BRM P207

   Following the passing of Alfred Owen, the team's owner since 1970, the British Racing Motors (BRM) team was taken over by Louis Stanley, who renamed it Stanley-BRM. By 1977, the English team, based in Bourne, Lincolnshire—a county in the East Midlands—was in deep financial crisis due to a lack of funds necessary to develop a competitive single-seater. In a last-minute move, a financial agreement was reached with the Swiss watch company Rotary Watches, which had its headquarters in London. The influx of money from this new sponsorship provided the team with the resources needed to design and build a new car for the 1977 season.

BRM P207, Conny Andersson
Dijon-Prenois, French GP 1977

   The new BRM P207 was designed by Len Terry and featured an aluminum tubular chassis housing the BRM P202 V12 engine, delivering 480 hp, paired with the BRM T-193 five-speed gearbox. The front and rear suspension systems consisted of double wishbones with stabilizer bars. The car had a wheelbase of 2,642 mm and a considerable weight of 615 kg. The P207 had a very distinctive design, with a pointed nose and two angled side wings forming a sort of arrow shape. Inside the long and wide sidepods, longitudinally positioned radiators were installed, while the engine cover was quite elongated, fully enclosing the English V12 engine. At the start of the season, air intakes for the engine were placed beside the cockpit, making the car’s sidepods appear massive, but later, the design was refined, and the intakes were moved directly onto the engine cover.

BRM P207, Conny Andersson
Anderstorp, Swedish GP 1977

   Only two units of the P207 were produced, though Stanley-BRM fielded just one at a time. The car competed in nine Grands Prix during the 1977 season. After missing the season opener in Argentina, the team debuted in Brazil with New Zealand driver Larry Perkins. Qualifying dead last, more than 12 seconds off pole position, Perkins retired on lap one due to an engine failure. For the next round in South Africa, the P207 was temporarily shelved, and the older P201 was brought back, still driven by Perkins.

BRM P207, Conny Andersson
Jarama, Spanish GP 1977

   With Swedish driver Conny Andersson, the P207 returned for the Spanish, Belgian, Swedish, and French Grands Prix, but failed to qualify for any of these races. At the British Grand Prix, now driven by Guy Edwards, the P207 did not even make it past pre-qualifying. In Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands, Belgian driver Teddy Pilette took the wheel, but once again, the car failed to qualify in all three events. To avoid further financial strain, the team skipped the overseas races at the end of the season. Given the disastrous performance of the P207, the car was abandoned and later used in the Formula Aurora series, a British championship (British Formula One Series) that featured older Formula 1 cars managed by private teams.

BRM P201, Larry Perkins
Kyalami, South African GP 1977

In Formula Aurora, the P207 achieved its best results with two fourth-place finishes before the team withdrew from racing altogether. In 1977, Stanley-BRM’s only Formula 1 race result was 15th and last place at the South African Grand Prix in Kyalami, finishing five laps behind the winner, Niki Lauda—a result achieved with the older P201, driven by Perkins. This race marked the final Formula 1 appearance for British Racing Motors, a team with 28 years of history, highlighted by their 1962 World Championship victory with Graham Hill.