On the right track

Sir,

Nice article on Jean-Pierre Beltoise. He did indeed win two F1 races for BRM, though only one was a GP — interestingly, this time in the dry. The P180 F1 win at Brands was the final F1 victory for BRM.

I saw JP-B at Monaco recently where they held a special luncheon to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the win. At 75 he was looking very fit despite his wife’s attempts to cut back on being too much of a bon viveur! He signed the right side of the ‘coke bottle’ of P180/02 which I now own and use in Historic F1. My first drive with the car was at Monaco and I was interested to find that the steering is exceptionally light and precise, at least in comparison to a March 711 and BRM P133. In your same edition I see Tony Southgate makes reference to Beltoise and this car which BRM (Stanley) gave up with at the end of the season when Tony jumped ship. Howden Ganley, who also drove and tested the car, insists that Southgate was on the right track with the P180 and that if further developed it would have given the Cosworth cars a good run for their money.

Robs Lamplough, Hungerford, Berks