BRM P351
The BRM P351 , also known as the BRM P351 , was a Group C and IMSA GTP prototype from 1992.
The P351 goes back to a small group of former BRM employees who wanted to give the brand new life 15 years after the end of the Formula 1 team. They designed a Group C sports car that would also compete in the IMSA series races in the United States . In terms of the engine, they used the last BRM Formula 1 engine from the BRM P207 from 1977. The 12-cylinder engine was bored out to 3.5-liter displacement and brought up to the state of the art of engine technology at the time.
The P351 made its debut at the 1992 Le Mans 24-hour race . The vehicle was the only racing car in the field with a V12 engine and the problems began to pile up during training. The transmission was the weak point of the car and Wayne Taylor could only do six laps. Since Harri Toivonen and Richard Jones could not train at all, they were not allowed to participate in the race. BRM was lucky, however, the ACO gave the vehicle permission to start. On the one hand, there were only 28 racing cars at the start in 1992 and the organizers gave the car no chance to make it over the distance. BRM was the only team with a driver on the starting lists for the Le Mans race. In fact, Taylor had shifting problems right from the start and had to park the car after just 20 laps.
Danka, the team sponsor, also funded the IMSA outreach at Watkins Glen . Again Wayne Taylor was the driver. This time electrical problems stopped the P351. Taylor had to give up after just five laps. The racing car was brought back to Europe and never used in a race again.
literature
- JA Martin and Ken Welles: Prototypes - the History of the IMSA GTP Series . Bull Publishing, Phoenix 2000, ISBN 1-893618-01-3 .
