Brabham BT55
Encyclopedia
The Brabham BT55 was a Formula One
racing car designed by Gordon Murray
and David North for the Brabham team owned by Bernie Ecclestone
. It used a BMW
four-cylinder turbocharged engine tilted over on its side to allow a clear supply of air to the rear wing. The car competed during the 1986 Formula One season
. It was not successful and its introduction coincided with the end of Brabham's time as a competitive team. Murray's next car, McLaren's MP4/4
, is usually claimed to be based on the same principles and won 15 of 16 races in 1988.
-BT54 series of cars. The 1985 car won only one race, and Murray decided that a radical approach was needed. The rear wing of a Formula One car creates much of its downforce, but its effectiveness is reduced by the bodywork in front of it disturbing the flow of air. Brabham's tall, relatively heavy straight-four BMW M12 engine was particularly difficult to package to allow a good flow of air to the rear wing. Designers in the 1950s had addressed the same problem of reducing the cars cross sectional area by tilting the engines around a vertical or longitudinal axis by a small amount. Examples include the 1950s Kurtis-Kraft and Epperly
Championship Cars and Colin Chapman
's Formula One Lotus 16
. Both the Brabham team and their gearbox supplier Weismann lay claim to the idea of doing this with the tall BMW engine in order to create a car with very low bodywork that would allow a large supply of air to reach the rear wing undisturbed and create more downforce. The driver was placed in a lying down position, as had been common in the 1960s, but had become rare by the 1980s. BMW designed a special version of their four-cylinder turbocharged engine with the engine block tilted almost horizontally (18° from horizontal).
of a BT49
chassis. He was not happy to employ a two piece composite chassis, preferring to develop a technique which produced a seamless monocoque of carbon fibre/kevlar composite over a nomex
honeycomb. This structure was reinforced, like his earlier designs, by machined aluminium bulkhead
s.
.
The team's other driver, Elio de Angelis
, was the first driver to die in a works Brabham when he was killed in an accident while testing at the Circuit Paul Ricard
in France. The car survived the accident relatively intact and de Angelis had only minor injuries. There were very few track marshal
s at the circuit and he was trapped in the car and killed by oxygen deprivation due to a fire before they arrived. He was replaced by Derek Warwick
, reportedly the only driver who did not call team owner Bernie Ecclestone
to ask about the drive.
Murray has since summarised the reasons for the car's failure:
"...I was much too ambitious in how much we lowered it. The rather tall BMW had to lie down so far it produced a heavily offset crank needing a special gearbox and drivetrain, and what I did wrong was to try to do it in the time available.
Secondly, the engine never worked properly in the lay down position. The exhaust and turbo system was a nightmare and it had incurable oil surge and drain problems in corners. One way it was OK, but not the other.
The weight distribution gave dynamic centre of gravity movements that messed up the traction.
And then Bernie [Ecclestone, owner of the team] who is totally non-technical and had always left that side completely to me, started to get involved on the technical side. We had had 16 years with never a cross word until then, and things were changing with his deeper and deeper involvement in [the Formula One Constructors Association
]. Then McLaren made approaches to me and I just felt it was the end of the road at Brabham."
Murray left the team at the end of the year to join rivals McLaren. His 1988 car, the McLaren MP4/4
is usually said to have been based on the BT55 concept, although McLaren team manager Jo Ramirez
has downplayed Murray's involvement in the design of the MP4/4. The lying down driver position has again become the standard in Formula One since 1988.
Brabham regrouped with the much more conventional BT56, but had to re-use the tilted over BMW engine and gearbox as the German manufacturer, already reducing its involvement in Formula One, had sold the supply of conventional engines to Megatron
for use by other teams. BMW pulled out of Formula One altogether at the end of 1987, and the Brabham team missed the 1988 season.
Formula One
Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...
racing car designed by Gordon Murray
Gordon Murray
Prof. Gordon Murray , is a renowned designer of Formula One race cars and the McLaren F1 road car.-Early life:...
and David North for the Brabham team owned by Bernie Ecclestone
Bernie Ecclestone
Bernard Charles "Bernie" Ecclestone is an English business magnate, as president and CEO of Formula One Management and Formula One Administration and through his part-ownership of Alpha Prema, the parent company of the Formula One Group of companies. As such, he is generally considered the primary...
. It used a BMW
BMW
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG is a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company founded in 1916. It also owns and produces the Mini marque, and is the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. BMW produces motorcycles under BMW Motorrad and Husqvarna brands...
four-cylinder turbocharged engine tilted over on its side to allow a clear supply of air to the rear wing. The car competed during the 1986 Formula One season
1986 Formula One season
The 1986 Formula One season was the 37th FIA Formula One World Championship season. It commenced on March 23, 1986, and ended on October 26 after sixteen races....
