DB Monomill, 1955
The tiny DB Monomill was an oddity among the Grand Prix giants of the 1950s. Formula 1 regulations at the time allowed for 750cc supercharged engines, although no-one else tried it.
The DB company took is initials from its founders, Charles Deutsch and René Bonnet. The duo had started manufacturing racing cars after World War II, using Panhard engines and known as DB-Panhards. Their small cars competed in French Formula 3 races and sports car events, where the handicap system made them surprisingly competitive.
A Panhard engine was also used in the Monomill design. A number of the 850cc cars were built and raced in single-make series around France. The company, now known as DB Monomill, was an adventurous organisation. In the early 1950s they experimented with a four-wheel drive racing car and also concocted planes for a twin-engined machine which was never constructed.
The Formula 1 Monomill was built with a 750cc twin-cylinder, air-cooled and supercharged Panhard engine. This was mounted at the very front of the car, over the driven wheels. Disc brakes were employed at the front with drums on the rear. The engine only produced 85 bhp but this was compensated for by its weight, a meagre 350 kg.
Two examples of the car were entered for the 1955 non-championship Grand Prix around the streets of Pau. They were to be driven by Claude Storez and Paul Armagnac. The nimble little cars would have been ideally suited to the tight street circuit had it not been for the uphill gradients they encountered. The 750cc engine was hopelessly ineffective at overcoming these obstacles and Storez retired his car. Armagnac soldiered on to finish a very distant last. It was the one and only appearance of the peculiar cars in a Formula 1 race.
BRM P67, 1964
A young BRM employee, Mike Pilbeam, was entrusted with assembling the company’s attempt at a four-wheel drive Formula 1 car. Pilbeam produced an interesting car and would later go on to find fame as a designer of his own racing machines.
BRM accepted an offer from the Ferguson company to take their four-wheel drive system. The Ferguson P99 Formula 1 car had won a race using the system in 1961 and BRM were keen to experiment. Pilbeam mated the system to a P261 chassis, P57 suspension and a 1.5 litre engine.
The car’s only appearance at a Formula 1 race came in 1964 when Richard Attwood qualified it last for the British Grand Prix. BRM decided not to race the car and the project was largely forgotten about. In 1967 the car was acquired and raced in hillclimbs. Peter Westbury showed the potential of the machine the following year when he dominated the British Hillclimb Championship. The P67 is now part of the Donington Collection in England.
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