ColleCting BRM

BRM

A TRULY BRITISH AFFAIR

When I was young, BRM was at the forefront of Grand Prix racing, and had propelled Graham Hill to his first F1 driver’s world championship in 1962. It was also the springboard for a young Jackie Stewart to gain stardom as a future multi-world champion. The slot car producers were not slow in recognising the impact BRM was having in the world of motorsport, and a surprising number of models were produced at the time, not just in the UK and Europe, but also in the fast-growing US market. With the recent introduction of the fabulous P160 from Policar, we decided to look back at the slot cars made of this iconic British racing car manufacturer.

British Racing Motors, or BRM as it became known, as was founded in 1945 by Raymond Mays who had produced the ERA Racing and Hillclimb cars before the war. They started racing from 1951 and their V16 powered Type 15 was powerful and sounded unearthly, but apart from a couple of non-championship wins, it was not a successful project. BRM had to wait until the 1959 Dutch Grand Prix before they took their first world championship win. It was Jo Bonnier who drove the P25 to its first victory in Holland, with Stirling Moss coming a creditable 2nd in a privately entered P25 at that years British Grand Prix. The late 50’s was a time of change and BRM joined the rear-engine revolution, first with the P48, and then with the mega successful P57 of 1962. Graham Hill won four GPs in 1962 on his way to the world championship driving the P57, with a further 2 races in 1963. The P261 of 1964 raced until 1966, giving Hill and Stewart six GP wins between them. As the cars moved to the 3-litre formula of 1967, BRM’s H16 engine was

The P25 was the first slot car version of a BRM to be released. There was a red version made by Scalextric in 1961. C59 also came in green, blue and in France, in yellow.

Released a year later was this P25 from the US Model Railroad manufacturer Lionel. Like the Scalextric version it was also a RTR model in 1/32nd scale. It is pretty hard to find today.

While BRG was the more popular colour, VIP also released a 1/32nd scale RTR car in the UK finished in this pale blue.

Around the same time Supershells released a 1/32nd scale stacked piped BRM in kit form. They would also produce a 1964 P261 as well as this P57 from 1962. SRM also did a P57 in the smaller 1/40th scale.

both complicated and unreliable and success tapered off. Their next win was at the 1970 Belgian GP, with Pedro Rodriguez driving the V12 powered P153, with its successor the P160 taking two victories in 1971, with Siffert and Gethin behind the wheel and a single win for Beltoise in 1972. After a few more lacklustre seasons, BRM withdrew from GP racing in 1977, after 30 plus years as an independent British team.

Unsurprisingly, one of the first BRM slot cars was a model of the front engine P25 from Scalextric. First introduced in 1961 - C59 was available in green, blue or red in the UK, while in France it could be bought in all these colours plus yellow. Being an early plastic car, it came with the nylon pin guide, however it did make a return in 1966 as C89. This was a Race Tuned version with an uprated RX04 motor, the revised chassis now fitted with a swivel guide and wider tyres. It was then re-introduced as C98 in 1992 as part of the Power and the Glory series based on the BBC series on the history of motorsport. Sadly, the open RX04 type motor had long gone, and it was fitted with a small S-can motor with adapters. From around 1963 onwards, models of the rear-engined BRM started to appear from fledgling US companies, although Lionel had previously brought out a very similar looking RTR P25 to the Scalextric car in 1/32nd scale. Suddenly we had models, of the P57 in kit form and in the larger 1/24th scale from Eldon and Revell - while Lindberg and Strombecker bought out RTR BRM’s with stack exhaust pipes. There was also at least one kit of the P57 from Japan, as that country also started to make 1/24th kits, mainly for the US market. In the UK, the Stack-Pipe BRM was produced by VIP, while Supershells released a P57 kit with the option to have the raised engine cover, and then later they did the P261.

Meanwhile back in the US, Lindberg followed the trend with their version of the car in RTR 1/32nd scale.

