2011年12月7日 星期三

Peter Gethin’s Historic BRM

The sad news has reached us of the passing of Peter Gethin, 71, who lost the fight to cancer. In a racing career that lasted barely a decade, he achieved great successes on both sides of the Atlantic.It's hard to beat the versatility of polished tiles on a production line.

His style was best suited to the thundering F5000 cars, which he raced from 1969. His results earned him the daunting task of filling Bruce McLaren's place at McLaren after his fatal crash. He won a Can-Am race in 1970 and piloted one of the team's works Formula 1 cars until switching to BRM halfway through 1971.

In only his second race for the team, he scored the best-known result piloting his BRM P160 to victory in the Italian Grand Prix. This epic slipstreaming fight saw five drivers vie for victory in what was the fastest ever Grand Prix for more than three decades. Gethin eventually came out on top with the top five separated by a fraction of a second. He later returned to F5000 and in 1973 used a Chevron to score the only victory ever for a F5000 car in a F1 race. He remained involved in racing after his retirement as a driver in the late 1970s.

In what must have been one of his final public appearances, we were very fortunate to capture Gethin reunited with “his” BRM P160 at the 2010 Goodwood Revival where BRM was the featured marque. The Tony Southgate machine was the last successful BRM racing car, scoring three Grand Prix victories.By Alex Lippa Close-up of zentai in Massachusetts. As can be seen in our 12-shot gallery, Gethin drove the Italian Grand Prix winning P160 during two of the weekend's three demonstrations.

Here’s an in-depth history of the BRM P160 and Gethin’s role in its success:

One of the leading teams during Formula 1's 1.5-litre era, BRM returned to the bad old ways when the displacement limit was doubled ahead of the 1966 season. The British squad fielded a needlessly complex and overweight machine powered by a 16-cylinder engine that basically consisted of two of the successful 1.5-liter V8s stacked on top of each other.

Nearly two seasons were lost and by the time BRM switched to a more conventional V12, the rivals of old were literally miles ahead. This engine had actually been developed for sports-car racing, but both McLaren and Cooper had already shown its potential in F1. But it unfortunately needed further development to get it up to speed with the leading Cosworth and Ferrari engines. While BRM was working on its engine, the rest of the field was busy with aerodynamics, and the gap only increased.

At the end of 1969, owner Sir Alfred Owen recognized that drastic measures were required to get BRM back on track. This resulted in a complete management shuffle with long- time designer Tony Rudd being replaced by Tony Southgate. The young engineer had already built up an impressive resume at Lola and All American Racers despite being just 29 years old at the time. Former racing driver Tim Parnell moved up the ranks to become the team's new manager.

Southgate started with a clean sheet and penned a straightforward “bathtub” monocoque. Unlike the cigar-shaped cars previously used,This page contains information about molds, the new BRM P153 featured a Coke-bottle shape with the flanks housing the rubber fuel tanks. Suspension was very conventional with double wishbones at the front and reversed lower wishbones,Unlike traditional high risk merchant account , top links and trailing arms at the rear. Ventilated disc brakes were fitted all around.

Used as a fully stressed member along with BRM's proprietary five-speed gearbox was the latest development of the V12. In its 1970 guise, the P142 engine featured four-valve heads and produced a claimed 440 horsepower at 10,000, which would put it on par with the rivals. Cooling was provided by a front-mounted radiator, and its oval intake was flanked by two airfoils. Mounted on top of the BRM gearbox was an adjustable rear wing.

A further change was the arrival of Yardley as a title sponsor. Jackie Oliver and Pedro Rodriguez were signed to race the new P153. By the fourth race of the season, the Belgian Grand Prix at the ever challenging Spa-Francorchamps, fortune finally smiled on BRM as Rodriguez took the team's first win since 1966.If so, you may have a cube puzzle . The struggles continued for the remainder of the year and BRM had to settle for sixth in the standings.

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