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=BRM P25=

The BRM P25 is a Formula One racing car that was built by the British Racing Motors team, and introduced during the 1955 Formula One season. The car was BRM's first Formula One machine since the aborted, V16-engined P15 of, and was in many aspects a significantly more conservative design. The car was powered by a 2.5-litre straight-4 engine, designed and built in-house, that was housed in a spaceframe chassis. The BRM P25 made its World Championship debut at the 1956 Monaco Grand Prix but it was not until over three years later, at the 1959 Dutch Grand Prix, that it took BRM's first — and its one and only — Grand Prix victory, driven by Swede Jo Bonnier. During the interveing period much development work had taken place on both the chassis and mechanical components of the car, but despite these improvement by the late 1950s the mid-engine revolution was starting to gather pace, and the BRM was becoming outclassed. At the end of the season all but one of the cars built were broken up and their parts used to contruct the P25's successor, the mid-engined P48.

Design
Since the flop of the disastous V16 cars, the original British Racing Motors Trust had been wound up. The BRM company was subsequently bought outright by the Rubery Owen engineering conglomerate, whose managing director was Sir Alfred Owen, one of the BRM Trust's original backers. Owen created a subsidiary company, the Owen Racing Organisation, to oversee the BRM project. Despite the change in ownership the BRM team decided to continue with its original aim: to produce an all-British Formula One winner.

Engine
Improvements made to the V16's design allowed the Mark II car (officially, the BRM P30) to win in limited-distance Formula Libre races in 1953, but by that time the Formula One regulations had been changed and so its 1.5-litre supercharged engine was no longer eligible for World Championship Grands Prix. That 2-litre formula lasted until the start of the 1954 Formula One season, when it was in turn replaced by regulations allowing naturally-aspirated engines of up to 2.5 litres, or 750 cc supercharged engines.

Rather than repeat the complexity of the 16-cylinder cars, consultant engine designer Stuart Tresilian began work on a far simpler straight-4 motor. This engine would have to last for a full 500km Grand Prix distance, something which the V16 had singularly failed to do. Tresilian chose an oversquare design, with bore and stroke dimensions of 102.87 mm and 74.93 mm, respectively, giving a total engine capacity of 2491 cc. The wide bore was chosen to allow for large valves, which were mounted at 90° to one another within a hemispherical combustion chamber head.

Early life
Frank Gardner was born in Sydney, New South Wales, in 1931, the son of a fisherman. When Gardner was only 12 years old his father was hit and killed by a car while returning home from work one night. As a result, the young Frank Gardner went to live with his uncle Hope Bartlett, who had been a frequent competitor in Australian motor sport events throughout the 1930s. However, as a young man Gardner's interests were by no means restricted to the track. His sporting involvement included surfing, swimming, diving, rowing, sailing and boxing, as well as motorcycle speedway racing. After serving as an apprentice mechanic at his uncle's bus company, Frank Gardner decided to open his own garage. In order to raise the starting funds for the business Gardner fell back on his amateur boxing experience and turned professional. With the money raised through boxing Frank Gardner bought the Whale Beach Service Station in Avalon, some 35 km north of Sidney.

Racing rebuilt Jaguars in Australia
At only 17 years of age Gardner borrowed an old MG TA from Bartlett and entered it for his first car race, at the local Marston Park airfield, which he won. A few years later, in 1953, Gardner bought Bartlett's race-winning Jaguar XK120 and after replacing the metal bodywork with fibreglass to reduce weight he used it to win many races over the following few years. Gardner's next car was another Jaguar: the ex-works C-Type XKC 037, that he bought as a write-off from the previous owner's insurance company. Jaguar supplied sufficient plans and drawings, and with his mechanical expertise Gardner was able to fully rebuild XKC 037. While he was reconstructing its chassis Gardner transferred the C-Type's engine and steering into the XK120, and on its completion the car was built up with a combination of C-Type and XK120 parts. Gardner's next step up the racing ladder was provided in 1957 when he bought another crashed Jaguar: D-Type XKD520. Between the three Jaguars Frank Gardner scored 25 wins from 26 starts in sports car classes, and took the New South Wales sportscar championship in both 1956 and 1957.

Move to the United Kingdom
In 1958 Frank Gardner decided to move to England to "see what it was all about over there". He sold the Jaguars and a five-year lease on the Whale Beach Service Station to fund his trip. On arrival he managed to find work as a mechanic in Aston Martin's racing department, working under Reg Parnell and John Wyer. Gardner remained with Aston for over a year, tending both the firm's sportscars – including the 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans-winning DBR1 – and the DBR4 Formula One cars. Although he was participating in racing at the very highest levels Gardner still maintained an ambition to drive himself, an ambition seriously compromised by lack of funds.

To get a toe back in the door, in 1961 Gardner took a job with Jim Russell's racing drivers' school at the Snetterton Circuit in Norfolk. Here Gardner was responsible for rebuilding cars that had been damaged by the school's pupils, and as many of them were Lotus 18 and 20 models he learned a significant amount about contemporary, cutting-edge, single-seat racing car design. Importantly for Gardner, once he had mended the cars Russell allowed him to race them, on the assumption that a car that had won a race was subsequently easier to sell. This season of Formula Junior racing was Gardner's first experience of racing both in Britain, and in a single-seater car. Nevertheless he took six victories, at tracks as diverse as Oulton Park, Silverstone, and the racing school's home circuit Snetterton.

Gardner's relationship with Jim Russell only lasted for one season, as at the end of 1961 Jack Brabham, an old acquaintance from the speedway tracks of Sydney, approached him to join the newly-formed Motor Racing Developments team. Once again Gardner's role was principally that of fabricator and mechanic, but in addition to this he was also the works Brabham Formula Junior driver. Although he failed to win a race Gardner's Brabham BT2 was commonly near the front of the field; he recorded three fastest laps, and took pole position at both Aintree and Silverstone. During the season Gardner experimented with small aerodynamic deflectors on either side of the BT2's nosecone, five years before Formula One teams started to run similar devices, but confrontations with scrutineers over their legality prompted Gardner to abandon them, rather than face "buggerising about with officialdom".

Complete Formula One World Championship results
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