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Prodrive
Prodrive is a British motorsport and advanced engineering group based in Banbury, Oxfordshire, England. It designs, constructs and races cars for companies and teams such as Aston Martin, Bahrain Raid Xtreme and Team X44. Its advanced technology division applies this motorsport engineering approach to deliver engineering solutions into automotive OEMs, aerospace, defence, marine and other sectors, which now represents more than half its turnover. Prodrive also has a specialist composite division based in Milton Keynes where it manufactures lightweight carbon composite CFRP and visual carbon components for many supercars and increasingly for the luxury automotive, aerospace and marine sectors. Prodrive first became well known for its involvement in the World Rally Championship with the Subaru World Rally Team, developing championship-winning cars for Colin McRae, Richard Burns and Petter Solberg, which now reside in the Prodrive heritage collection alongside many other of its c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Richards (racing)
David Pender Richards (born 3 June 1952) is the chairman of Prodrive, chairman of Motorsport UK (The Royal Automobile Club Motor Sports Association Ltd), former chairman of Aston Martin, a former team principal of the BAR and Benetton Formula One motor racing teams and as a co-driver, World Rally Champion in 1981. He lives with his wife, Karen, in Warwickshire and has three children. In the 2005 New Year Honours List Richards was appointed a CBE for his services to motorsport and in 2017 was inducted into the Motor Sport Hall of Fame and received the Spirit of Le Mans award from the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO). In 2019 he received the Autocar Outstanding Leader Award. Education Richards grew up in the Vale of Clwyd, attending Brynhyfryd School in Ruthin, Denbighshire. He passed his driving test on his 17th birthday. At the age of only 17 years and 3 months he became the then youngest person in the UK to hold a private pilot's licence and was awarded an RAF university s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Subaru World Rally Team
The Subaru World Rally Team (SWRT) was Subaru's World Rally Championship (WRC) team. It used a distinctive blue with yellow colour scheme that is a throwback to the sponsorship deal with State Express 555, a BAT cigarette brand popular in Asia. 555 logos were found on Subaru cars from 1993 to 2003, although less prevalent since 1999 due to BAT's participation in Formula One with British American Racing. Subaru's WRC efforts date back to 1980, however, in 1989 British firm Prodrive took over its operations, and its base moved from Japan to Banbury, England. Subaru used the team to showcase its symmetrical all wheel drive technology. It has credited the increased sales of its vehicles, especially the Subaru Impreza, with its success in the World Rally Championship, in addition to popularizing its all-wheel-drive system. Its 2008 season drivers were Petter Solberg with co-driver Phil Mills, and Chris Atkinson with co-driver Stéphane Prévot. David Richards was the team's Pri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colin McRae
Colin Steele McRae, (5 August 1968 – 15 September 2007) was a Scottish rally driver. He was the 1991 and 1992 British Rally Champion, and in 1995 became the first British driver and the youngest person to win the World Rally Championship Drivers' title, a record which stood for 27 years until Kalle Rovanperä took the 2022 season title just a day after his 22nd birthday. McRae's performances with the Subaru World Rally Team enabled the team to win the World Rally Championship Manufacturers' title three times in succession in 1995, 1996 and 1997. After four years with the Ford Motor Co. team, where McRae won nine events, he moved to Citroën World Rally Team in 2003 where, despite not winning an event, he helped them win their first manufacturers' title. He was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to motorsport in 1996. With 25 victories in the WRC, McRae held the record for the most wins in the series from 2002 to 2004, when Carlos Sain ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aston Martin
Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings PLC is an English manufacturer of luxury sports cars and grand tourers. Its predecessor was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. Steered from 1947 by David Brown, it became associated with expensive grand touring cars in the 1950s and 1960s, and with the fictional character James Bond following his use of a DB5 model in the 1964 film '' Goldfinger''. Their sports cars are regarded as a British cultural icon. Aston Martin has held a Royal Warrant as purveyor of motorcars to the Prince of Wales since 1982, and has over 160 car dealerships in 53 countries, making it a global automobile brand. The company is traded at the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. In 2003 it received the Queen's Award for Enterprise for outstanding contribution to international trade. The company has survived seven bankruptcies throughout its history. The headquarters and main production of its sports cars and gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Burns
Richard Alexander Burns (17 January 1971 – 25 November 2005) was an English rally driver who won the 2001 World Rally Championship, having previously finished runner-up in the series in 1999 and 2000. He also helped Mitsubishi to the world manufacturers' title in 1998, and Peugeot in 2002. His co-driver in his whole career was Robert Reid. Career Pre-WRC At the age of eight he first started driving his father's old Triumph 2000 in a field near their house. At eleven Burns joined the Under 17 Car Club, where he became driver of the year in 1984. Just two years later his father arranged a trip to Jan Churchill's Welsh Forest Rally School near Newtown, Powys where Burns drove a Ford Escort for the day, and from that moment on he knew what he wanted to do. Richard badgered his father into letting him join the Craven Motor Club, in his home town of Reading, where his talent was quickly spotted by David Williams, a rally enthusiast who would play a major role in Burns' early c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rothmans International
