BRM Day - Lincolnshire - F1 cars on small town streets!
Discussion
Yo,
On Sunday, in my town Bourne, there was an event held to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Graham Hill winning the 1962 World Championship.
Graham was driving for a chap called Raymond Mays, who came from Bourne - found somewhere on the edge of the fens, between Peterborough and Lincoln. Mays was an active driver in many prewar racing series and also co-founded ERA in the 30s period, which later became BRM, the team which Graham won with.
Although the cars were largely designed and engineered in a few sheds in this small town, BRM attracted many star drivers, including Lauda, Gurney, Stewart, Regazzoni, Surtees. I can't quite comprehend them popping in to check up on their cars all those years back!
BRM can be compared to the likes of Cooper, Tyrrell, Brabham, Rob Walker - in that they were all small operations fighting for huge success. Even Team Lotus is comparable, although their achievements admittedly are more grand, obviously manufacturing their own road cars.
Eventually the privateer era died out, BRM itself folded in 1977 - and of course, Graham Hill tragically died in 1975. Raymond Mays and his associates continued to work in engineering, and until a few years back there was a Ford dealership bearing his name in the town.
Today, while Mays' garage is now a housing estate, former BRM engineer Mike Pilbeam constructs very successful hillclimb cars in the town. Opposite the Pilbeam workshop, Hall&Hall operate with many ex BRM staff, preparing and storing classic racing cars.
There is a good chance, that if you have ever seen a classic racing series, a number of the cars will have been prepared by the chaps there.
Anyway, that's the backstory. In 1999 there was a similar event, which I don't know much about although I lived here at the time (i was like 9).
I'll let the pictures do the talking - from my post in the supercars thread it appears some other PH'ers were about so post 'em up if you got em.
Among many key figures from F1 in days past, in attendance was the majority of the Hill family, Sir Jackie Stewart, Jackie Oliver and Howden Ganley.
Looking back, while the event was publicised locally, outside of the area the spread will have been word of mouth from enthusiasts. This was probably sensible, as it was very busy and would have been incredibly unsafe if any more people had been about. But major props to the organisers - in this day and age some would balk at the idea of some blue string separating kids from 500bhp racing cars - but they took a risk with it, and it paid off. It wouldn't have been as good otherwise.
A very special day, top mention has to be Sir Jackie - the 73 year old gave it PROPER beans. He doesn't mess about.
Sorry for the occasional ear in the pics, was very packed.
P1100633 by PwrC, on Flickr
P1100637 by PwrC, on Flickr
P1100638 by PwrC, on Flickr
P1100640 by PwrC, on Flickr
(jackie oliver)
P1100650 by PwrC, on Flickr
P1100664 by PwrC, on Flickr
P1100673 by PwrC, on Flickr
P1100674 by PwrC, on Flickr
P1100675 by PwrC, on Flickr
P1100680 by PwrC, on Flickr
P1100682 by PwrC, on Flickr
P1100684 by PwrC, on Flickr
Damon in his dad's championship winning BRM. I'd be smiling too!
P1100688 by PwrC, on Flickr
JYS was slowing in this picture, why? to SLAM DOWN SOME RUBBER. Legend.
P1100701 by PwrC, on Flickr
P1100705 by PwrC, on Flickr
P1100708 by PwrC, on Flickr
P1100759 by PwrC, on Flickr
P1100765 by PwrC, on Flickr
P1100768 by PwrC, on Flickr
P1100793 by PwrC, on Flickr
P1100795 by PwrC, on Flickr
A very special car, considering the name on the side. Not sure what year.
As above, a load of other 60's F1 cars lined up for a dummy grid and did the rounds. After that I left due to my hangover, which is a pain because I hear jackie later got into one of his Tyrrells and THRASHED it.
Might be a video at some point, some lovely sounds.
cheers!
On Sunday, in my town Bourne, there was an event held to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Graham Hill winning the 1962 World Championship.
Graham was driving for a chap called Raymond Mays, who came from Bourne - found somewhere on the edge of the fens, between Peterborough and Lincoln. Mays was an active driver in many prewar racing series and also co-founded ERA in the 30s period, which later became BRM, the team which Graham won with.
Although the cars were largely designed and engineered in a few sheds in this small town, BRM attracted many star drivers, including Lauda, Gurney, Stewart, Regazzoni, Surtees. I can't quite comprehend them popping in to check up on their cars all those years back!
BRM can be compared to the likes of Cooper, Tyrrell, Brabham, Rob Walker - in that they were all small operations fighting for huge success. Even Team Lotus is comparable, although their achievements admittedly are more grand, obviously manufacturing their own road cars.
Eventually the privateer era died out, BRM itself folded in 1977 - and of course, Graham Hill tragically died in 1975. Raymond Mays and his associates continued to work in engineering, and until a few years back there was a Ford dealership bearing his name in the town.
Today, while Mays' garage is now a housing estate, former BRM engineer Mike Pilbeam constructs very successful hillclimb cars in the town. Opposite the Pilbeam workshop, Hall&Hall operate with many ex BRM staff, preparing and storing classic racing cars.
