BRM P25
The BRM P25 was a Formula One racing car raced from 1955 to 1960 and the second car produced by the British Racing Motors consortium. After the failure of the complex BRM V16, the P25's design emphasized simplicity; the car was fitted with a 2.5-litre straight-4 engine. The P25 would be the foundation of BRM's successes in early 1960s. With BRM in financial trouble after the V16 experiment, Alfred Owen purchased the team and set work on a new car. While the car was being developed, BRM ran a privateer Maserati 250F through the 1954 and 1955 seasons. Stewart Tresilian and Tony Rudd designed an new twin-cam 2.5-litre four-cylinder for the P25. The engine's large bore allowed for larger valves to be fitted. In an exception to keeping with BRM's all-British supply policy, two Weber carburetors were fitted; the engine was mounted to a simple ladder frame steel chassis. The P25 used Lockheed disc brakes at the front wheels, which would be replaced by Dunlop discs. Uniquely, a single brake disc was fitted to the gearbox at the rear.
The P25 began racing in non-championship events in September 1955. The car's horsepower proved to be its strong suit, but its handling and reliability problems were revealed. Three Type 25s were entered for Tony Brooks, Mike Hawthorn, Ron Flockhart in the model's world championship debut, the 1956 British Grand Prix. However, none finished. Reliability woes would plague the team during the P25's early development; the large valves were prone to letting debris into the engine, the single rear disc failed. A P25 would not finish a Grand Prix until Harry Schell's fifth place in the 1958 Monaco Grand Prix. Schell and Jean Behra would finish 3rd in that year's Dutch Grand Prix, they were the first podiums for BRM. Four more points finishes from Behra and new-hire Joakim Bonnier placed BRM 4th in the inaugural Constructor's Championship. Bonnier took BRM's first victory at the 1959 Dutch Grand Prix. With the P25 running reliably, BRM was able to secure 3rd in the Constructor's Championship. Just as the P25 became reliable, Cooper started the rear-engine revolution and rendered front engined cars such as the P25 obsolete.
BRM began work on the P48 not long after Bonnier's victory. The P48 would replace the P25 midway through the 1960 season. In addition to the factory entries, the British Racing Partnership ran a P25 for Stirling Moss and Hans Herrmann in 1959. Moss scored a 2nd place in the British Grand Prix before the car was destroyed in a massive accident during the German Grand Prix with Hermann at the wheel. * The World Constructors' Championship was not awarded before 1958. ** All points scored using the BRM P48
Innes Ireland
Robert McGregor Innes Ireland, was a British military officer and motor racing driver. He was a larger-than-life character who, according to a rival team boss, "lived without sense, without an analyst and provoked astonishment and affection from everyone." Ireland was born on 12 June 1930 in Mytholmroyd, West Riding of Yorkshire, the son of a Scottish veterinary surgeon. His family returned to Kirkcudbright, Scotland during his youth, he trained as an engineer with Rolls-Royce, first in Glasgow and in London. Commissioned as a lieutenant in the King's Own Scottish Borderers, he served with the Parachute Regiment in the Suez Canal Zone during 1953 and 1954. Ireland began racing a Riley 9 in 1954, his first year of nationally competitive events was 1957, by which time he was running a small engineering firm in Surrey. Success in sports car racing saw him make his Formula One debut for Team Lotus in 1959. In 1960 he won three non-championship Formula One races and finished fourth in the World Drivers Championship.
Badly injured in the 1961 Monaco Grand Prix, Ireland recovered to win the Solitude Grand Prix and Flugplatzrennen races finished the season with a victory in the United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen. Despite these successes, he was sacked at the end of the season, team boss Colin Chapman considering Jim Clark a better bet. Despite occasional successes, Ireland never again had a car to match his talent, he was encouraged by Bill France, founder of NASCAR, to participate in the 1967 Daytona 500, one of the last races of his career, where the V8 engine of his Dodge exploded outside the stands. A talented writer, Ireland produced a classic autobiography, All Arms and Elbows, worked as a journalist for the American Road & Track magazine, as well as skippering fishing trawlers in the North Atlantic. Towards the end of his life, he was elected president of the British Racing Drivers' Club, which post he still held at the time of his death from cancer on 22 October 1993, at Reading, England. On 30 October 1954 Ireland married Scarborough schoolteacher Norma Thomas.
