Great photo of the BRM team in the paddock at Turnberry in Scotland during an international race meeting in 1952.
Between the two V16 BRM Formula One cars are team drivers Reg Parnell and Ken Wharton, Designer Peter Berthon and team principle Raymond Mays.
Ken Wharton was said to be Britains best all-rounder in the 1950s, racing with success in all classes including F1 with BRM and Grands Prix with Maserati Connaught and Frazer Nash. He also had a successfull career as a rally driver, was a leading force in the then-very popular disipline of Trials and was the British Hillclimb champion with ERA and Cooper cars in the mid 1950s. He regularly raced the V16 BRM and was one of the first drivers to race a Vanwall in 1955. He was killed in a race in New Zealand in 1957.
Reg Parnell was Britain's leading international racing driver in the years between world War 2 ending and the shooting star that was the young Stirling Moss. Parnell raced sat Brooklands in the 1930s, landed a ban after an unfortuate accident with Kay Petre than put the popular lady racer in hospital and ended her hitherto sparkling career. Parnell stored many racing cars on his farm during the war for various fellow drivers and made himself quite a lot of money from this and many other business venutres. He raced for HWM, Alfa Romeo and BRM factoiry teams , even as team mate to Fangio on one ocassion and had a long association with Aston Martin as a team driver, later as it's manager. he retired from racing in the late 50s to concentrate on that and sadly died from complications after a routine appendix operation in the early 60s. Son Tim was also an Grand Prix driver who ent on to manage the BRM team his old man had driven for in the early days. In fact Reg won the teams first ever victory at Goodwood in1950 to huge media acclaim.
Mays was the king of Shelsley Walsh hillcimb from the 1920s to the 1940s making numerous fastest times and outright records along the way initially in a Bugatti Brescia, later in Vauxhall Villiers and White Riley, He also raced for AC and Invicta at Brooklands. He was the founding force behind ERA racing cars which was the first commecial racing car maker in Great Britain in 1934 and the rock upon which the current billion dollar racing car industry in the country is built. He raced as the ERA team leader with much success in Britain and across europe despite limited previous road racing experience and continued to be a major force untill the war, then limited himself mostly to Hillclimbs untill his retirement in 1950 after winning the inauguaral British Hillclimb Championship - with an ERA of course.Mays was the founding force behind BRM and remained with the company untill it's end in the late 1970s. He died in 1980 and a memorial is located next to the startline at Shelsey Walsh hillclimb, his favourite venue.
10x7 inch (254x178mm)
