Hill landing after one of the Nurburgring’s jumps, he won the race on the way to his first World Championship…
It’s a wonderful bit of composition on Jesse Alexander’s part! In fact cameras were a big topic of conversation and consternation on this weekend as Hill had an off avoiding a TV camera which fell off Carel de Beaufort’s Porsche in practice.
BRM P578…
Graham Hill’s 1962 championship winning mount was a BRM V8 engined variant of the P57 spaceframe chassis, 1.5-litre Coventry Climax FPF engined car used in 1961.
Hill fought a season long battle with Jim Clark in Colin Chapman’s revolutionary monocoque Lotus 25 Climax. The P578 was both reliable and fast, winning four Grands Prix to Jimmy’s three in the Lotus 25 Climax and prevailed in 1962.
Hill was famously the only driver to win motor racing’s Triple Crown: an F1 World Championship, Indy 500 and Le Mans, such achievements made in 1962/68, 1966 and 1972 respectively.
BRM P578 drawings showing the spaceframe chassis, wishbone front and rear suspension with coil spring/damper units. P56 1.5-litre V8 good for circa 190bhp @ 10250rpm. BRM gearbox used five, and sometimes six ratios. The body was made of Electron, and the ‘stack exhausts’ show here were replaced by a conventional setup later in 1962.
BRM Type 56 V8…
BRM’s finest was a 90-degree V8, it had a bore and stroke of 68.5mm x 50.8mm for a capacity of 1498cc. Lucas port fuel injection was fitted, the compression ratio was 11.5:1, the engine developed 190bhp @ 10250rpm. Customer versions were also sold, these used Weber carburettors and developed at least 180bhp @ 9750rpm.
Doug Nye records in ‘The History of The Grand Prix Car 1945-65’ that five BRM P578s were built: chassis 5781 in 1961, and 5782, 5783, 5784 and 5785 in 1962.
5781, 5784 and 5785 raced on into 1965 becoming much raced warriors, in the hands of Centro Sud by which time the subsequent V8 engined BRM – the P261 – had established itself as one of the greatest cars of the 1.5-litre era despite not winning the championships it deserved.
Graham Hill on the grid alongside Jim Clark at East London, South Africa in December 1962, the championship deciding race between the two drivers and BRM P578 ‘5785’ and Lotus 25 Climax.
Photo Credits…
Jesse Alexander, Pinterest, The Cahier Archive, Automobile Year #10, MotorSport Images, LAT
Tailpiece…
This superb shot winds the BRM P578 clock forward to September 1963. It’s Graham Hill aboard ‘5785’ – the last P578 built – during the Oulton Park Gold Cup, he was second behind Jim Clark’s Lotus 25 Climax.
Finito…
primotipo... 