Development
The engine was designed by a team consisting of Peter Berthon, Harry Mundy (who had designed engines for Jaguar), Eric Richter, and Frank May. It was conceived as basically two 750cc V8 engines back-to-back with cam drives and gears in the centre of the engine. Components were manufactured by various British companies, including English Steel – the crankshaft, Standard Motors – machining of the main engine components, sump, etc., and David Brown – the gears. Eventually there were around 350 companies that provided support to the project, including Rolls-Royce (RR) who designed and manufactured the two-stage centrifugal supercharger. Testing of the supercharger by Rolls-Royce involved the test specimen being mounted on the front of a Merlin supercharger. (RR personnel stated that that was just the kind of after-hours activity they enjoyed). Rolls-Royce also developed the flame traps for the inlet manifold, used to prevent a backfire causing an explosion in the highly compressed fuel/air mixture in the manifold. The flame trap was a feature not previously used on car engines, due to the relatively low amounts of supercharging then in use, but it was by then a necessity on high-powered piston aero engines such as the Merlin and Griffon. Twin-pot carburettors were designed for the engine by SU.
The chassis of the BRM Type 15 car designed for the engine was made by Rubery Owen. The gearbox was designed by Mundy based on the one from the German pre-war 1939 1.5 litre V8 Mercedes-Benz W165 car, part of BRM's ethos being to benefit from German technology that had so recently been used against Britain during World War II. Cameron Earl had visited Germany to retrieve any relevant documents. Rear suspension of the new BRM was also derived from Mercedes-Benz, and trailing arm front suspension from the Auto Unions. Girling provided special three-leading-shoe drum brakes for the car and the springing and shock absorbers were Lockheed air-struts incorporating silicon oil/air pocket adjustable springing/damping on all four wheels. The body panels and styling of the car were designed by Walter Belgrove of Standard Motors. Design of the car and all engineering drawings had been completed by the Spring of 1947.
In many cases parts were produced in the form of donations to the BRM team by the respective companies, which had the advantage of reducing BRM's spending. However, many parts were produced on a 'when time is available' basis by the suppliers and so were late in arriving, and because of the 'gifted' nature of the parts, BRM were unable to expedite delivery. Because of this, the engine itself was late, many completed components not arriving at BRM for assembly until as late as April 1948 to May 1949, reducing time available for testing before the start of the first season's racing.
The completed car/engine was first run on the aerodrome at RAF Folkingham in December 1949, driven by an unwell Raymond Mays, who was suffering from a high fever at the time. The use of Folkingham was the British Government's sole contribution to the project.
Read more about this topic: British Racing Motors V16
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