They had two daughters before divorcing in 1967. He married Edna Humphries in 1967. Ireland married his third wife Jean Mander, a former fashion model, on 11 June 1993 at Newbury register office. Jean had been engaged to Mike Hawthorn at the time of Hawthorn's death in 1959. Ireland had a son who died in 1992. An Innes Ireland fan site at the Wayback Machine Information about Innes Ireland
Monocoque
Monocoque structural skin, is a structural system where loads are supported through an object's external skin, similar to an egg shell. The word monocoque is a French term for "single shell" or "single hull". First used in boats, a true monocoque carries both tensile and compressive forces within the skin and can be recognised by the absence of a load-carrying internal frame. Few metal aircraft can be regarded as pure monocoques, as they use a metal shell or sheeting reinforced with frames riveted to the skin, but most of the wooden aircraft are described as monocoques though they incorporate frames. By contrast, a semi-monocoque is a hybrid combining a tensile stressed skin and a compressive structure made up of longerons and ribs or frames. Other semi-monocoques, not to be confused with true monocoques, include vehicle unibodies, which tend to be composites, inflatable shells or balloon tanks, both of which are pressure stabilised; the term is misused as a marketing term for structures built up from hollow components.
Early aircraft were constructed using frames of wood or steel tubing, which could be covered with fabric such as Irish linen or cotton. The fabric made a minor structural contribution in tension but none in compression and was there for aerodynamic reasons only. By considering the structure as a whole and not just the sum of its parts, monocoque construction integrated the skin and frame into a single load-bearing shell with significant improvements to strength and weight. To make the shell, thin strips of wood were laminated into a three dimensional shape. One of the earliest examples was the Deperdussin Monocoque racer in 1912, which used a laminated fuselage made up of three layers of glued poplar veneer, which provided both the external skin and the main load-bearing structure; this produced a smoother surface and reduced drag so that it was able to win most of the races it was entered into. This style of construction was further developed in Germany by LFG Roland using the patented Wickelrumpf form licensed by them to Pfalz Flugzeugwerke who used it on several fighter aircraft.
Each half of the fuselage shell was formed over a male mold using two layers of plywood strips with fabric wrapping between them. The early plywood used was prone to damage from delamination. While all-metal aircraft such as the Junkers J 1 had appeared as early as 1915, these were not monocoques but added a metal skin to an underlying framework; the first metal monocoques were built by Claudius Dornier. He had to overcome a number of problems, not least was the quality of aluminium alloys strong enough to use as structural materials, which formed layers instead of presenting a uniform material. After failed attempts with several large flying boats in which a few components were monocoques, he built the Zeppelin-Lindau V1 to test out a monocoque fuselage. Although it crashed, he learned a lot from its construction; the Dornier-Zeppelin D. I was built in 1918 and although too late for operational service during the war was the first all metal monocoque aircraft to enter production. In parallel to Dornier, Zeppelin employed Adolf Rohrbach, who built the Zeppelin-Staaken E-4/20, which when it flew in 1920 became the first multi-engined monocoque airliner, before being destroyed under orders of the Inter-Allied Commission.
At the end of WWI, the Inter-Allied Technical Commission published details of the last Zeppelin-Lindau flying boat showing its monocoque construction. In the UK, Oswald Short built a number of experimental aircraft with metal monocoque fuselages starting with the 1920 Short Silver Streak in an attempt to convince the air ministry of its superiority over wood. Despite advantages, aluminium alloy monocoques would not become common until the mid 1930s as a result of a number of factors, including design conservatism and production setup costs. Short would prove the merits of the construction method with a series of flying boats, whose metal hulls didn't absorb water as the wooden hulls did improving performance. In the United States, Northrop was a major pioneer, introducing techniques used by his own company and Douglas with the Northrop Alpha. In motor racing, the safety of the driver depends on the car body which must meet stringent regulations and only a few cars have been built with monocoque structures.
An aluminum alloy monocoque chassis was first used in the 1962 Lotus 25 Formula 1 race car and McLaren was the first to use carbon-fiber-reinforced polymers to construct the monocoque of the 1981 McLaren MP4/1. In 1992 the McLaren F1 became the first production car with a carbon-fiber monocoque; the term monocoque is misapplied to unibody cars. Commercial car bodies are never true monocoques but instead use the unibody system, which uses box sections and tubes to provide most of the strength of the vehicle, while the skin adds little strength or stiffness; some armoured fighting vehicles use a monocoque structure with a body shell built up from armour plates, rather than attaching them to a frame. This reduces weight for a given amount of armour. Examples include the German TPz Fuchs and RG-33. French industrialist and engineer Georges Roy attempted in the 1920s to improve on the bicycle-inspired motorcycle frames of the day, which lacked rigidity; this limited their handling and therefore performance.
He applied for a patent in 1926, at the 1929 Paris Automotive Show unveiled his new motorcycle, the Art-Deco styled 1930 Majestic. Its new type of monocoque body solved the p
Formula One
Formula One is the highest class of single-seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile and owned by the Formula One Group. The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one of the premier forms of racing around the world since its inaugural season in 1950; the word "formula" in the name refers to the set of rules to which all participants' cars must conform. A Formula One season consists of a series of races, known as Grands Prix, which take place worldwide on purpose-built circuits and on public roads; the results of each race are evaluated using a points system to determine two annual World Championships: one for drivers, the other for constructors. Drivers must hold valid Super Licences, the highest class of racing licence issued by the FIA; the races must run on tracks graded "1", the highest grade-rating issued by the FIA. Most events occur in rural locations on purpose-built tracks, but several events take place on city streets. Formula One cars are the fastest regulated road-course racing cars in the world, owing to high cornering speeds achieved through the generation of large amounts of aerodynamic downforce.
The cars underwent major changes in 2017, allowing wider front and rear wings, wider tyres, resulting in cornering forces closing in on 6.5g and top speeds of up to 375 km/h. As of 2019 the hybrid engines are limited in performance to a maximum of 15,000 rpm and the cars are dependent on electronics—although traction control and other driving aids have been banned since 2008—and on aerodynamics and tyres. While Europe is the sport's traditional base, the championship operates globally, with 11 of the 21 races in the 2018 season taking place outside Europe. With the annual cost of running a mid-tier team—designing and maintaining cars, transport—being US$120 million, Formula One has a significant economic and job-creation effect, its financial and political battles are reported, its high profile and popularity have created a major merchandising environment, which has resulted in large investments from sponsors and budgets. On 8 September 2016 Bloomberg reported that Liberty Media had agreed to buy Delta Topco, the company that controls Formula One, from private-equity firm CVC Capital Partners for $4.4 billion in cash and convertible debt.
On 23 January 2017 Liberty Media confirmed the completion of the acquisition for $8 billion. The Formula One series originated with the European Grand Prix Motor Racing of the 1930s; the formula is a set of rules. Formula One was a new formula agreed upon after World War II during 1946, with the first non-championship races being held that year. A number of Grand Prix racing organisations had laid out rules for a world championship before the war, but due to the suspension of racing during the conflict, the World Drivers' Championship was not formalised until 1947; the first world championship race was held at Silverstone, United Kingdom in 1950. A championship for constructors followed in 1958. National championships existed in the UK in the 1960s and 1970s. Non-championship Formula One events were held for many years, but due to the increasing cost of competition, the last of these occurred in 1983. On 26 November 2017, Formula One unveiled its new logo, following the 2017 season finale in Abu Dhabi during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at Yas Marina Circuit.
