54 replies to this topic

[pete3664]

I just finished, after about a year, Volume 3 of the BRM story by Doug Nye, a regular poster, and am eagerly awaiting Volume 4. I realize it may be a year or two away, but wonder how it's coming along.

[Doug Nye]

Slow but sure - thank you

DCN

[proviz]

Slow but sure - thank you

DCN

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

[larryd]

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

Please??

[Doug Nye]

Please??

;)

Sure. How frequently would you like...???

DCN

[David McKinney]

Every 12 months will be fine, thanks

[Doug Nye]

Good enough for me!

DCN

[DN5]

I am jumping the gun slightly but any update available?

Geoff

[Gary C]

That's WAY too early to ask, Geoff!!

[VWV]

If it's to early to ask about BRM Vol4, can we at least ask about the Phil Hill book that supposed to be out this year?

[Doug Nye]

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

DCN

[David Lawson]

I only bought the first three volumes last month so there's no rush for the fourth.

David

[cdrewett]

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

DCN

That's a bit like what kit-plane builders say when asked how near they are to completion, " it's 85% done, only 85% to go"
Chris

[Barry Boor]

All three volumes in one hit, David. A lottery win, clearly!

[David Lawson]

Barry

All three volumes were sitting on the counter in the bookshop at Brands Hatch and I couldn't resist.

David

[M Needforspeed]

  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.

[smbrm]

Yes, something encouraging rumour wise would be wonderful! Facts would be even better!! I have been looking forward to volume 4 since 1994! Volume 4 would be great culmination to the saga after 20 years in the making.

Cheers

[Doug Nye]

Progress has been made.

Thank you for asking.

DCN

[Paul Parker]

Progress has been made.

Thank you for asking.

DCN

 

Huurah!

[AAA-Eagle]

Progress has been made.

Thank you for asking.

DCN

That is brilliant news!!!  

[arttidesco]

[Doug Nye]

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

 

DCN

[ensign14]

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...

[Slurp1955]

Testing.......

[BRM MICK2]

Forza BRM

[Roger Clark]

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?

[Doug Nye]

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.

[DN5]

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

[Doug Nye]

None.  DCN

[VWV]

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.

[Roger Clark]

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.

[Doug Nye]

Yes it is, very, very much so. Thank you for asking. These things just take time, as does so much as we grow older.

DCN

[Doug Nye]

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.

Not really fair comment, but I do appreciate the sentiment. BRM shone again with Tony Southgate's cars and I would certainly celebrate those successes - even though the cars were no longer BRM-coloured...

DCN

[dolomite]

Tony Southgate's autobiography provides some interesting insight into the 1969-72 period at BRM although it is disappointingly short on actual detailed technical info.

[Catalina Park]

From Doug Nye...

[Catalina Park]

That diagram has me absolutely astonished.  

[Tim Murray]

Pity the poor driver, surrounded by exhaust pipes.

[GreenMachine]

Bump steer anyone?

[ensign14]

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.

[Tim Murray]

Alfa Romeo were seriously considering a similar concept in the early '50s.

[David Beard]

Pity the poor driver, surrounded by exhaust pipes.

Perhaps Don Garlits was to drive it?

[Ralf Pickel]

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

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

[bradbury west]

Ralph, hope you are well. ISTR recall Don Garlits' dragster as front engined when he was at Elvington? back in 1964 when he was part of the US tour of dragster racers invited by Sidney Allard, performing at various venues across the UK . I was very impressed by the funny car of Bobby Sox too. Unless the memory has gone agin, another CRAFT moment
Roger Lund

[David Beard]

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.

[Ralf Pickel]

I am fine - thank you.
Had Garlits stored somwhere back in my mind with pushing rear engined dragsters foward, so to speak.
Sorry for hijacking the topic - maybe that should be discussed in a new topic !

[D-Type]

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

[arttidesco]

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 ?

[David Beard]

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?

[Collombin]

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

In 1965 I think, probably out of sheer bloody mindedness.

[ensign14]

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.