. It was not successful and its introduction coincided with the end of Brabham's time as a competitive team. Murray's next car, McLaren's MP4/4
McLaren MP4/4
The McLaren MP4/4 was a highly successful Formula 1 car that competed in the 1988 Formula One season. It was designed by Gordon Murray, who based the design on his lowline Brabham BT55 car of 1986, and American engineer Steve Nichols. It is one of the most dominant Formula One cars ever built,...
, is usually claimed to be based on the same principles and won 15 of 16 races in 1988.
Concept
By 1985, Brabham had reached the limit of aerodynamic development of their BT52-BT53Brabham BT52
The Brabham BT52 was a Formula One car designed for the Brabham team by longtime Brabham designer Gordon Murray for the 1983 F1 season. The car ran on Michelin tyres...
-BT54 series of cars. The 1985 car won only one race, and Murray decided that a radical approach was needed. The rear wing of a Formula One car creates much of its downforce, but its effectiveness is reduced by the bodywork in front of it disturbing the flow of air. Brabham's tall, relatively heavy straight-four BMW M12 engine was particularly difficult to package to allow a good flow of air to the rear wing. Designers in the 1950s had addressed the same problem of reducing the cars cross sectional area by tilting the engines around a vertical or longitudinal axis by a small amount. Examples include the 1950s Kurtis-Kraft and Epperly
Epperly
Quincy David "Quin" Epperly, Mar. 3, 1913-Jan. 7, 2001, was an American racing car constructor. He was born in Floyd Va. to John Wesley and Iowa Texas Epperly. After completing a correspondence course in "Theory of Aircraft Construction", Quin moved to Southern Ca. in 1940 to work for Lockheed and...
Championship Cars and Colin Chapman
Colin Chapman
Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman CBE was an influential British designer, inventor, and builder in the automotive industry, and founder of Lotus Cars....
's Formula One Lotus 16
Lotus 16
The Lotus 16 was the second single-seat racing car designed by Colin Chapman, and was built by his Lotus Cars manufacturing company for the Team Lotus racing squad. The Lotus 16 was constructed to compete in both the Formula One and Formula Two categories, and was the first Lotus car to be...
. Both the Brabham team and their gearbox supplier Weismann lay claim to the idea of doing this with the tall BMW engine in order to create a car with very low bodywork that would allow a large supply of air to reach the rear wing undisturbed and create more downforce. The driver was placed in a lying down position, as had been common in the 1960s, but had become rare by the 1980s. BMW designed a special version of their four-cylinder turbocharged engine with the engine block tilted almost horizontally (18° from horizontal).
Chassis and suspension
The car was also Brabham's first fully composite monocoque. Although the team had been the first in Formula One to make use of carbon fibre composite panels in the structure of the car in 1978, Murray had been reluctant to design a fully composite car until he understood how it would perform in a crash: he eventually persuaded Ecclestone to finance a fully instrumented crash testCrash test
A crash test is a form of destructive testing usually performed in order to ensure safe design standards in crashworthiness and crash compatibility for various modes of transportation or related systems and components.- Types :...
of a BT49
Brabham BT49
The Brabham BT49 is a Formula One racing car designed by South African Gordon Murray for the British Brabham team. The BT49 competed in the to Formula One World Championships and was used by Brazilian driver Nelson Piquet to win his first World Championship in .The car was initially designed in...
chassis. He was not happy to employ a two piece composite chassis, preferring to develop a technique which produced a seamless monocoque of carbon fibre/kevlar composite over a nomex
Nomex
Nomex is a registered trademark for flame resistant meta-aramid material developed in the early 1960s by DuPont and first marketed in 1967.- Properties:...
honeycomb. This structure was reinforced, like his earlier designs, by machined aluminium bulkhead
Bulkhead (partition)
A bulkhead is an upright wall within the hull of a ship or within the fuselage of an airplane. Other kinds of partition elements within a ship are decks and deckheads.-Etymology:...
s.
Engine and transmission
At Murray's request, BMW designed a special version of their M10 inline four engine. Differences from the standard upright unit were few, mainly concerning the oil scavenging system and the cradle in which the unit was mounted. Like the upright version the unit was not a stressed component. Mounting the engine on its side meant that the power takeoff from the unit, previously at the bottom, was offset to one side. A special 7-speed gearbox from American gearbox specialists Weismann was produced to deal with this.Racing history
The aerodynamic concept worked, in that the car produced plenty of downforce. However, this was matched by an unexpectedly high level of drag which limited the performance of the car. The tilted over engine and specially designed gearbox also produced many reliability problems. The team scored just two points all season, both by driver Riccardo PatreseRiccardo Patrese
Riccardo Gabriele Patrese is an Italian former racing driver, who raced in Formula One from to .He became the first Formula One driver to achieve 200 Grand Prix starts when he appeared at the 1990 British Grand Prix, and the first to achieve 250 starts at the 1993 German Grand Prix...
