BRM - Racing for Britain (Limited Edition)

Limited to 1500 copies, individually numbered.

Tells the story of patriotic racing driver Raymond Mays’ ambitious plan during the late 1940s to harness the power of the British automotive industry and create a new Formula 1 car with which to break the domination of teams from continental Europe. Having founded ERA before the Second World War, Mays introduced for this latest project another set of initials that would pass into motor racing folklore: BRM – British Racing Motors. 

After a troubled start with the spectacular V16, BRM’s fortunes started to turn around, and in 1959 Jo Bonnier scored its first World Championship Grand Prix victory at Zandvoort. The team’s crowning glory came in 1962, when Graham Hill became the first British driver to win the World Championship in a British car. That famous success helped to lay the foundations for the UK’s multi-billion-pound motorsport industry.

Written by respected author Ian Wagstaff and renowned BRM authority Doug Nye, admirably supported by editors Gavin Green and James Page, this new book from Porter Press International has been produced with the Owen family, which supported BRM from day one. It tells the full story of the team, from the difficult early days with the V16 to the glory years of the 1960s and its V12 finale in the 1970s. 

• In-depth history of BRM’s Formula 1 team, including its 17 Grand Prix victories and drivers such as Stirling Moss, Juan Manuel Fangio, Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart.
• Full story of BRM’s World Championship-winning year in 1962, when Graham Hill pipped Jim Clark to the title.
• A chapter devoted to BRM’s sports cars, including the famous Rover-BRM gas turbine racer and the Can-Am machinery.
• More than 430 images, including a wealth of previously unseen material from the official BRM archive, plus archive photographs from the world’s leading image libraries.
• Forewords by Sir Jackie Stewart, Damon Hill and the Owen family.

Editors: James Page and Gavin Green

Gavin Green is one of Britain’s best-known motoring journalists. A former editor of Car magazine, he has also written for The Independent, The International Herald Tribune, The Sunday Times, Motor Trend magazine in America and British Airways High Life and Business Life.

The son of a well-known rally driver and motorsport TV commentator, he was once voted Australia’s most promising young racing driver by the Australian Racing Drivers’ Club.

Prints

V16s Times Four

Simon Owen's camera captures a unique occasion, with no less than four V16 BRMs lined up on the grid, celebrating the BRM marque in 2021 at the wonderfully atmospheric Goodwood circuit with its delightfully period feel.

Master and Pupil

By the time the prodigiously-talented young Scot, Jackie Stewart, joined BRM in 1965, Graham Hill was something of a veteran having entered Formula One with Team Lotus and moved to BRM in 1960. The two became firm friends and made a fantastic duo.

A Blaze of Glory

The V16 BRM was both an exciting new Grand Prix car and intended to be a symbol of British engineering excellence, illustrated by this early advert from the BRM archives.

Circular Support

From the start, British industry was right behind Raymond Mays and his BRM dream of triumphing over the foreign domination in Grand Prix racing, and many well-known automotive brands proudly advertised their association with the fledgling effort from Bourne.

Stacks of Success

Old Faithful, with its distinctive 'stack' of vertical exhaust pipes, famously ended BRM's famine and took team leader Graham Hill to his first World Championship, in 1962.