BRM Volume 4

Slow but sure - thank you

DCN

Now that this thread has been started, Doug, would you kindly keep us posted...

Please??

Please??

;)

You can certainly ask. It's 85 per cent done but the remaining 15 per cent is causing continuing difficulty inside my head...

DCN

  Any fresh news about the Volume 4  avancement ? 

 ...but I wld be happy with some rumours, only    Come on, Doug ! 

Edited by M Needforspeed, 22 October 2013 - 15:30.

Progress has been made.

Thank you for asking.

DCN

Huurah!

Progress has been made.

Thank you for asking.

DCN

That is brilliant news!!!  

Now steady on chaps - let's not exaggerate...  

DCN

It's the one I'm looking forward to most; after all, standard histories from the 50s and 60s always have a huge amount about BRM, but those covering the 70s never do...

Forza BRM

Volumes 1-3 were very special because of the contribution of Tony Rudd, credited as co-author, and the extensive use of the obsessively detailed BRM records. Was Tony able to add his contribution to the H16/V12 era and was the same archive available post-ORO?

Two questions - two answers - in sequence yes and yes.  However, the archive material preserved AFTER Tony's departure from BRM in mid-1969, and after Sir Alfred's 1969 stroke, is much diminished in contrast.  It is still way superior to any paper trail left by other contemporary teams, except perhaps Ferrari, but it is much diminished in quality....if not quantity...  Tim Parnell's race reports were minimal compared to Tony's, and Tony Southgate was A Racer, great bloke, fine engineer, but not - ahem - enthusiastically literate...

Ah - I see Roger writes "was the same archive available post-ORO" - which means post-1974 and the answer there is "fragmentarily only" - by the late 1970s into the 1980s Big Lou was known for the occasional raging bonfires in the garden at Trumpington - maintaining confidentiality...and/or covering his tracks. Give me a little credit.  I am exploring all of this, of course.

DCN

Edited by Doug Nye, 21 January 2014 - 15:58.

I realise that progress has been made but are there any hints about how far away Vol 4 actually is ..........

None.  DCN

Doug, what can you tell us about the Phil Hill book, Inside Track, is it still in the works?  By the way it is great to see you posting again at TNF, your absence was missed.

Two questions - two answers - in sequence yes and yes.  However, the archive material preserved AFTER Tony's departure from BRM in mid-1969, and after Sir Alfred's 1969 stroke, is much diminished in contrast.  It is still way superior to any paper trail left by other contemporary teams, except perhaps Ferrari, but it is much diminished in quality....if not quantity...  Tim Parnell's race reports were minimal compared to Tony's, and Tony Southgate was A Racer, great bloke, fine engineer, but not - ahem - enthusiastically literate...
 
Ah - I see Roger writes "was the same archive available post-ORO" - which means post-1974 and the answer there is "fragmentarily only" - by the late 1970s into the 1980s Big Lou was known for the occasional raging bonfires in the garden at Trumpington - maintaining confidentiality...and/or covering his tracks. Give me a little credit.  I am exploring all of this, of course.
 
DCN

Thanks for that. I can't help feeling that the real BRM ended with Tony Rudd's departure but it will be good to has the whole story.

From Doug Nye...

That diagram has me absolutely astonished.  

Pity the poor driver, surrounded by exhaust pipes.

Bump steer anyone?

I have the mechanical abilities of a two-year-old hurling Duplo bricks in lieu of building a wall, but even I am astonished by that.  Looks more like a dragster than an Indianapolis contender.  Mickey Thompson would have been proud.

Pity the poor driver, surrounded by exhaust pipes.

Perhaps Don Garlits was to drive it?

Edited by Ralf Pickel, 24 January 2014 - 14:22.

Don Garlits was a pioneer with rear engined fuel dragsters ! :-)

I only mentioned Garlits because he was the best known dragster driver to me. In any case I thought Tony Nancy pioneered  the mid engined dragster. But we are getting way off topic....

Edited by David Beard, 24 January 2014 - 14:46.

Hmmm. 

An engineer's solution - get the mid engine and 4WD transmission right  and fit that nuisance of a driver in somehow. 

Politics creeps in - Don't use asymmetrical wishbones to offset the car as that would be copying Lotus

I have the mechanical abilities of a two-year-old hurling Duplo bricks in lieu of building a wall, but even I am astonished by that.  Looks more like a dragster than an Indianapolis contender.  Mickey Thompson would have been proud.

Did Mickey ever built a front engined vehicle for the 500 ?

Hmmm. 

An engineer's solution - get the mid engine and 4WD transmission right  and fit that nuisance of a driver in somehow. 

Politics creeps in - Don't use asymmetrical wishbones to offset the car as that would be copying Lotus

Or they could have taken the Smokey Yunick sidewinder route?

Did Mickey ever built a front engined vehicle for the 500 ?

Did Mickey ever built a front engined vehicle for the 500 ?

After everyone criticized Thompson for building an unorthodox car for 1964, impliedly blaming him for the deaths of Sachs and MacDonald, he went the other extreme and went retro.