probably the most interesting f1 car ever apart from the tyrell p34
History
In the early 1960s, HRM was on the edge of getting the championship multiple times, but falling short - the earlier BRM P261 was their best bet in 1965 and was almost going to be the car for 1966 until regulations made their 1.5L V8 uncompetitive by raising the displacement to 3 litres. BRM decided to devlop its V8 into a flat 8, then combine two of those flat 8s into an H16. BRM did this to not only comply with the regulations as it would just barely make the 3.0L requirement for NA engines, but assumed by combining the already successful V8/flat 8s and developing it into the H16 it would make the H16 successful too. However, the unusual engine layout they made was prone to failure - the crankshafts would always keep falling off the engine and bouncing within it, causing it to explode. Another problem was overheating, as it was technically just 2 engines combined into each other and a single water cooling system wasn’t enough. The engineers had to add a second system just to keep it cool - and that still didn’t stop it from causing 27 out of the 30 times it had to retire from competitions. The fact it was basically 2 engines didn’t help it either - weighing it at a huge 250kg, it made up more than a third of the cars’ weight. As one of the drivers Jackie Stewart said: “It was unnecessarily large, used more fuel, carried more oil and needed more water - all of which added weight and diminished the vehicle’s agility.” All these problems led to the HRM P83 only managing to race 14 of the 40 times it was entered into races, and never won a single one of those 14 races. After the 1967 series, the P83 was taken out of F1. After F1, two of the three P83s built were converted from the H16 into V8s, but they both failed to start on the races they were entered into. The last P83 built is now on display at multiple different musems, and is sometimes taken out onto the track during test days.
for the full racing results of the P83 see here
stats time
IRL Specifications
Engine: naturally aspirated 32-valve/64 valve 3.0L BRM H16 engine
Horsepower: 420 brake horsepower (310 kW) at 10,500 RPM (64 valve)
Front Track: 59 in (1,499 mm)
Rear Track: 60 in (1,524 mm)
Transmission: 6-speed manual
Weight: 1,480 lb (671.3 kg)
Suspension: Double wishbone, with outboard coilover damper units
Wheelbase: 96 in (2,438 mm)
Performance
Top Speed: 188 mph (302 kmh) stock, 230 mph (370 kmh) max
Acceleration: 15.3 (18.7 max)
Handling: 20.4 (max stock)
Braking: 17.6 (20.4 max)
Weight: 0.67 Tonnes
Race Class: S 97 stock, X 101 max, X 105 max gear ratios
Derby
Attack Score: 80 (103 max)
Defense Score: 75 (85 max, +10 plow)
Derby Tier: 1
Derby Level: Pro
Other
Price: 20B+ (priced behind the Lotus 49)
Availability: Limited Exclusive
Max Scraps: 4,000
Fictional Name: BTL P38-2/Revenni F-128