There is a good chance, that if you have ever seen a classic racing series, a number of the cars will have been prepared by the chaps there.
Anyway, that's the backstory. In 1999 there was a similar event, which I don't know much about although I lived here at the time (i was like 9).
I'll let the pictures do the talking - from my post in the supercars thread it appears some other PH'ers were about so post 'em up if you got em.
Among many key figures from F1 in days past, in attendance was the majority of the Hill family, Sir Jackie Stewart, Jackie Oliver and Howden Ganley.
Looking back, while the event was publicised locally, outside of the area the spread will have been word of mouth from enthusiasts. This was probably sensible, as it was very busy and would have been incredibly unsafe if any more people had been about. But major props to the organisers - in this day and age some would balk at the idea of some blue string separating kids from 500bhp racing cars - but they took a risk with it, and it paid off. It wouldn't have been as good otherwise.
A very special day, top mention has to be Sir Jackie - the 73 year old gave it PROPER beans. He doesn't mess about.
Sorry for the occasional ear in the pics, was very packed.
P1100633 by PwrC, on Flickr
P1100637 by PwrC, on Flickr
P1100638 by PwrC, on Flickr
P1100640 by PwrC, on Flickr
(jackie oliver)
P1100650 by PwrC, on Flickr
P1100664 by PwrC, on Flickr
P1100673 by PwrC, on Flickr
P1100674 by PwrC, on Flickr
P1100675 by PwrC, on Flickr
P1100680 by PwrC, on Flickr
P1100682 by PwrC, on Flickr
P1100684 by PwrC, on Flickr
Damon in his dad's championship winning BRM. I'd be smiling too!
P1100688 by PwrC, on Flickr
JYS was slowing in this picture, why? to SLAM DOWN SOME RUBBER. Legend.
P1100701 by PwrC, on Flickr
P1100705 by PwrC, on Flickr
P1100708 by PwrC, on Flickr
P1100759 by PwrC, on Flickr
P1100765 by PwrC, on Flickr
P1100768 by PwrC, on Flickr
P1100793 by PwrC, on Flickr
P1100795 by PwrC, on Flickr
A very special car, considering the name on the side. Not sure what year.
As above, a load of other 60's F1 cars lined up for a dummy grid and did the rounds. After that I left due to my hangover, which is a pain because I hear jackie later got into one of his Tyrrells and THRASHED it.
Might be a video at some point, some lovely sounds.
cheers!
SystemParanoia said:
this wasnt advertised nationally... 
I understand where you're coming from but I'm afraid that if it was, someone would have been hurt or worse. It was difficult enough with the numbers that did attend - in fact there were a few close calls due to stupid people simply having no perception of the risks of racing cars.SystemParanoia said:
Birmingham never has anything like this.. how can i hunt these events down with some level of success?
Actually you' are quite wrong. The Birmingham Super Prix races morphed from the On The Streets festival that we used to run around the centre of Brum.As Birmingahm doesn't have any racing heritage why would they hold an event such as the BRM day?
SystemParanoia said:
i was a toddler when the super prix stopped...
so never experienced it
im not saying b'ham must do this or else etc etc.
i just want to know how to hunt down fantastic events like this with some level of success without any prior knowledge.
You missed some good demo's & some good racing - much of it can be seen on YouTube.so never experienced it
im not saying b'ham must do this or else etc etc.
i just want to know how to hunt down fantastic events like this with some level of success without any prior knowledge.
Apologies if my response seemed a bit harsh. Had a s
t night as a family feud with a neighbour, nothing of my making I should add, is making things between me & swmbo strained to say the least hence I was a bit tetchy in my reply.Looks like I will be single again before the end of the week..........
I was there in 1999 and I was there yesterday, the best free shows I will probably ever experience. To stand on the pavement whilst Jackie Stewart and Damon Hill howled past in the Grand Prix cars of my childhood was something I will never forget. However how the organisers got this event past the Health and Safety Executive I can't guess - perhaps they forgot to tell them! In my view there was less danger than a normal busy urban road especially as there were over 300 marshals in attendance. The organisers deserve a lot of credit for pulling this off again, as well as showing that you can have a proper event without having it strangled by H&S restrictions.
ruaricoles said:
I bet the V16 sounded amazing echoing in the street if the driver was able to give it a few revs
it was the first car to go up the street, properly woke everyone up. He wasn't really giving it much either but it was still utterly stupendous. I'll get the vid up tomorrow, but the clip doesn't really do it justice.Some Gump said:
Wtf? Why no advertising? I'd lose a finger to hear the v16 live. For 2 of them, you could have the whle bloody arm! Terribly wasted opportunity.
Once again I will say that the organisers made the right choice - and it was clearly a conscious decision to keep it relatively quiet. As it stood the town was at bursting point - and if anyone doubts me you're welcome to have a poke on streetview to see how small the center is. Matt.. said:
Was that a Scirocco seconbd one through right at the start?Minor brown trouser moment as the Yardly-BRM get's a little frisky under power - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QD1xSX5OcLw&fea...
you can see why they were worried about crowd numbers and only a blue rope in places to keep them back.
you can see why they were worried about crowd numbers and only a blue rope in places to keep them back.
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