HistoryBefore Tony Southgate joined BRM, his most successful designs had been for sports cars. Not wanting to waste a potential opportunity like this, BRM commissioned Southgate to develop their first sports car, built to 'Group 7' Specification so it could be entered into the popular Canadian-American Challenge cup known as "Can-Am".
The first design was an aluminium Monocoque chassis with independent suspension in all four corners. It was powered by a naturally aspirated Big-block Chevrolet V8 engine and a Hewland four-speed gearbox. This first model, called P154, was finished in a fibreglass body with a distinctive 'duck tail' design.
Due to the team's inexperience with handling such a different American engine, the 1970 season was a somewhat disappointing one. Driven by George Eaton, the first race of the P154 was cut short at lap 33 of 80 due to transmission errors. His performance would significantly improve by the second race, however, coming third, but a host of mechanical faults would mean he did not finish another race for the season. Pedro Rodriguez, primary driver from the BRM F1 team, would fare slightly better. He finished Ninth at Donnybrooke, Fifth at Laguna Seca and Third at Riverside.
The car was reworked to account for what the team had learned in their first Can-Am trial. A separate rear wing was added for increased stability and the front nose was adjusted to be more 'shovel' shaped for better aerodynamics. This model would be known as P167 and was raced by Brian Redman in the European Interserie Championship where he took two wins.
In the final rounds of that season, Howden Ganley raced P167 to Fourth at Laguna Seca, and Redman Third at Riverside. P167 took three more wins in the Interseries, two for Ganley and one for Helmut Marko.
Sadly the Group 7 project was sold to privateer racer David Hepworth to focus their attempts on the Formula 1 series.
