Designed in 1947 and raced until 1954–55, it produced 600 bhp (450 kW) at 12,000 rpm, although test figures from Rolls-Royce suggested that the engine would be able to be run at up to 14,000rpm.

[8][9] The very complex engine was exceptionally powerful for the time, but it initially proved a disappointment, possessing poor reliability so that cars either did not start or failed to finish races.

The engine was designed by a team consisting of Peter Berthon, Harry Mundy, Eric Richter, and Frank May.

Eventually there were around 350 companies that provided support to the project, including Rolls-Royce, which designed, manufactured and tested the two-stage centrifugal supercharger.

The firm also developed the flame traps for the inlet manifold, used to prevent the highly compressed fuel/air mixture from exploding in a backfire.

Girling provided special three-leading-shoe drum brakes for the car and the springing and shock absorbers were Lockheed air-struts incorporating silicon oil/air pocket adjustable springing/damping on all four wheels.

Some completed components did not arrive at BRM for assembly until May 1949, reducing time available for testing before the start of the first season's racing.

The completed car was first run on the aerodrome at RAF Folkingham in December 1949, driven by Raymond Mays, who was suffering from a high fever at the time.

It had missed the practice sessions but, after three proving laps driven by Frenchman Raymond Sommer, was allowed to start from the back of the grid.

Reg Parnell won two races, including the Goodwood Trophy, despite being unable to use all the car's power due to the poor weather and wet circuit.

Parnell said in a news interview after the races; "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".

During the race the two drivers suffered from extreme heat in the cockpit because the exhaust pipes were routed inside the bodywork.

During one of two pit stops, Parnell and Walker had to wrap burn dressings around their legs to provide insulation from the heat, together with limiting the revs to 10,500rpm to reduce the cockpit temperature to a tolerable level.

Later the team went to Monza, intending to run two cars in the 1951 Italian Grand Prix to be driven by Parnell and Walker, after prospective driver Ken Richardson was vetoed by the RAC.

In the same year Alfa Romeo, one of the leading players in the sport, stated that they might not participate in further Grands Prix, leaving only two major teams, Ferrari and a temporarily uncompetitive Maserati.

In the middle of 1952 the cars were substantially rebuilt, including better cooling – most notably a greatly enlarged radiator aperture in the nose, better ventilation, and repositioning of the exhaust pipe stubs.

Berthon considered the addition an unnecessary complication, and this, and the alternative variable-angle stators at the supercharger's inlet - both used initially on the two-stroke Crecy - which had been developed and tested by Rolls-Royce for the engine, were not proceeded with.

After Fangio's accident at Monza, Mays, looking around for a replacement driver, auditioned Mike Hawthorn, who drove the car at Folkingham but later complained: "It was no use – every time I came to a corner and went below the 8,000rpm mark, the power went right off.

In the meantime, the car was raced by José Froilán González and Ken Wharton, who was one of BRM's own test drivers.

At around this time Tony Rudd, who had by then joined BRM after his previous period of secondment from Rolls-Royce, suggested that they build a lightweight, short-wheelbase, version of the car for this sort of race, and this subsequently became the Mark II or Type 30.

Rudd was thinking of chasing the Class F Record with the car, and asked his former employers what they thought the engine was capable of if tuned for all-out speed for only a few miles.

The V16 head-block union was unable to survive the high pressures involved, leading to warping and lifting of the head.

After the fiasco of the Ulster Trophy in June 1952, where both BRM V16-powered Type 15's failed to finish, Stirling Moss wrote to Raymond Mays telling him that he did not want to drive the car in the state that it was in, given its lack of reliability.

The fourth surviving car, another P30, is in the ownership of Bernie Ecclestone,[citation needed] having previously been owned by Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason.