Bourne again

Sir,

When I saw ‘the story of BRM’ on the cover of my April MOTOR SPORT, I thought you’d need a great deal of the magazine to fit it in. Not only did you use just five pages, it was a cracking article.

I was born in Folkingham, just nine miles from Bourne, where I lived for 40 years. As a small lad I would trek over land (about two miles) on to the old airfield to catch a glimpse of the BRMs.

At a very early age I won a fancy dress contest dressed as a BRM mechanic. The prize was awarded to me by Raymond Mays who attended along with one of the V16s.

I remember once we climbed in an old hut used as a store. In there were many boxes of spares and an almost complete V16. One of my pals pocketed a few souvenirs, cotton reel-sized piston etc.

I have lost contact with them now. I wonder if he still has them? This was when the P25s were being raced, and at the back of the hut were two or three spaceframes still clad with most of their panels. We could get in these and be Moss, Hawthorne, Fangio etc.

In later years I became acquainted with Mr Wilkie Wilkinson – a remarkable man now in his 90s. He has a fantastic memory of an incredible life. Strolling on the old airfield I went over to the old test cells a few months after everything had finished and in the long grass at the back of the building I found a wooden buck for the V16’s rear end; I left it to rot where it was.

I am, yours, etc. Gordon E Tyler, Grantham, Lincs