Mike Pilbeam (born 1937)
is a British motorsport designer and engineer known for his work with
BRM
British Racing Motors (BRM) was a British Formula One motor racing team. Founded in 1945 and based in the market town of Bourne in Lincolnshire, it participated from 1951 to 1977, competing in 197 grands prix and winning seventeen. BRM wo ...
,
Lotus,
Surtees
The Surtees Racing Organisation was a race team that spent nine seasons (1970 to 1978) as a constructor in Formula One, Formula 2, and Formula 5000.
History
The team was formed by John Surtees, a four-time 500cc motorcycle champion and the ...
and his own company,
Pilbeam Racing Designs
Pilbeam Racing Designs is a British company which designs and constructs racing cars, based in the Lincolnshire town of Bourne. The company was founded in 1975 by Mike Pilbeam.
Early career
Previously Pilbeam worked in Formula One for several ...
. An early design was the experimental
four wheel drive
Four-wheel drive, also called 4×4 ("four by four") or 4WD, refers to a two-axled vehicle drivetrain capable of providing torque to all of its wheels simultaneously. It may be full-time or on-demand, and is typically linked via a transfer case ...
Formula One
Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...
BRM P67 of 1964.
, Pilbeam's company continued to produce
hillclimb cars and sports prototype chassis for endurance racing.
Biography
Formula One
Pilbeam spent much of his early life in West London, and had little interest in competition cars until he attended the
1958 British Grand Prix, whilst at
Bristol University
, mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'')
, established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter
, type ...
.
In 1959, he constructed a small
sportscar
A sports car is a car designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving and racing capability. Sports cars originated in Europe in the early 1900s and are currently produced by ...
with which he competed himself, but without much success. However a later design and an association with club racer Tony Gould brought some success in the class.
In 1963, he joined
BRM
British Racing Motors (BRM) was a British Formula One motor racing team. Founded in 1945 and based in the market town of Bourne in Lincolnshire, it participated from 1951 to 1977, competing in 197 grands prix and winning seventeen. BRM wo ...
as a stress engineer. He assisted in the construction and design of the
P67 whilst still an apprentice and the actual design is usually credited to
Tony Rudd
Anthony Cyril Rudd (8 March 1923 – 22 August 2003) was a British engineer involved in aero engine design and motor racing, with particular associations with BRM and Lotus.
Early life and war service
Rudd became involved with motor racing ...
. The car, driven by
Richard Attwood
Richard James David "Dickie" Attwood (born 4 April 1940, Wolverhampton, Staffordshire) is a British motor racing driver, from England. During his career he raced for the BRM, Lotus and Cooper Formula One teams. He competed in 17 World Championsh ...
, was entered for the
1964 British Grand Prix
The 1964 British Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Brands Hatch on 11 July 1964. The event was also designated as the European Grand Prix. It was race 5 of 10 in both the 1964 World Championship of Drivers and the 1964 Internatio ...
at
Brands Hatch
Brands Hatch is a motor racing circuit in West Kingsdown, Kent, England, United Kingdom. Originally used as a grasstrack motorcycle circuit on farmland, it hosted 12 runnings of the British Grand Prix between 1964 and 1986 and currently host ...
but was withdrawn after practice.
It did not make any further appearances until 1968, when it appeared in
hillclimb events, initially driven by
Peter Westbury
Peter Westbury (26 May 1938 – 7 December 2015) was a British racing driver from England. He participated in two World Championship Formula One Grands Prix, scoring no championship points. In 1969 he raced a Formula 2 Brabham-Cosworth, driving ...
and subsequently by Peter Lawson and was a championship winning machine.
After the abandonment of the P67 project, Pilbeam worked on the BRM
H16 engine
An H engine is a piston engine comprising two separate flat engines (complete with separate crankshafts), most often geared to a common output shaft. The name "H engine" is due to the engine blocks resembling a letter "H" when viewed from the f ...
, helping to develop it to the point where
Jim Clark
James Clark Jr. OBE (4 March 1936 – 7 April 1968) was a British Formula One racing driver from Scotland, who won two World Championships, in 1963 and 1965. A versatile driver, he competed in sports cars, touring cars and in the Indianapol ...
was able to win the
1966 United States Grand Prix with a
Lotus 43-BRM.
Pilbeam moved to
Ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
at
Dunton,
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...
in 1966, where he worked in the advanced chassis department.
He moved to Lotus in 1969, where he worked on the four-wheel-drive
Lotus 63
The Lotus 63 was an experimental Formula One car using four-wheel drive, designed by Colin Chapman and Maurice Philippe for the 1969 season. Chapman's reasoning behind the car was that the 3 litre engines introduced in 1966 would be better served ...
