The BRM P230 project that never made it to the starting grid.
The journey continues, and our next What If? story is about the BRM P230, the final car from British Racing Motors that never got the chance to race.
BRM had already become a legendary name in F1 by the time the 1970s were coming to an end, the team had enjoyed victories, built some of the most ambitious cars of its era, and even produced its own V12 engines.
But by 1979, British Racing Motors was a shadow of the powerhouse it had once been, the BRM P230 was supposed to change that. Instead, it became the final F1 car ever constructed by BRM, a car that was completed, tested and prepared for competition, but never actually appeared on a starting grid!
Its story is one of the most interesting forgotten chapters in BRM history because the P230 arrived at a time when ground-effect aerodynamics were transforming.
BRM’s Final Formula One Project
The 230 was designed by Aubrey Woods for the 1979 Aurora AFX British F1 championship, unlike the cars BRM had produced during its most successful years, the P230 was created during a period when the team was struggling for financial stability and competitive relevance, the design reflected the rapidly changing F1 world.
Ground effect had become one of the biggest technological developments in F1, with designers discovering that carefully shaped sidepods and underbody tunnels could generate enormous amounts of aerodynamic downforce without relying entirely on large wings.
The BRM P230 followed this philosophy, its shape carried clear similarities to the successful Lotus 79, one of the cars that had demonstrated just how effective ground-effect aero could be, the BRM was therefore not simply an old-fashioned continuation of the team’s previous designs, it represented an attempt to move into a new aerodynamic era, but BRM was running out of time!
A V12 Behind an Ambitious Design
One of the most interesting aspects of the BRM P230 was its planned powerplant, the car was designed around BRM’s own 3.0-litre V12 engine, at a time when Cosworth’s DFV V8 had become the dominant engine in customer F1 machinery, BRM’s V12 offered a very different approach.
The engine was capable of producing close to 500 horsepower, giving the P230 considerable theoretical performance, the combination of a powerful V12 and a modern ground-effect chassis made the project intriguing.
The problem was that horsepower alone couldn’t save a racing team that was struggling to finance development, testing and competition, the BRM P230 needed money as much as it needed speed.
The BRM P230 Was Actually Tested
Unlike many abandoned F1 projects that never progressed beyond drawings or an unfinished prototype, the BRM P230 did reach the testing stage, British driver Neil Bettridge was involved with the project and carried out initial shakedown running.
That makes the P230 particularly significant in BRM’s history, the car wasn’t merely an idea that disappeared before construction, a real car existed, and it was given an opportunity to run, yet testing was as far as the project would go.
The intended 1979 racing programme never materialised, financial difficulties continued to affect BRM, and the team was unable to put the necessary resources behind the P230, Bettridge eventually moved on, driving a Tyrrell 008 for Melchester Racing instead, the BRM P230 was left without the competitive future it had been designed for.
The Last BRM to Race Was Not the P230
There is an important distintion in the BRM story, the P230 is generally regarded as the last F1 car built by BRM, but it wasn’t the last BRM to actually compete in F1.
That honour remained with the BRM P207, an earlier and considerably less successful design, while the P230 was waiting for its chance to race, BRM’s financial problems effectively brought the team’s F1 ambition to an end.
Thsi make the P230 an especially frustrating machine to look back, it represents BRM’s final attempt to create a new F1 car, yet it never received the opportunity to establish itself on a circuit during an official race weekend, the team had built its final car, but there was no final race for it!
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From Failed F1 Project to Can-Am Machine
The story of the P230 didn’t completely end when BRM’s F1 operation collapsed, the chassis eventually found its way to David Hepworth, a British hill-climb specialist, rather than allowing the unusual machine to disappear permanently, Hepworth gave it a completely different purpose.
The BRM was heavily modified and transformed into a sport-racing machine intended for Can-Am competition, the original BRM V12 concept was abandoned in favour of a Chervolet V8, fundamentally changing the character of the car.
What had once been intended as BRM’s final F1 challenger was now becoming something altogether different, the resulting machine became known as the Hepworth GP-1.
The transformation of BRM 230 to Hepworth GB-1 took roughly a year, David turned the abandoned BRM into a new machine for Cam-An competition, but the project collapsed after Danny Sullivan incident at Riverside in 1980, before the car could make its racing debut, the GP-1 never competed in an official race.
From BRM Failure to Historic Demonstration Car
Today, the former P230 has a story that is arguably more fascinating because of everything that went wrong, it began life as BRM’s final F1 project, it was designed around modern ground-effect thinking, intended to use a powerful BRM V12 and prepared for competition in 1979, yet financial problems stopped the project.
Then came the transformation into the Hepworth GB-1, the Chevrolet V8 conversion, another unsuccessful attempt at competition and decades of inactivity.
Eventually, restoration gave the car a new lease of life. Instead of fighting for points in F1 or Can-Am, it became a piece of living motorsport history, appearing at events such as the Goodwood Festival of Speed for demonstration runs, and it is a strange but fitting ending for a car that never quite managed to become what its designers intended.
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The BRM P230’s Place in Formula One History
The P230 is easy to overlook when discussing BRM because it never scored a point, never started a race and never had the opportunity, but that is precisely what makes it worth remembering.
The car represents the final chapter of one of Britain’s most famous F1 constructors, BRM had once stood alongside the biggest names in F1, producing its own chassis and engines and even winning the 1962 World Championship with Graham Hill.
Less than two decades later, its final F1 car was sitting on the sidelines because the organisation could no longer support the project financially.
The BRM P230 was supposed to be a new beginning for a struggling F1 team, but it became its final creation, it never raced for BRM, and never reached the grid… and never had the chance to answer the question that mattered the most: How fast could it really have been?
RELATED: If you are interested in more forgotten projects like BRM P230, check out our story about 1990s F1 car projects that never reached the grid, featuring ambitious machines that remained racing history’s “what if?” stories.
