After the end of the Second World War motor racing slowly returned, based on whatever machinery could be found, largely consisting of the pre-war Voiturette cars conforming to a formula of supercharged 1.5-litre engines. One of the more successful voiturette constructors of the late 1930s had been English Racing Automobiles, founded by Raymond Mays and others. Mays was a very patriotic British driver with an enviable reputation, but despite considerable success in lesser races he had been given little opportunity to race in Grands Prix, since there were very few significant British attempts to build suitable cars to challenge the dominant Italian and later German cars. In early 1939, ERA's wealthy backer Humphrey Cook withdrew his funding, and Mays along with talented and imaginative ERA engineer Peter Berthon founded Automobile Developments Ltd, a project to build a fully-fledged British Grand Prix car along the lines of Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union.
Designers Berthon and Eric Richter were expecting 500 bhp and at least 12,000rpm from their new British Racing Motors V16 engine, which was a 1.5-litre 135° V16 designed to meet the 1947 "Formula A" or "Formula 1" regulations. A V8 configuration had also been considered but it has been suggested that the V16 was chosen in part to bolster the car's image when approaching potential sponsors. After Germany fell, Mays had access to several of the Mercedes and Auto Union designs, as well as other relevant German wartime technology. This showed in the design of the chassis, with Auto Union derived trailing arm suspension at the front and Mercedes inspired de Dion radius arms at the rear. The chassis itself was not particularly advanced, essentially a ladder chassis with pairs of tubes running down either flank of the car each linked with welded sheet metal, with cross members running across the car between the two. It used Lockheed oleo-pneumatic struts in place of conventional coil spring and damper units, thought at the time to be a common future road car arrangement.
Another significant departure from previous designs was the use of twin centrifugal rather than Roots-type superchargers, developed by Rolls-Royce based on the units used on later versions of the Merlin aero engine. This proved to be one of the car's main shortcomings. While it allowed for tremendous power at high revs, the engine produced significantly less power lower down the rev range, forcing drivers to constantly struggle to keep the revs within a very small power band.
Mays set about persuading British engineering businesses of the merits of being associated with the project, arguing it was a matter of British prestige to build a World-beating Grand Prix car. With post-war patriotism high, more than three hundred companies including Lucas, Girling, Rolls-Royce, Vandervell, Rubery Owen, David Brown and Standard Motors enthusiastically backed the project either with cash or in-kind support. On 25 April 1947 the British Motor Racing Research Trust was formed with the engine already under development.
The large number of companies involved led to an organisational nightmare, combined with continued rationing and the low priority of work within companies that had agreed to help, meaning the first car was not ready to start running until December 1949. Mays wanted to keep the car under wraps while development continued but was overruled, and after the Type 15 was revealed a major public relations operation was mounted, with articles in the press, features in boys' magazines, pamphlets and even a book titled "BRM Ambassador for Britain: The Story of Britain's Greatest Racing Car". The car ended up costing an astonishing £200,000 (£8,037,000 in 2023, or US$10 million) – at least 20 times more expensive than any other car of the time. A Pathé newsreel of the car's unveiling confidently declared: "Seldom has so much money been better spent... In the BRM Britain has found a winner!"
With all the delays the team found themselves well behind as the new World Championship began at the British Grand Prix in May. Not being in a position to enter the race itself, Mays gave the car a demonstration run in front of the very large Silverstone crowd and donations from the public flooded in. A second car was completed later in 1950 and the team set the International Trophy as the car's first full race meeting, in part due to pressure from the team's backers and also the Daily Express who sponsored the event and prepared a brochure about the car. The much anticipated début could not have gone much worse. Of the two cars, only Raymond Sommer's car was fit to start at the back of the qualifying race after being flown down overnight, and at the start the car lurched forward only a few inches before being stranded by a drive shaft failure. Loud boos rang out from the crowd and some mockingly threw pennies at the car.
The car's second race meeting at Goodwood a month later was more encouraging despite wet conditions, with Reg Parnell winning both the Woodcote Cup and the full Formula One Goodwood Trophy. "All we need now is a little longer time to develop it and then we hope to show the continent what we really can do" said Parnell after the race, but the cold conditions had masked overheating problems that would later return. The final outing for 1950 came with a two car entry at the Penya Rhin Grand Prix, but Parnell retired early with a broken supercharger drive shaft and Peter Walker retired with an oil leak.
