BRM (British Racing Motors) was created in 1947 by Raymond Mays to represent the technology and experience of English car manufacturing and thus to make a stand against Italian and German manufacturers.
With unsufficient funds they put together the BRM type 15.
A factory was set up in Bourne, Lincolnshire, behind Eastgate House, Mays' family home. Several people involved with ERA went to work for BRM, including Harry Mundy and Eric Richter. The team also had access to a test facility at Folkingham aerodrome.

BRM's first engine design was an extremely ambitious 1.5 litre supercharged V16. Rolls-Royce was contracted to produce centrifugal superchargers, rather than the more commonly used Roots type superchargers. Since his experience on the supercharging of the ERA engines, Berthon had been doing war-time work on aero-engines at Rolls Royce, Derby. The design concept of the V16 had not been used extensively on automobiles before so that design problems were many and the engine did not fire for the first time until June of 1949. It proved to be outstandingly powerful but its output was produced over a very limited range of engine speed. Engineer Tony Rudd was seconded to BRM from Rolls-Royce to develop the supercharging system and remained involved with BRM for nearly 20 years.
The Type 15, which was the designation for the V16 car, won the first two races it actually started, the Formula Libre and Formula One events at Goodwood in September, 1950, driven by Reg Parnell. However, it was never to be so successful again. The engine proved unreliable and difficult to develop, and the team's development efforts were not up to the task of improving the situation. A string of failures caused much embarrassment, and the problems were still unsolved when the CSI announced in 1952 that for 1954, a new engine formula of 2.5 litres unsupercharged or 750cc supercharged would take effect.

The whole project was bought by Sir Alfred Owen in 1952 and BRM became an independent company achieving their first success in 1959 and reaching the top in 1962.
By the end of the 1961 season BRM had managed to build an engine designed by Peter Berthon and Aubrey Woods (BRM P56 V8) which was on a par with the Dino V6 used by Ferrari and the Coventry-Climax V8 used by other British teams. However, the real change was the promotion of an exceptional engineer who had been with the team since 1950 (originally on secondment from Rolls Royce to look after the supercharging on the V16); Tony Rudd was elevated by Owen to the position of chief development engineer. Rudd was the first professional engineer to exercise full technical control over the team, and basic engineering and reliability problems which had plagued the team for years began to vanish. He was given greater responsibility in 1960 after two of the drivers, Graham Hill and Dan Gurney, went on strike and told Alfred Owen they would not drive again, and in early 1962 full executive authority was given to Tony Rudd. Raymond Mays and Peter Berthon were sidelined. The team had designed their first mid-engined car for 1960, matching the other teams, and won the World Drivers' Championship with Graham Hill as driver, in 1962. During 1965, 210 bhp at 11,000 rpm was the rated power. However at the high-speed 1965 Italian GP (Monza) an uprated version was raced with 220 bhp (223 PS) at 11,750 rpm for short bursts. A planned 4 valve per cylinder version in cooperation with Weslake Engineering never materialized.

As part of Owen's attempt to make BRM pay its way, the V8 engine was sold to privateers and appeared in a number of other chassis during the 1.5l formula, particularly in private Lotus chassis and in smaller marques such as BRP.

A number of privateers acquired 1961-2 BRMs during this period, including Maurice Trintignant and Scuderia Centro Sud; these cars continued to race on for many years.

Monocoque V8 cars were soon developed and these ran on through the 1.5 litre formula and performed useful service in the early races of the subsequent 3.0 litre formula. In 1965 Jackie Stewart was signed to partner Hill; he took his first Grand Prix win at Monza in his debut season, and won the first World Championship race of the new three-litre formula with a car fitted with a Tasman two-litre V8; once again BRM were not ready for the start of a new formula and the old cars continued to be used, even on occasion when the H16 was ready.