The new logo replaced F1's iconic'flying one', the sport's trademark since 1993. After a hiatus in European motor racing brought about by the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the first World Championship for Drivers was won by Italian Giuseppe Farina in his Alfa Romeo in 1950, narrowly defeating his Argentine teammate Juan Manuel Fangio. However, Fangio won the title in 1951, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, his streak interrupted by two-time champion Alberto Ascari of Ferrari. Although the UK's Stirling Moss was able to compete he was never able to win the world championship, is now considered to be the greatest driver never to have won the title. Fangio, however, is remembered for dominating Formula One's first decade and has long been considered the "Grand Master" of Formula One; this period featured teams managed by road car manufacturers Alfa Romeo, Mercedes-Benz, Maserati. The first seasons were run using pre-war cars like Alfa's 158, they were front-engined, with narrow tyres and 1.5-litre supercharged or 4.5-litre aspirated engines.
The 1952 and 1953 World Championships were run to Formula Two regulations, for smaller, less powerful cars, due to concerns over the paucity of Formula One cars available. When a new Formula One, for engines limited to 2.5 litres, was reinstated to the world championship for 1954, Mercedes-Benz introduced the advanced W196, which featured innovations such as desmodromic valves and fuel injection as well as enclosed streamlined bodywork. Mercedes drivers won the championship for two years, before the team withdrew from all motorsport in the wake of the 1955 Le Mans disaster. An era of British dominance was ushered in by Mike Hawthorn and Vanwall's championship wins in 1958, although Stirling Moss had been at the forefront of the sport without securing the world title. Between Hawthorn, Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, John Surtees and Graham Hill, British drivers won nine Drivers' Championships and British teams won fourteen Constructors' Championsh
1963 Belgian Grand Prix
The 1963 Belgian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race, held at Spa-Francorchamps on 9 June 1963. It was race 2 of 10 in both the 1963 World Championship of Drivers and the 1963 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers. Jim Clark won the race in wet and rainy conditions. After starting eighth on the grid Clark passed all of the cars in front of him, including early leader Graham Hill. About 17 laps into the race, with the rain coming down harder than Clark had not only lapped the entire field except for Bruce McLaren, but he was five minutes ahead of McLaren and his Cooper; this would be the first of Team Lotus that year. First podium: Brabham Chris Amon was 19 years old when he started in this race. Notes: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings
Lotus 25
The Lotus 25 was a racing car designed by Colin Chapman for the 1962 Formula One season. It was a revolutionary design, the first stressed monocoque chassis to appear in Formula One. In the hands of Jim Clark it took 14 World Championship Grand Prix wins and propelled him to his 1963 World Championship title, its last World Championship win was at the 1965 French Grand Prix. An early brainchild of Chapman's fertile mind, the original sketches for the car were made on napkins while Chapman discussed his idea while dining out with Frank Costin; the unveiling of the 25 at Zandvoort in 1962 was a shock for the competition, for teams like Brabham and UDT/Laystall who had purchased 24s from Lotus, with the understanding that they would be "mechanically identical" to the works cars - Chapman reserved the right to alter the bodywork of the cars. The monocoque made the car structurally stronger than typical F1 cars of the period; the 25 was three times stiffer than the interim 24. The car was low and narrow, with a frontal area of 8.0 ft², 0.74m² as compared to the normal 9.5 ft², 0.88 m² It was envisaged to have a column gear lever, to keep the cockpit width to a minimum, although this was only experimental and discarded.
To assist the low profile and low frontal area, the driver reclined behind the wheel, leading to the nickname'The Bathtub', while front coil/damper units were moved inboard. The 25 was powered by the Mk. II 1496cc through to the Mk.5 1499cc versions of the Coventry Climax FWMV V8 in crossplane and flatplane formats. Reg Parnell Racing in 1964 fitted BRM P56s of similar specification to their second-hand 25s; such was the 25's effect on motor racing today's modern F1 cars follow its basic principles. Some privateers, buying Lotus chassis were disgruntled by the fact Chapman refused to provide them 25s; these teams, including Rob Walker Racing, were given Lotus 24s, while the works team had exclusive use of the 25 for Jim Clark and Trevor Taylor. When it first appeared at the Dutch Grand Prix, the futuristic 25 was inspected by John Cooper, who asked Chapman where he had put the frame tubes in the car. Seven cars were built in total, numbered R1 to R7. Four cars - R1, R2, R3 and R5 - were written off in accidents between 1962 and 1966.
