Rover-BRM

Rover-BRM
Overview
Manufacturer	Rover, British Racing Motors (BRM).
Production	1963–1965
Designer	William Towns, David Bache
Powertrain
Engine	Gas turbine

The Rover-BRM was a prototype gas turbine-powered racing car, jointly developed in the early 1960s by the British companies Rover and British Racing Motors (BRM). The car is part of the collection at the British Motor Museum.

Rover had already been working with gas turbines for road vehicles since World War II. A series of potential road cars were also produced, starting with the early prototype Jet 1, through the more developed examples T2 and T3, followed by the T4, which performed demonstration laps around the Le Mans circuit before the 1962 race. Seeing an opportunity for even more prestige, Rover decided to enter a gas turbine car into the race. A prize was to be awarded for the first gas turbine car to complete 3,600 km over the 24 hours, an average speed of 150 km/h, approximately 93 mph.

A crucial step in this plan was a chance meeting between William Martin-Hurst, MD of Rover, and Sir Alfred Owen of Rover's component supplier Rubery Owen, but more relevantly also of the Formula 1 constructors BRM. BRM supplied the chassis of Richie Ginther's crash-damaged car from the 1962 Monaco Grand Prix. A custom open-top spyder body was then built in aluminium, with the turbine mid-mounted ahead of a single-speed transaxle.^[1]

The first test runs were at the MIRA track in April 1963, driven by Graham Hill who described it thus, "You’re sitting in this thing that you might call a motor car and the next minute it sounds as if you’ve got a 707 just behind you, about to suck you up and devour you like an enormous monster."^[2][3] The top speed is quoted to be 142 mph (229 km/h)^[4]