Brabham BT55
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| Category | Formula One |
|---|---|
| Constructor | Motor Racing Developments Ltd. |
| Designer | Gordon Murray |
| Chassis | Carbon fibre composite/Kevlar monocoque |
| Suspension (front) | Pullrod double wishbone |
| Suspension (rear) | Pushrod double wishbone |
| Engine | BMW, 1.5 litre straight-4 (non-structural), turbocharged, mid-mounted |
| Transmission | Weissman 7-speed manual |
| Fuel | |
| Tyres | Pirelli |
| Notable entrants | Brabham |
| Notable drivers | Riccardo Patrese, Elio de Angelis, Derek Warwick |
| Debut | 1986 Brazilian Grand Prix |
| Races competed | 16 |
| Race victories | 0 |
| Constructors' Championships | 0 |
| Drivers' Championships | 0 |
| Pole positions | 0 |
| Fastest laps | |
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.
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[edit] Concept
In the early 1980s, Formula One design had become dominated by ground effect, an aerodynamic effect which sucked cars down onto the track at high speed, giving them increased grip and allowing them to go round corners faster. The effect was created by shaping the underside of the car. The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile mandated that cars must have flat undersides from the 1983 season onwards to eliminate ground effect and reduce speeds. Brabham's first attempt to meet the new regulations, the BT52, had been very effective, winning the drivers' title for Nelson Piquet in 1983. By 1985 the concept was less competitive.
A conventional straight four engine, like the BMW Brabham was using, is tall relative to other engine configurations like 'vee' or 'boxer' where the cylinders are tilted away from the vertical. In order to create a large amount of downforce by other means, Murray came up with the concept of a 'lowline' car, with very low bodywork over a tilted over engine, which would allow a large supply of air to reach the rear wing undisturbed. A similar approach of laying down a tall engine to reduce cross sectional area was used in 1950s Championship Car roadsters by the American Kurtis-Kraft and Epperly racing car constructors and by Colin Chapman in the 1958 front-engined Formula One Lotus 16.[1][2] In order to achieve this, the driver was placed in a lying down position and BMW designed a special version of their four cylinder turbocharged engine with the tall engine block, normally positioned vertically in the car, tilted almost horizontally (18° from horizontal) to reduce the overall height of the unit. A special Weissman gearbox was produced to deal with the offset drive from the engine. Drivers had been placed in the reclining position by Lotus in the early 1960s, but were sitting more upright again by the 1980s.
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 test of a BT49 chassis.[3] 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 bulkheads.[4]
[edit] 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 Patrese.
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 marshals 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.
[edit] Aftermath
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.
[edit] Footnotes
[edit] References
- Books
- Bamsey, Ian; Benzing, Enrico; Staniforth, Allan; Lawrence, Mike (1988). The 1000 BHP Grand Prix cars. G T Foulis & Co Ltd. ISBN 0854296174.
- Hodges, David (1998). A-Z of Formula Racing Cars 1945-1990. Bay View books. ISBN 1-901432-17-3.
- Ramirez, Jo (2005). Memoirs of a Racing Man. Haynes Group. ISBN 1-84425-238-8.
- Magazines
- Howard, Keith. "Carbon fibre", Motorsport, June 2006, p. 52.
| Motor Racing Developments |
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Formula One: BT3 | BT7 | BT19 | BT20 | BT23 | BT24 | BT26 | BT33 | BT34 | BT37 | BT39 | BT42 | BT44/B | BT45 | BT46/B/C | BT48 | BT49/C/D | BT50 | BT51 | BT52 | BT53 | BT54 | BT55 | BT56 | BT58 | BT59/Y | BT60 Indianapolis 500/USAC: BT12 | BT25 | BT32 Formula Two: BT10 | BT11/A | BT16 | BT18 | BT23 | BT23C | BT30 | BT36 | BT38 | BT40 | Formula Atlantic: BT23F/G | BT29 | BT35A/B | BT38B | BT40 Formula Three: BT9 | BT15 | BT16A | BT18A | BT21 | BT21B | BT21X | BT28 | BT35C | BT38C | BT41 Formula Junior: BT1 | BT2 | BT6 Other single seaters: BT4 | BT7A | BT14 | BT18B | BT21A | BT21C | BT22 | BT23A | BT23B | BT23D | BT23E | BT30X | BT31 | BT35X | BT36X | BT43 Sportscars: BT5 | BT8A | BT17 |