, alongside
Maurice Philippe
Maurice Philippe (30 April 1932 – 5 June 1989), also known as Maurice Phillippe, was a British aircraft and Formula One car designer.
Philippe designed his first car in 1955, called the MPS (Maurice Philippe Special), while employed developin ...
, and also on the
Lotus 49B
The Lotus 49 was a Formula One racing car designed by Colin Chapman and Maurice Philippe for the 1967 F1 season. It was designed around the Cosworth DFV engine that would power most of the Formula One grid through the 1970s. It was one of the fi ...
and
72 models.
Pilbeam left Lotus in 1972, moving to
Surtees
The Surtees Racing Organisation was a race team that spent nine seasons (1970 to 1978) as a constructor in Formula One, Formula 2, and Formula 5000.
History
The team was formed by John Surtees, a four-time 500cc motorcycle champion and the ...
where he worked on the
Surtees TS9, but in 1973 returned to BRM.
Chief designer
Tony Southgate
Tony Southgate (born 25 May 1940, Coventry, England) is a British engineer and former racing car designer. He designed many successful cars, including Jaguar's Le Mans-winning XJR-9, and cars for almost every type of circuit racing. He was res ...
had left BRM towards the end of the season and Pilbeam accepted a job as manager of the design office.
This gave him the chance to design the
BRM P201 for , which was still competing as late as the
1977 Formula One season.
Pilbeam Racing Designs
![Pilbeam MP43 at Crystal Palace](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Pilbeam_MP43_at_Crystal_Palace.JPG)
Pilbeam left BRM in late 1974, after
Louis Stanley
Louis Thomas Stanley (6 January 1912 – 8 January 2004) was the chair of the Formula One team BRM. He was married to Jean, the sister of Sir Alfred Owen. Owen was proprietor of the BRM team from the early 1950s to 1974.
Biography
Stanley studie ...
took control of the company, and in 1975 established
Pilbeam Racing Designs
Pilbeam Racing Designs is a British company which designs and constructs racing cars, based in the Lincolnshire town of Bourne. The company was founded in 1975 by Mike Pilbeam.
Early career
Previously Pilbeam worked in Formula One for several ...
, initially working from home.
His first design was a
Formula Atlantic
Formula Atlantic is a specification of open-wheel racing car developed in the 1970s. It was used in professional racing through the IMSA Atlantic Championship until 2009 and is currently primarily used in amateur racing through Sports Car Club o ...
chassis for
Tom Wheatcroft
Frederick Bernard "Tom" Wheatcroft (8 May 1922 – 31 October 2009) was an English businessman and car collector. He made his fortune through building and construction, and was known for resurrecting the Donington Park motor racing circuit and ...
which was also adapted to
Formula Two
Formula Two (F2 or Formula 2) is a type of open-wheel formula racing category first codified in 1948. It was replaced in 1985 by Formula 3000, but revived by the FIA from 2009–2012 in the form of the FIA Formula Two Championship. The name retur ...
, where it was driven by
Brian Henton
Brian Henton (born 19 September 1946) is a former racing driver from England. He won both 1974 British Formula Three Championships and the 1980 European Formula Two Championship. He participated in 38 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on 19 Ju ...
.
Subsequently, Pilbeam began constructing
hillclimb cars. Pilbeam cars won the
British Hill Climb Championship
The British Hill Climb Championship (BHCC) is the most prestigious Hillclimbing championship in Great Britain. Hillclimbing in the British Isles has a rich history, for example, the hillclimb held at Shelsley Walsh, in Worcestershire, England is t ...
17 times between 1977 and 1997.
Pilbeam was also involved in the design of the
Penske
Penske Corporation, Inc. () is an American diversified transportation services company based in Bloomfield Township, Oakland County, Michigan. Roger Penske is the chairman of the privately held company, and Rob Kurnick is the president.
Holding ...
PC3
PC3 (PC-3) is a human prostate cancer Cell culture#Isolation of cells, cell line used in prostate cancer research and drug development. PC3 cells are useful in investigating biochemical changes in advanced prostate cancer cells and in assessing t ...
, as well as engineering the
RAM Racing
RAM Racing was a Formula One racing team which competed during the racing seasons of 1976 to 1985. The team entered other manufacturers' chassis from 1976 to 1980, then ran March's team from 1981 to 1983, only entering a car entirely their ow ...
Brabham BT44
The Brabham BT44 was a Formula One racing car designed by Gordon Murray, Brabham's chief designer.
Design
An update of the partially successful BT42 of 1973, the BT44 was a simple design with a standard Ford DFV/Hewland gearbox combination, ...
s in 1976.