For 1951 two new cars were built with improvements to the brakes, steering and fuel tanks, and were entered into the team's first full Championship Grand Prix at Silverstone. Problems with the cars prevented them from setting qualifying times, but both cars started from the back of the grid. The exhausts had been designed to run within the bodywork, but this was the first race the cars had run to a full Grand Prix length and the drivers found themselves dealing with almost unbearable heat within the cockpit, requiring burns dressings to protect their arms from the hot exhaust piping. Parnell and Walker struggled on to the finish, coming home in fifth and seventh, several laps down on the winning Ferrari.
The car's next race was at Monza for the Italian Grand Prix. BRM turned up with two cars and a very impressive transporter. Parnell was partnered by BRM mechanic and test driver Ken Richardson, but Richardson's entry was cancelled due to insufficient racing experience. Mays turned down the organisers' requests that he step in, but 50-year-old Hans Stuck agreed to drive and did a few practice laps. However, an inspection of the gearboxes showed they were close to seizure, and both cars were withdrawn on safety grounds. There were to be no further races in 1951. Parnell finished second in a Ferrari entered by Tony Vandervell, who grew tired of the BRM project and left to conquer Formula One in his own way, becoming a rival to the BRMs.
At the start of 1952 Alfa Romeo announced the withdrawal of their Alfettas from the World Championship, and with 1951 Champion Juan Manuel Fangio a free agent Mays saw an opportunity to sign him up for BRM. Mays invited Fangio to test the car at Folkingham, and decided that having a working car on hand for testing was more important than entering April's Gran Premio del Valentino in Turin. BRM withdrew their three entries from the race. This proved to be an error, as Ferraris won every position in the race. Faced with a season dominated by Ferrari, the FIA decreed that the World Championship Grands Prix would be run to Formula Two regulations.
Fangio and fellow Argentine González both started on the front row in the BRMs at the Albi GP but both suffered overheating problems that put them out. For the Ulster Trophy Moss partnered Fangio, but clutch issues did for Moss at the start and Fangio retired with a blocked oil filter. Fangio's season was terminated by a serious crash in Italy, so Ken Wharton lined up at the Formula Libre race that supported the British Grand Prix with González, who set fastest time in practise but slid off and damaged a radiator while running second in the race. He took over Wharton's car but had to retire from third when his gearbox failed with only three laps left. BRM entered three cars in each of the races at Goodwood, with first and third closely followed by a one-two-three in two races, another second place following in the car's last race of the year at Charterhall.
By now though many of BRM's backers had had enough and decided to sell the team to Alfred Owen. Stirling Moss later spoke of the Type 15 and did not have warm feelings of the experience of racing it; he called the car "without doubt the worst car I ever raced - it was a disgrace."
With the new team in place for 1953, the Type 15 finally started to produce some consistent results. At the Easter Goodwood races Wharton was second in the first race ahead of Parnell in fourth, with Wharton winning the second race. He also finished third at Charterhall. At Albi the Type 15 struggled with tyres throwing their treads but managed first, second and fifth in the heat, with González second in the final as the other two cars dropped out. At Silverstone for the Grand Prix meeting Fangio came second with Wharton third. Wharton then won three races in succession at Snetterton and Charterhall, and after three podium places in two races for the team at Goodwood Wharton won the last race of the year at Castle Combe.
In 1954 an updated version of the Type 15 was produced which weighed over 200 lb (91 kg) less than the original car and featured a shorter wheelbase and a much smaller fuel tank. Wharton raced the old car in two races in New Zealand but could do no better than two third places because of car problems. The two new P30s, as the Mk.2 cars came to be known, appeared in thirteen races at ten different meetings in the year, driven by Wharton and Ron Flockhart. Between them they won five of the first six races, but various spins and problems prevented them from adding to their tally. By now though the team was working to get back into Formula One and 1955 was the car's last year of racing. From six races Peter Collins took two wins and Flockhart picked up two second places.
A total of four Type 15s were produced, one of which was written off in a collision during the Glover Trophy and salvaged for spares, while another car that crashed at Albi was used as the basis for one of the two P30s produced. One Type 15 is on display at the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu, the other is on display as part of the Donington Grand Prix Exhibition in its original light green paint scheme alongside a P30 and a cutaway V16 engine. The fourth surviving car, another P30, is in the ownership of Bernie Ecclestone, having previously been owned by Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason. The cars can sometimes be seen in action at the various historic racing events such as the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
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