For 1966, the engine regulations changed to permit 3.0 litre unsupercharged (or 1.5 litre supercharged) engines. BRM refused Peter Berthon and Aubrey Woods' proposal to build a V12, and instead built a strange engine, designed by Tony Rudd and Geoff Johnson, the H 16 (BRM P75), which essentially used two flat-8 engines (derived from their 1.5l V8) one above the other, with the crankshafts geared together. BRM found the H 16 attractive because it was initially planned to share design elements and components with the successful 1.5 litre V8. While the engine was powerful, it was also heavy and unreliable - Rudd claims that his drawings were not followed accurately and many of the castings were much thicker and heavier than he had specified. Jackie Stewart (who drove for BRM in this period) is believed to have said "This piece of metal is better used as a ship's anchor than as a power plant". At that time BRM earned the nickname of "British Racing Misery". BRM, Lotus and various privateers had been using enlarged versions of the BRM 1.5 V8 of up to 2.1 litres in 1966, as competitive 3.0 engines were in short supply in this first year of the new regulations. Lotus also took up the H16 as an interim measure until the Cosworth DFV was ready, building the Lotus 43 to house it, and Jim Clark managed to win the US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen with this combination. It was the only victory for this engine in a World Championship race.
The H16 engine was redesigned with a narrow angle 4 valve head and magnesium main castings to reduce weight and increase power, but never raced in a car as BRM decided to use the V12 unit which was being sold to other F1 and sports car teams with encouraging results.

The H 16 was replaced by a V 12 designed by Geoff Johnson. It had been intended for sports car use, but was first used in F1 by the McLaren M5A. Back at the works, the early V12 years were lean ones. In 1967 the 2-valve layout gave about 360 bhp @ 9,000 rpm. In 1968 this had increased to 390 bhp @ 9,750 rpm. The first V12 chassis (P133) was designed independently by Len Terry; the subsequent P139 was designed and built in-house. John Surtees joined as the team's lead driver, with the semi-works Parnell team for driver development (notably Piers Courage and Chris Irwin). Surtees' time at BRM was not happy, and despite the fact that a ground effect 'wing car' was designed, this was never constructed and the team's performances were lacklustre. Surtees left after a single unhappy season (1969), along with Tony Rudd who went to Lotus (initially on the road-car side), and Geoff Johnson who departed for Austin Morris.

The team regrouped with new drivers and Tony Southgate as designer, and gained its first V12 victory for Pedro Rodríguez at the 1970 Belgian Grand Prix in a P153, with further victories for Jo Siffert and Peter Gethin in 1971 in the P160. The team had reached one of its intermittent peaks of success. Sadly both Siffert and Rodriguez were killed before the 1972 season and the team had to regroup completely again. Their last victory was when Jean-Pierre Beltoise drove a stunning race to win the rain-affected 1972 Monaco Grand Prix with the P160. The 1972 campaign was generally chaotic: having acquired major sponsorship, Louis Stanley originally planned to field up to six cars (three for established drivers, three for paying journeymen and young drivers) of varying designs including P153s, P160s and P180s and actually ran up to five for a mix of paying and paid drivers until it became obvious that it was completely overstretched -- the team's sponsors insisted that the team should cut back to a more reasonable level and only three cars were run in 1973 for Beltoise, Lauda and Regazzoni.

In the early 70’s Alfred Owen passed control to the husband of his sister, Louis Stanley and BRM slided into decline.
The last victory happened in Monaco in 1972 and the Owen backing stopped when sir Alfred died in 1974. The BRM company was put into liquidation that very year.  It withered on in the form of Stanley-BRM but to no avail.

Grand Prix contested: 197   from 1951 - 1974
Pole positions: 11
Victories: 17
fastest lap: 15

World Championship Constructors points:

BRM 15 - 1949-1954
Chassis: a straight forward ‘30’s chassis with pneumatic strut suspension front and de Dion arrangement in the rear
Engine: BRM V16 centrifugal supercharged of 1488 cc giving 330bhp at 10.250 rpm, boosted to 525 bhp in 1952
Drivers: Peter Collins, Juan Manuel Fangio, Froilan Gonzalez, Stirling Moss, Reg Parnell, Raymond Sommer, Peter Walker, Ken Wharton
Results: participated in only one GP in 1951

