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Rover BRM Gas Turbine
The last of Rover’s experimental gas turbine cars was conceived in partnership with the Owen organisation. Owen supplied a widened BRM Grand Prix car chassis (from Richie Ginther’s car which he had crashed at Monaco in 1962) and two drivers from the BRM racing team, Ginther and Graham Hill. When Hill first tested the car at MIRA he described the experience: “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 [Boeing] 707 just behind you, about to suck you up and devour you like an enormous monster.”
The car was first entered for the Le Mans 24-hour race in 1963 and, because it required special permission from the organisers to take part, raced outside the competition as number ’00′. It finished 8th and gained the special prize on offer for the first gas turbine to finish the race.
For 1964 it was fitted with a new coupé body designed by William Towns. The engine was modified to incorporate a heat exchanger, ceramic discs made by Corning of America which were cutting edge technology at the time. The car, however, did not compete because the engineers were worried by the lack of test time, added to which it was damaged in transit.
In 1965 it ran in the 2-litre class under a special formula which deemed the engine to be the equivalent of 1992cc. BRM drivers Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart were at the helm this time. In spite of overheating and some damage to the turbine blades because debris had got sucked into the engine, the Rover-BRM survived the 24 hours at an average speed of 98.8 mph (159 km/h), achieving 10th place, the highest placed British car.
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=74919
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rover BRM gas turbine
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Great thread Bry. The coupe version was a really good looking car too! Didn't it start the race from the rear of the grid?
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Steve ..the coupe was a great looking ...As a confirmed Roverphile i LOVE this car :)
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Peter Benbrook has an industrial version of this motor which he demonstrated at the Roycroft Trophy meeting at Hampton Downs,Easter 2011. It is connected to a pump and installed in a cradle for carrying. They were used on NZ Navy warships (and possibly elsewhere) for fire-fighting. It has a double crank handle for starting (like grinders on large yachts) and is damned hard work!