.
The team's other driver, Elio de Angelis
Elio de Angelis
Elio de Angelis was an Italian racing driver who participated in Formula One between and , racing for the Shadow, Lotus and Brabham teams. He was killed during testing at the Paul Ricard circuit at Le Castellet in 1986...
, was the first driver to die in a works Brabham when he was killed in an accident while testing at the Circuit Paul Ricard
Circuit Paul Ricard
The Paul Ricard Circuit is a motorsport race track built at Le Castellet, near Marseille, France, in 1969 with finance from the eccentric drinks magnate Paul Ricard, who created what essentially became Pernod Ricard...
in France. The car survived the accident relatively intact and de Angelis had only minor injuries. There were very few track marshal
Track marshal
Motorsport marshals contribute to more enjoyable, more efficient, and safer motor racing. They are responsible for the safety of competitors and are stationed at various points of danger around race tracks to assist them in case of any collisions, accidents or track problems...
s at the circuit and he was trapped in the car and killed by oxygen deprivation due to a fire before they arrived. He was replaced by Derek Warwick
Derek Warwick
Derek Stanley Arthur Warwick is a British former racing driver from England. He raced for many years in Formula One, but never won a Grand Prix. During the early 1980s he was thought more likely to achieve World Championship success than his contemporary Nigel Mansell, but a series of wrong...
, reportedly the only driver who did not call team owner Bernie Ecclestone
Bernie Ecclestone
Bernard Charles "Bernie" Ecclestone is an English business magnate, as president and CEO of Formula One Management and Formula One Administration and through his part-ownership of Alpha Prema, the parent company of the Formula One Group of companies. As such, he is generally considered the primary...
to ask about the drive.
Aftermath
"...I was much too ambitious in how much we lowered it. The rather tall BMW had to lie down so far it produced a heavily offset crank needing a special gearbox and drivetrain, and what I did wrong was to try to do it in the time available.
Secondly, the engine never worked properly in the lay down position. The exhaust and turbo system was a nightmare and it had incurable oil surge and drain problems in corners. One way it was OK, but not the other.
The weight distribution gave dynamic centre of gravity movements that messed up the traction.
And then Bernie [Ecclestone, owner of the team] who is totally non-technical and had always left that side completely to me, started to get involved on the technical side. We had had 16 years with never a cross word until then, and things were changing with his deeper and deeper involvement in [the Formula One Constructors Association
Formula One Constructors Association
The Formula One Constructors' Association is an organization of the chassis builders who design and build the cars that race in the FIA Formula One World Championship...
]. Then McLaren made approaches to me and I just felt it was the end of the road at Brabham."
Murray left the team at the end of the year to join rivals McLaren. His 1988 car, the McLaren MP4/4
McLaren MP4/4
The McLaren MP4/4 was a highly successful Formula 1 car that competed in the 1988 Formula One season. It was designed by Gordon Murray, who based the design on his lowline Brabham BT55 car of 1986, and American engineer Steve Nichols. It is one of the most dominant Formula One cars ever built,...
is usually said to have been based on the BT55 concept, although McLaren team manager Jo Ramirez
Jo Ramirez
Joaquín "Jo" Ramírez is an author and retired employee of several motor racing teams. From 1984 to 2001 Ramirez was coordinator of the McLaren Formula One team, including during the infamous Prost / Senna clash of the late-1980s.The third of eight children, Ramírez was born in Mexico City and...
has downplayed Murray's involvement in the design of the MP4/4. The lying down driver position has again become the standard in Formula One since 1988.
Brabham regrouped with the much more conventional BT56, but had to re-use the tilted over BMW engine and gearbox as the German manufacturer, already reducing its involvement in Formula One, had sold the supply of conventional engines to Megatron
Megatron (engine)
The BMW M12/13 turbo 1500 cc 4-cylinder turbocharged Formula One engine, based on the standard BMW M10 engine introduced in 1961, powered the F1 cars of Brabham, Arrows and Benetton and won the world championship in 1983....
for use by other teams. BMW pulled out of Formula One altogether at the end of 1987, and the Brabham team missed the 1988 season.