BRM P25 - 1955 - 1959
Chassis: front mounted engine, the pneumatic suspension was replaced by Colin Chapman to coil/dampers and reworked de Dion suspension for the rear, later revised by Rudd. Braking had to come from a single disk brake on the rear transmission.
Engine: BRM 4 cylinder of 2491cc designed by Stuart Tresilian
Drivers: Jean Behra, Tony Brooks, Jo Bonnier, Peter Collins, Jack Fairman, Ron Flockhart, Mackay Fraser, Mike Hawthon, Hans Herrmann, Les Leston, Stirling Moss, Roy Salvadori, Harry Schell, Maurice Trintignant
Results: 1958 4th WCC 18 points, 1959 3rd WCC 19 points

BRM  P57 - 1961- 1963
Chassis: The P48 tried in 1960 was a P25 with rear mounted engine. While the P57 space frame construction designed by Rudd, with double wishbone and spring/damper all around was a new design. BRM was under an ultimatum to make something good and they did.
Engine: BRM V8 of 1482cc with a BRM 6 speed gearbox
Drivers: Lorenzo Bandini, Giorgio Bassi, Roberto Bussinello, Masten Gregory, Richie Ginther, Graham Hill (‘62 World Champion), Maurice Trintignant
Results: 1961 5th WCC 7 points, 1962 1st WCC 42 points

BRM P61 - 1963/64
Chassis: a semi monocoque car from the drawing board of Rudd with a complex inboard suspension set up to enable variable spring rating. Distortion was a major problem.
For 1964 a MkII version was developed with reinforcement in the rear and more stiffness for the hull.
Engine: BRM V8 redesigned producing 200 hp and later a
2 litre version
Drivers: Richie Ginther, Graham Hill, Bob Bondurant, Piers Courage, David Hobbs, Innes Ireland, Chris Irwin, Charles Lucas, Jackie Stewart
Results: 2nd‚ WCC 36 points, 1964 2nd WCC 42 points

BRM P83 - 1965
Chassis: a complex car of monocoque construction, where the engine was part of the stress bearing and carried gearbox and rear suspension
Engine: BRM H16 of 2988cc producing a miserable 400bhp and giving numerous problems
Drivers: Graham Hill, Chris Irwin, Mike Spence, Jackie Stewart
Results: 2nd WCC 45 points, 1966 with only a Monaco win 4th WCC 22 points, 1967 6th WCC 17 points

BRM P126/133 - 1968/69
Chassis: more conventional lines designed by Len Terry.
Engine: BRM V12 of 2999cc with Hewland DG300 gearbox
Drivers: Richard Attwood, Piers Courage, Pedro Rodriguez, Mike Spence, Jackie Olivier, Pedro Rodriguez, John Surtees
Results: 1968 5th WCC 28 points, 1969 5th WCC 7 points

BRM P153 - 1970
Chassis: a new car in Yardley colours based on a bathtub monocoque with bulb sides containing the fuel tanks.
Engine: BRM V12 reworked to give more power
Drivers: George Eaton, Howden Ganley, Helmut Marko, Jackie Olivier, Pedro Rodriguez, Alex Soler-Roig
Results: 6th WCC 23 points

BRM P160 - 1971/72/73/74
Chassis: an evolution on the P153, more rounded and lower. Modifications for the ‘72 model and painted in Marlboro colours. End 1974 BRM was liquidated and Stanley tried to continue the marque under Stanley-BRM with no success.
Engine: BRM V12
Drivers: Jean Pierre Beltoise, Howden Ganley, Peter Gethin, Niki Lauda, Helmut Marko, François Migault, Brian Redman, Clay Regazzoni, Pedro Rodriguez, Vern Schuppan, Jo Siffert, Alex Soler-Roig, Reine Wisell
Results: 1971 2nd WCC 36 points, 1972 victory in Monaco the final one for BRM, 7th WCC 14 points, 1973 6th WCC 12 points, 1974 7th WCC 10 points

more on BRM
BRM in Wikipedia
Sources: Wikipedia.org - photos: Roy Hulsbergen