With Strombecker also adding a similar P57 to their own RTR home set range.

However it was the 1/24th scale slot car kits that were really popular in the States, with Revell quick to bring out their version, this was how the kit looked built up.

As was the norm, the company also supplied the model as just a body kit. Unbuilt ones like this are very rare today.

Another US model railroad company who dabbled in the slot car craze of the 1960’s was Atlas. They brought out this version of a P57 in 1/24th scale.

The Atlas BRM featured a neat brass chassis bolted to a Pittman style motor.

Exploiting the craving for 1/24th scale slot car kits in the US, some products started to arrive fairly early on from Japan. This is a very rare un-built kit of the BRM P57 from Imai, which looks like it had an alloy chassis. Not sure the real car ever raced in white!

The P261 were next to be produced in 1/24th scale, mainly for the US market, this one being released by Eldon. The Eldon model featured an alloy chassis as shown here.

Even Cox produced a BRM. Again, it was a 1/24th scale model in kit form. Unbuilt and boxed like this they can fetch huge sums of money. Built and a bit tatty like this one, does bring models like the Cox version into the realms of affordability. Note the corrosion on the magnesium chassis.

Meanwhile back in the UK, Scalextric released the 1/32nd scale RTR model of the P57 as C72. They are known as being part of the Formula Junior series made in the Havant factory.

A slightly later version of the P57 from Scalextric featured different wheels, a smaller drivers head and a moulded in roll-over bar. It is seen here paired with an F1 Porsche 804, these being the first type of slot cars I ever owned.

Atlas and Cox in the US brought out their 1/24th scale kits of the P261 by the mid-60’s, while MRRC in the UK had their fabulous 1/32nd scale kit of this car as part of their Clubman Special series, which later became absorbed into the Airfix range. The Airfix version continued into the 1970’s and had front and rear wings added which of course the real car did not have. In Europe we did get some BRM’s from the like of Policar and Jouef, but these were very Toy-like - I don’t suppose many today would want to show them off unless you are the most serious of collector. In 1964, Scalextric released their first version of the car that had taken Graham Hill to his 1962 World Championship, the P57. It was this car, paired with a Porsche 804, that were my first ever Scalextric cars. They came in a set given to me as a Christmas present in 1967. These cars shared the same small open motor and combined gearbox of the earlier Formula Junior cars, and as such have always been classed as FJ cars, even though these, and later Lotus 25 and Cooper that also shared these motors, were F1 cars. First released was the C72, which had the larger drivers head, chromed slotted wheels and a separate metal hooped roll over bar. It came in a variety of colours and was produced in both the UK and France. In 1966 Scalextric changed the car slightly as C85, with newer square holed yellow wheels (although some came chromed), a moulded-in roll over bar and a smaller drivers head. None of these P57’s is particularly rare as 10’s of thousands were produced over the 5 years they were available. We then had a hiatus of BRM slot car models, although we did get a rather belated H16 version from Exin in Spain, which was briefly sold in the UK from 1971. I believe some were also produced in Mexico, all featured the open RX04 motor. There were many various types of wheels fitted to these H16’s, and a year later the models appeared as C37b, fitted with an un -prototypical rear wing. All these are rare today and command quite high prices - look out for copies of these cars released by Repotec in around 2002. Of note, SCX re-released this model as part of their Vintage Series in 2007 as reference 62550. While it featured a painted and printed finish, the Spanish company sold it as a P261. This was strange as the H16 was designated by BRM as the P83, and SCX further confused the issue by describing the P261 as the car that took Graham Hill to his 1962 World Championship, which it wasn’t - he won it in the P57, the P261 did not even appear until 1964, how odd.

Perhaps the ultimate 1/32nd scale UK BRM slot car in the period was the Clubman Special P261 from MRRC. The underside of the Clubman Special BRM. Simple alloy chassis links the motor to the Ackermann steering unit.

