British Racing Misery

Sir,

Further to the recent articles regarding BRM, I see no mention of its famed designer von Eberhorst. Please correct me if I am wrong but von Eberhorst also designed the pre-war Auto Unions and the post-war racing Jowett Jupiter chassis.

At this period, I was a junior draughtsman in Leyland Motors Design office and we had the services of Dr Mueller working on what evolved as the Leyland Atlantean rear-engined bus. Dr Mueller worked on supercharging the pre-war Mercedes racing engines. I believe his services were part of wartime reparations, but at the earliest opportunity Dr Mueller returned to Germany, fed up with his designs being hacked about by a less than competent Chief Engineer.

I got the impression that much the same thing happened at BRM with Peter Berthon sticking his oar in. Failure or not, as a racing car the V16 was a bold attempt, and a thrill to hear and see in those days. The crowd around me at Club were gutted, not cynical, when we heard over the tannoy that it had sheared its drive-shaft on the line. After all, we had invested our own money in this project, albeit of a minor amount.

I am, yours, etc, George F Deane, C.Eng., M.I.Mech.E. Moorgate, Norwich