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cabs recently turned the clock back to the 1960s, and for a few weeks a ghost from the past elegantly graced the Motor Panels workshop in Holbrook Lane, Coventry, while skilled craftsmen worked on a piece of historic race track technology. The company, a subsidary of the Rubery Owen Group, agreed to restore Graham Hill's world-beatini 1962 BRM V8 Formula Om car to pristine condition, so that it could take its place M a prestige motor museum in Birmingham.
There was extra nostalgia in the job for Motor Panels because the same firm made the body 25 years ago, and the restoration work was done in the same workshop that built the original car — although most of the men who restored what Hill described as his 'old faithful' were mere babes in arms when he drove off with Grand Prix wins in South Africa, Holland, Germany and Italy, not forgetting that Hill took the World Championship and etched the BRM name for ever on the scrolls of motor racing history.
One of the first people to visit the car in its new home — the Patrick Collection — was 70 years old Maurice Britton who, in the late 50s and 60s was the company's chief engineer. Retired and living near Rugby, Maurice says, "It is just as if the last 20 years were yesterday. Graham could have been standing there — I could have been talking to Graham."
Our photograph shows (left to right) Alexander Patrick. chairman of the trustees of the Patrick Collection; Bill Gittings of Motor Panels; Maurice Britton; and apprentice Richard Warden, admiring the restored BRM.