The most successful was R4, which Clark drove to all seven of his World Championship wins in 1963. This car was crashed by Richard Attwood rebuilt as a Lotus 33 using a spare monocoque of that type and unofficially known as R13; the car gave Clark his first World Championship Grand Prix victory, at Spa in 1962. He took another win in Britain and again in the USA, which put him in contention for the title, but while leading the final race in South Africa a much publicised engine seizure cost him the title to Graham Hill. Clark gained his revenge the following year, taking his first World Championship in the 25, by winning 7 races, France, Britain, South Africa, Mexico. Lotus won its first constructors' championship. Following the United States GP, a 25 was taken to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for evaluation, where they trialled Lucas electronic ignition for Ford; the results were encouraging enough for Colin Chapman to mount his successful challenge on the Indianapolis 500. The 25 was again used during the 1964 season.
At the final race in Mexico, just as in 1962, the Climax engine developed an oil leak and with a lap to run Clark coasted to a halt in sight of world championship victory, this time conceding to John Surtees. Despite the introduction of the Lotus 33 in 1964, the 25 was still used until well into the 1965 season, Clark taking the car's final win at the 1965 French Grand Prix. In 1964, Reg Parnell Racing began using the BRM P56 V8 engine, with limited success. Chris Irwin placed Reg Parnell Racing's 25/33 hybrid 7th in its final World Championship race at the 1967 Dutch Grand Prix, scene of the model's debut five years earlier. 1 Points were awarded on a 9-6-4-3-2-1 basis to the first six finishers at each round, but only the best placed car for each make was eligible to score points. In 1962 and 1966 only the best five results from the season were retained, only the best six results for 1963, 1964 and 1965. In 1967 the best five results from the first six rounds and the best four results from the last five rounds were retained.
2 Jack Brabham raced. 3 Plans for Arundell to race the spare car were abandoned. 4 Clark swapped cars with Spence's Lotus 33 during the race following mechanical problems. 5 Revson tried out Hailwood's car in practice while the latter was away qualifying for the TT. 6 Total points scored by all Lotus-Climax cars, including 45 points scored by drivers of Lotus 33 variants. 7 Total points scored by all Lotus-Climax cars, including 8 points scored by drivers of Lotus 33 variants. In June 2008 Lotus launched a special edition of the Elise supercharged model, the Type 25 Jim Clark, in the Lotus racing colours of green with a yellow stripe; this had traction control. A total of 25 of these cars were produced for the RHD market. Media related to Lotus 25 at Wikimedia Commons
1963 Formula One season
The 1963 Formula One season was the 17th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 14th FIA World Championship of Drivers, the sixth International Cup for F1 Manufacturers and numerous non-championship Formula One races; the World Championship commenced on 26 May 1963, ended on 28 December after ten races. Jim Clark won his first championship with seven wins to two by Graham Hill and one by John Surtees in a revised Ferrari; this record number of wins in a season was not equalled until Alain Prost won seven races in 1984 driving a McLaren MP4/2, it was not beaten until 1988 when Ayrton Senna won eight races in the McLaren MP4/4. However, unlike 1963 which only consisted of ten races, both the 1984 and 1988 seasons consisted of 16 races giving Clark a better winning ratio than either Prost or Senna; the ATS venture, founded by ex-Ferrari workers, was a failure which damaged Phil Hill's Grand Prix career. It was unrelated to the late 1970s German operation, marginally more successful.
The following teams and drivers competed in the 1963 FIA World Championship. Points were awarded on a 9–6–4–3–2–1 basis at each round, with only the best six round results retained. Italics indicate fastest lap Bold indicates pole position‡ No points awarded as Hill's car was pushed at the start line. Points were awarded on a 9–6–4–3–2–1 basis at each round with only the best six round results retained. Only the best placed car from each manufacturer at each round was eligible to score points. Bold results counted to championship totals.‡ No points awarded as Hill's car was pushed at the start line. Other Formula One races were held in 1963, which did not count towards the World Championship
Innes Ireland