He also designed the
LEC CRP1 F1 car for
David Purley
David Charles Purley, GM (26 January 1945 – 2 July 1985) was a British racing driver born in Bognor Regis, West Sussex, who participated in 11 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting at Monaco in 1973.
Purley is best known ...
, which competed in the
1977 Formula One season.
In this machine, during practice for the
1977 British Grand Prix
The 1977 British Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Silverstone on 16 July 1977. It was the tenth race of the 1977 World Championship of F1 Drivers and the 1977 International Cup for F1 Constructors.
The 68-lap race was won from po ...
at
Silverstone
Silverstone is a village and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is about from Towcester on the former A43 main road, from the M1 motorway junction 15A and about from the M40 motorway junction 10, Northampton, Milton Keynes and B ...
, Purley was involved in one of the heaviest impacts where a driver has survived. Pilbeam has a reputation for the structural integrity of his designs and it has been considered that this was crucial to the driver's survival.
Other freelance work continued, but the F2 MP42 ground effect car commissioned by Mike Earle in 1979 was not successful, although hillclimb success kept the company in good order.
A Pilbeam-modified
Brabham
Brabham () is the common name for Motor Racing Developments Ltd., a British racing car manufacturer and Formula One racing team. Founded in 1960 by Australian driver Jack Brabham and British-Australian designer Ron Tauranac, the team won four ...
BT38-
Cosworth
Cosworth is a British automotive engineering company founded in London in 1958, specialising in high-performance internal combustion engines, powertrain, and electronics for automobile racing (motorsport) and mainstream automotive industrie ...
won the British Hillclimb Championship in 1977
and in 1979, Pilbeam designed the MP40, which was a hillclimb car to European
Formula Two
Formula Two (F2 or Formula 2) is a type of open-wheel formula racing category first codified in 1948. It was replaced in 1985 by Formula 3000, but revived by the FIA from 2009–2012 in the form of the FIA Formula Two Championship. The name retur ...
specification. This machine won British Hillclimb titles in 1979 and from 1981 to 1984, powered by a
Brian Hart
Brian Roger Hart (7 September 1936 – 5 January 2014) was a British racing driver and engineer with a background in the aviation industry. He is best known as the founder of Brian Hart Limited, a company that developed and built engines for mot ...
engine.
Pilbeam moved into his own premises, in a former part of BRM's operation at
Bourne, Lincolnshire
Bourne is a market town and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It lies on the eastern slopes of the limestone Kesteven Uplands and the western edge of the Fens, 11 miles (18 km) north-east of Stamford, 12 mile ...
in 1981 and produced uncompetitive designs for
Formula Ford 2000
Formula Ford, also known as F1600 and Formula F, is an entry-level class of single seater, open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held across the world form an important step for many prospective Formula One drivers. Formula Ford ...
and
Formula Three
Formula Three, also called Formula 3, abbreviated as F3, is a third-tier class of open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held in Europe, Australia, South America and Asia form an important step for many prospective Formula One driv ...
in 1982 and 1983, although the hillclimb designs continued to be successful.
In 1997 new premises at Bourne were opened by Bette Hill, (widow of
Graham
Graham and Graeme may refer to:
People
* Graham (given name), an English-language given name
* Graham (surname), an English-language surname
* Graeme (surname), an English-language surname
* Graham (musician) (born 1979), Burmese singer
* Clan ...
), and Pilbeam continued to work within the industry on both road and racing car projects on a freelance basis.
Pilbeam's own designs continued to be produced in small numbers to order and when his freelance work allowed.
Pilbeam Racing Designs was involved in the development of the
BRM P301
British Racing Motors (BRM) was a British Formula One motor racing team. Founded in 1945 and based in the market town of Bourne, Lincolnshire, Bourne in Lincolnshire, it participated from 1951 to 1977, competing in 197 Grand Prix motor raci ...
sportscar in the mid-1990s before subsequently producing their own chassis to compete in the
Le Mans 24 hour race
The 24 Hours of Le Mans (french: link=no, 24 Heures du Mans) is an endurance-focused sports car race held annually near the town of Le Mans, France. It is the world's oldest active endurance racing event. Unlike fixed-distance races whose ...
and in the
World Endurance Championship World Endurance Championship may refer to:
* FIA World Endurance Championship, an auto racing series held since 2012
* World Sportscar Championship, an auto racing series which used the title World Endurance Championship from 1981 to 1985
* Endura ...
in the LMP2 class, between 2001 and 2007
and in 2014, produced the MP100 intended as a customer car for LMP2 and the Le Mans race itself.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pilbeam, Mike
1937 births
Living people
People from Bourne, Lincolnshire
Formula One designers
Alumni of the University of Bristol
English motorsport people
Brighton Speed Trials people