formula One racing car raced in Formula One from 1962 to 1965.
Development
1961
Like the other British teams, BRM was caught off-guard by new regulations for the 1961 Formula 1 season that limited engines to 1.5 litres. They had a new 1.5 litre V8 engine on the drawing board, but it was not likely to be ready until late in the season. (In the event, it did not race until the next year). The Coventry Climax 4-cylinder unit used by Cooper and Team Lotus was chosen as a stopgap solution. It was installed in the first BRM spaceframe chassis, based on the 1960 BRM P48 Mark II designed by Tony Rudd. The P48 Mark II had abandoned the single rear disc brake introduced by the P25 in favor of a more conventional 2 disc layout at the rear.
At 450 kg, the new BRM P57 was heavier than its British rivals, and the Climax engine was no match for the V6 in the Ferrari 156. The later V8-powered version of the P57 was originally designated the P578, but both types have since been commonly referred to as the P57.
1962
The P578's design can be traced back to the Climax-powered P57 (also called P48/P57) that was raced in 1961.
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This entry incorporates text from “BRM P57” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.