The last BRM’s to be produced in period, albeit 4 years after they first raced, was Scalextric’s take on the P160, which came to the market in 1975. It was produced in Green, Red and White and came with a sheet of Yardley BRM stickers - these really are only correct for the white version. During its production it went from having a Johnson 111, to a small-can motor with adapters. It could also be found with either the five-spoke generic wheels or the F1 four-spoke types, both moulded in black and with the five-spokes option of grey. One curious thing about this shell is the raised outline of the Marlboro livery that the model never actually carried. These can be bought for peanuts and although basic, are quite good fun to race. As part of the Cartrix Classic F1 series, the Spanish company released a couple of the P25’s about 15 years ago. The dark green car was the 1959 Dutch GP winner driven by Jo Bonnier, with the light green car driven by Moss at the 1959 British GP. These were followed by two more models in these colours. As usual for the brand, they came on a Perspex angled display base in a tin box with a duster - all are extremely collectable today. As you can see from this month’s cover, Policar have just released their P160 and very nice it is too!

While BRM were known mainly as a F1 team, they did make a couple of forays into sports car racing - between 1963-1965 they tried unsuccessfully to race a Gas-Turbine powered coupe at Le Mans partnered by Rover. The 1965 version of the Rover-BRM was not an unattractive car, but apart from a couple of resin kits, this car has been overlooked by the slot car producers. In 1970, BRM ventured into the world of Can-Am and entered a Castrol sponsored car, the P154 for just one season. This was available as a slot car from Spanish producer MG Vanquish around 15 years ago, this plus a black and a red version are highly collectable.

So, here we have BRM - a British motor sporting legend - through the years and out there to collect. n

“a British motor sporting legend - through the years and out there to collect...”

A later version of the MRRC/Airfix P261, which was now fitted with a clip in can motor but still retained the steering unit. This was a nice-looking representation of a 1960’s F1 car.

Exin in Spain brought out a version of the H16 (P83) which was available briefly in the UK. As was the practice back then, the Spanish Scalextric release C37 featured the open RX04 motor. These rare models fetch a good price today. Look out for copies released by Repotec post 2000.

The Exin P83 model was re-released in 2007, however they made a complete botch of the description. It wasn’t a P261, and Hill won the 1962 Championship in a P57! Still a nice model to look at.

Released in 1975 was the 1971 P160 by Scalextric. This was one of their F1 budget range models and they sold 1,000’s and 1000’s of them. Even mint boxed models can still be bought cheaply, almost 50 years on.

Earlier versions of the Scalextric P160 came fitted with the Johnson 111 motor (left) while later cars had a small can type, fitted with adapters.

First seen as C59 and C89 in the early and mid-1960’s, Scalextric re-leased their P25 in 1992 as part of the BBC Power and the Glory TV series. These cars differed from the 60’s versions as C98 had spoked wheels and not the original BRM style alloy type and had a small can motor.

Post 2000, Cartrix started to release classic 1950’s Grand Prix cars - which included a BRM P25. This was the 1959 Dutch GP winner, driven by Jo Bonnier. Most models came in a neat tin box, crystal angled base and a duster. These are highly prized by collectors today. Another Cartrix release was the car Stirling Moss drove to second at the 1959 British GP and is understandably very collectable. The company also released this livery as car 11 driven by Hans Hermann, and another in BRG which was the P25 of Harry Schell carrying number 8.

Where are you - my pretty? The 1965 Rover-BRM Gas Turbine driven at Le Mans by Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart has never been made as RTR Slot car - shame. If you want one, then look to the kit options from Pendleslot.

A publicity shot of the latest classic F1 from Policar - the 1971 Yardley-BRM P160. There will be a Marlboro version available early next year, that was never offered by Scalextric back in the 1970’s. In a complete diversion from their F1 efforts, BRM went Can-Am racing in 1970 with their P154. This was re-created by MG Vanquish as part of their Can-Am range over 15 years ago. These models are increasing in value all the time.