Complete Formula One results
| Year | Entrant | Engine | Tyres | Driver | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | WCC | Pts. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brabham | BMW M12/13 S4 tc Turbocharger A turbocharger, or turbo , from the Greek "τύρβη" is a centrifugal compressor powered by a turbine that is driven by an engine's exhaust gases. Its benefit lies with the compressor increasing the mass of air entering the engine , thereby resulting in greater performance... |
BRA 1986 Brazilian Grand Prix The 1986 Brazilian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Jacarepaguá on March 23, 1986.This was the first race to be held after Sir Frank Williams' car accident in France. Nigel Mansell was out of the race on the first lap after an overtaking attempt on Senna saw him in the wall.... |
ESP 1986 Spanish Grand Prix The 1986 Spanish Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Jerez on April 13, 1986. This was the first Spanish Grand Prix since the 1981 race held at Jarama.... |
SMR 1986 San Marino Grand Prix The 1986 San Marino Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Imola on 27 April 1986. The race was the third round of the year's World Championship... |
MON 1986 Monaco Grand Prix The 1986 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Monaco on May 11, 1986.- Classification :- Notes :*Lap leaders: Alain Prost 71 , Ayrton Senna 7... |
BEL 1986 Belgian Grand Prix The 1986 Belgian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Spa-Francorchamps on May 25, 1986.Nelson Piquet took pole late in the qualifying session using a spare car... |
CAN 1986 Canadian Grand Prix The 1986 Canadian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on June 15, 1986.- Classification :-Standings after Grand Prix:Drivers' Championship standingsConstructors' Championship standings... |
DET 1986 Detroit Grand Prix The 1986 Detroit Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on June 22, 1986 in Detroit, Michigan.__FORCETOC__-Summary:Rising Lotus star Ayrton Senna started on the pole and came away with a hard-earned win, the fourth of his career. The young Brazilian charged through the field after dropping to... |
FRA 1986 French Grand Prix The 1986 French Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Paul Ricard on July 6, 1986. Elio De Angelis's fatal crash on the full circuit 2 months before prompted Formula One to use a shortened version of the circuit.- Classification :-Trivia:... |
GBR 1986 British Grand Prix The 1986 British Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Brands Hatch on July 13, 1986. It was the ninth race of the 1986 Formula One season... |
GER 1986 German Grand Prix The 1986 German Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Hockenheimring on July 27, 1986. It was the tenth race of the 1986 Formula One season.- Classification :- Notes :... |
HUN 1986 Hungarian Grand Prix The 1986 Hungarian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Hungaroring on August 10, 1986. It was the eleventh round of the 1986 Formula One season.... |
AUT 1986 Austrian Grand Prix The 1986 Austrian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Österreichring on 17 August 1986.- Classification :- Notes :* The Benettons of Berger and Fabi were so dominant in this race that they were 40 seconds ahead of third-placed Prost after 12 laps... |
ITA 1986 Italian Grand Prix The 1986 Italian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Monza on September 7, 1986.- Race :Following problems at the start of the parade lap, pole position man Teo Fabi was forced to start from the back of the grid and Alain Prost, alongside him on the front row, had to start from the pit... |
POR 1986 Portuguese Grand Prix The 1986 Portuguese Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Estoril on September 21, 1986.- Classification :- Notes :* Williams-Honda took the Constructor's Championship with two races left.... |
MEX 1986 Mexican Grand Prix The 1986 Mexican Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Mexico City on October 12, 1986.It was the first win for Gerhard Berger and the first win for the Benetton team. Benetton ran on Pirelli tyres, and their relative durability compared to competitors on Goodyear tyres played to the... |
AUS 1986 Australian Grand Prix The 1986 Australian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 26 October 1986 at the Adelaide Street Circuit, Adelaide, Australia. It was the last of 16 races in the 1986 Formula One season... |
9th | 2 | |||
| Riccardo Patrese Riccardo Patrese Riccardo Gabriele Patrese is an Italian former racing driver, who raced in Formula One from to .He became the first Formula One driver to achieve 200 Grand Prix starts when he appeared at the 1990 British Grand Prix, and the first to achieve 250 starts at the 1993 German Grand Prix... |
Ret | Ret | 6 | Ret | 8 | Ret | 6 | 7 | * | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | 13 | Ret | ||||||
| Elio de Angelis Elio de Angelis Elio de Angelis was an Italian racing driver who participated in Formula One between and , racing for the Shadow, Lotus and Brabham teams. He was killed during testing at the Paul Ricard circuit at Le Castellet in 1986... |
8 | Ret | Ret | Ret | ||||||||||||||||||
| Derek Warwick Derek Warwick Derek Stanley Arthur Warwick is a British former racing driver from England. He raced for many years in Formula One, but never won a Grand Prix. During the early 1980s he was thought more likely to achieve World Championship success than his contemporary Nigel Mansell, but a series of wrong... |
Ret | 10 | 9 | * | 7 | Ret | DNS | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret |
- Brabham used the model BT54Brabham BT54The Brabham BT54 was a Formula One racing car designed by Gordon Murray for the Brabham team for the 1985 Formula One season. The car was powered by the BMW M12 4cyl turbo engine and used Pirelli tyres....
at the British Grand Prix1986 British Grand PrixThe 1986 British Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Brands Hatch on July 13, 1986. It was the ninth race of the 1986 Formula One season...