page_title: BRM P83
section_title: The P75 H16 engine
hierarchical_section_title: BRM P83 / The P75 H16 engine
caption_attribution_description: English: A British Racing Motors H16 Formula One engine. This is the final, 1968, 64-valve incarnation of the design. At the Donington Collection museum, Leicestershire, England, UK. Deutsch: Ein British Racing Motors (B.R.M.) H-16 Formel-1-Motor. Baujahr 1968 mit 64 Ventilen, ausgestellt im Donington Collection Museum in Leicestershire, England, UK.
context_page_description: The BRM P83 was a Formula One racing car designed by Tony Rudd and built by British Racing Motors for the new engine regulations of 1966. It used a highly unorthodox H16 engine which caused problems throughout the car's racing life, and despite the best efforts of Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart took BRM from championship contenders to also-rans, leading it to be regarded alongside the BRM Type 15 as another embarrassing failure for the British marque caused by a fetish for overcomplicated engineering.
context_section_description: BRM decided to hedge their bets by developing their existing 16 valve 1.5 litre V8 into a 32 valve 3 litre H16 (effectively two flat 8s one on top of the other and geared together) while also developing a new 48 valve 3 litre V12 in partnership with Harry Weslake and opt for whichever turned out to be the better powerplant. After much debate Sir Alfred Owen decided BRM would go with the H16 and Weslake bought out BRM's involvement in the V12 and produced the engine that went on to power the Eagle T1G. The H16's development was complicated by BRM's involvement in two further V12 designs and a 4.2 litre version of the H16 for Lotus to use at Indianapolis.
  Various crankshaft vibration problems  dogged the engine from the start, and to compound matters quick-fix balancing weights attached to the crankshafts developed the unfortunate habit of detaching themselves and flying off within the engines causing several catastrophic engine failures. Each side of the engine had to have its own water radiator, fuel metering unit, distributor and water pump, with a common oil radiator. The sheer complexity of the engine led to a truly terrible record of unreliability; engine, transmission and related problems caused 27 of the powerplant's 30 retirements from 40 entries. Jackie Stewart said of the engine "it was unnecessarily large, used more fuel, carried more oil and needed more water - all of which added weight and diminished the vehicle's agility"
  The initial 32 valve engine produced 395 horsepower at 10,250 RPM, with a later 64 valve variant raising this to 420 hp at 10,500 RPM. While these constituted reasonable figures compared to the Ferrari, Honda and Weslake V12s and the Cosworth V8 of 1967, the H16 had an extremely narrow power band and was by some distance the heaviest engine on the grid, starting out weighing 555 lb when introduced in 1966 with the final lightweight version lowering this to 398 lb.
  The engine was also used by Team Lotus in the Lotus 43 as a stopgap while the Cosworth DFV was developed.
caption: the BRM Type 75 H16 engine
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