Rothmans International plc was a British tobacco manufacturer. Its brands included Rothmans, Player's and Dunhill. Its international headquarters were in Hill Street, London and its international operations were run from Denham Place in Denham Village, Buckinghamshire. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index, but it was acquired by British American Tobacco in 1999. Its business was strongest in Europe and it specialised in premium brands. History The company was founded by Louis Rothman in 1890 as a small kiosk on Fleet Street in London. In 1900 Rothman opened a small showroom in Pall Mall, from where he launched his famous ''Pall Mall'' cigarette brand. His reputation was such that King Edward VII granted Rothmans a royal warrant in 1905. Rothmans was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1929. In 1954 the Rembrandt Tobacco Company acquired a controlling interest in Rothmans. Rembrandt was expandin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aston Martin Racing
Aston Martin Racing is a British auto racing team established in 2004 as a partnership between automobile manufacturer Aston Martin and engineering group Prodrive. The partnership was initially created for the purpose of returning Aston Martin to sports car racing with the DBR9, a heavily modified variant of the Aston Martin DB9. Since the DBR9's racing debut in 2005, Aston Martin Racing has expanded to build a variety of cars available to customers, as well as development of Aston Martin's V12 engine for Le Mans Prototype use. Aston Martin Racing's program has earned several successes over the years. Although all cars are built by Prodrive at their factory, Aston Martin plays an integral part in designing the race cars, as well as integrating elements of the race cars back into Aston Martin's road cars. On 23 April 2009, Aston Martin chairman and Prodrive founder David Richards announced his intent to return to Formula One in with the possibility of using the Ast ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Banbury
Banbury is a historic market town on the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, South East England. It had a population of 54,335 at the 2021 Census. Banbury is a significant commercial and retail centre for the surrounding area of north Oxfordshire and southern parts of Warwickshire and Northamptonshire which are predominantly rural. Banbury's main industries are motorsport, car components, electrical goods, plastics, food processing and printing. Banbury is home to the world's largest coffee-processing facility ( Jacobs Douwe Egberts), built in 1964. The town is famed for Banbury cakes, a spiced sweet pastry dish. Banbury is located north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham, south-east of Coventry and north-west of Oxford. History Toponymy The name Banbury may derive from "Banna", a Saxon chieftain said to have built a stockade there in the 6th century (or possibly a byname from ang, bana meaning ''felon'', ''murderer''), and / meaning ''settlement''. In Anglo Saxo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henri Toivonen
Henri Pauli Toivonen (25 August 1956 – 2 May 1986) was a Finnish rally driver born in Jyväskylä, the home of Rally Finland. His father, Pauli, was the 1968 European Rally Champion for Porsche and his brother, Harri, became a professional circuit racer. Toivonen's first World Rally Championship victory came with a Talbot Sunbeam Lotus at the 1980 Lombard RAC Rally in Great Britain, just after his 24th birthday. He had the record of being the youngest driver ever to win a world rally until his countryman Jari-Matti Latvala won the 2008 Swedish Rally at the age of 22. After driving for Opel and Porsche, Toivonen was signed by Lancia. Despite nearly ending up paralysed at the Rally Costa Smeralda early in 1985, he returned to rallying later that year. He won the last event of the season, the RAC Rally, as well as the 1986 season opener, the Monte Carlo Rally, which his father had won exactly 20 years earlier. Toivonen died in a crash on 2 May 1986 while ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Team X44
X44 (currently competing as X44 Vida Carbon Racing for sponsorship reasons) is an Extreme E racing team. The team was founded by 7 time Formula One World Champion, Sir Lewis Hamilton, and takes part in the series that is highlighting the impacts of climate change. History In September 2020, Lewis Hamilton announced that he had founded his own team for the newly established racing series. The name "X44" was chosen due to Hamilton using the number on his Formula One car since 2014, when the drivers were able to choose their own numbers. In December 2020 X44 announced that Sébastien Loeb Sébastien Loeb (; born 26 February 1974) is a French professional rallying, rally, auto racing, racing and rallycross driver. He is the most successful driver in the World Rally Championship (WRC), having won the world championship a record nin ... and Cristina Gutiérrez were to be the drivers for the team in the competitions first season. During the team's first season they were the faste ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BMW M3
The BMW M3 is a high-performance version of the BMW 3 Series, developed by BMW's in-house motorsport division, BMW M GmbH. M3 models have been produced for every generation of 3 Series since the E30 M3 was introduced in 1986. The initial model was available in a coupé body style, with a convertible body style added soon after. M3 Sedans were available during the E36 (1994–1999) and E90 (2008–2012) generations. Since 2014, the coupé and convertible models have been rebranded as the 4 Series range, making the high-performance variant the M4, so that generation of 3 Series saw the M3 produced only as a sedan. In 2020, the M3 was produced as an estate (Touring) for the first time, alongside the sedan. Upgrades over the regular 3 Series models include engines, handling, brakes, aerodynamics, lightweight materials and various interior upgrades. The M3's biggest contribution to both driver safety and the performance industry is BMW's continual development of their limited- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Touring Car Championship
The Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship is a touring car racing series held each year in the United Kingdom, currently organised and administered by TOCA. It was established in 1958 as the British Saloon Car Championship and was renamed as the British Touring Car Championship for the 1987 season.BTCC History 1958-1990 Retrieved from www.btcc.net on 13 August 2012 The championship, currently running regulations, has been run to various national and international regulations over the years including , [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
