Andrew Thorby is a British racecar designer. Thorby designed many

formula racing Formula racing (known as open-wheel racing in North America) is any of several forms of open-wheeled single-seater motorsport. The origin of the term lies in the nomenclature that was adopted by the FIA for all of its post-World War II single- ...

and

Le Mans Prototype A Le Mans Prototype (LMP) is the type of sports prototype race car used in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, FIA World Endurance Championship, IMSA SportsCar Championship, European Le Mans Series and Asian Le Mans Series. Le Mans Prototypes were create ...

cars.

History

Lola Cars

After graduation lawschool Thorby joined Specialised Mouldings Ltd. in

Huntingdon Huntingdon is a market town in the Huntingdonshire district in Cambridgeshire, England. The town was given its town charter by King John in 1205. It was the county town of the historic county of Huntingdonshire. Oliver Cromwell was born there ...

in 1974. Specialised Mouldings Ltd. fabricated plastic and fibreglass body panels. Thorby joined

Lola Cars Lola Cars International Ltd. was a British race car engineering company in operation from 1958 to 2012. The company was founded by Eric Broadley in Bromley, England (then in Kent, now part of Greater London), before moving to new premises in S ...

in 1977 to follow his passion, designing cars. The Lola T500, built for the

1979 SCCA/CART Indy Car Series The 1979 SCCA/CART Indy Car Series was the inaugural season for the CART Indy car series. It was the first national championship season of American open wheel racing sanctioned by CART. The season consisted of 14 races. Rick Mears was the national ...

was one of the first cars Thorby worked on.

Al Unser Alfred Unser (May 29, 1939 – December 9, 2021) was an American automobile racing driver, the younger brother of fellow racing drivers Jerry and Bobby Unser, and father of Al Unser Jr. He was the second of four men ( A. J. Foyt, himself, Rick ...

won the final race of the season in the Lola T500. Thorby designed Lola's first endurance sports car racer since the

Lola T70 The Lola T70 is a sports prototype developed by British manufacturer Lola Cars in 1965. Lola built the aluminium monocoque chassis, which were typically powered by large American V8s. The T70 was quite popular in the mid to late 1960s, with m ...

. The British designer worked directly with

Eric Broadley Eric Harrison Broadley MBE (22 September 1928 – 28 May 2017) was a British entrepreneur, engineer, and founder and chief designer of Lola Cars, the motor racing manufacturer and engineering company. He was arguably one of the most influentia ...

. The T600 was first introduced in 1981 and was the first Lola with a full-length

monocoque Monocoque ( ), also called structural skin, is a structural system in which loads are supported by an object's external skin, in a manner similar to an egg shell. The word ''monocoque'' is a French term for "single shell". First used for boats, ...

. The car was designed to accommodate several different engine types such as

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ous ...

Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see #Pronunciation, below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany ...

and

Cosworth Cosworth is a British automotive engineering company founded in London in 1958, specialising in high-performance internal combustion engines, powertrain, and electronics for automobile racing (motorsport) and mainstream automotive industrie ...

. The T600 won the first three races of the

1981 IMSA GT Championship season The 1981 Camel (cigarette), Camel GT Championship season was the 11th season of the IMSA GT Championship auto racing series. It was a series for GTX class Group 5 (racing), Group 5 cars and GTO and GTU class Grand tourer cars. It began January 3 ...

. After the T600 Thorby worked on the Lola 640E

Formula Ford Formula Ford, also known as F1600 and Formula F, is an entry-level class of single seater, open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held across the world form an important step for many prospective Formula One drivers. Formula For ...

single seater. Julian Bailey won various races driving the T640E in the

British Formula Ford Championship The British Formula Ford Championship was an entry level single seater motor racing category, designed to give racing drivers their first step into car racing after karting. Drivers from around the world were attracted to the United Kingdom to ...

. After Thorby left Lola he joined the short lived

Nimrod Racing Automobiles Nimrod Racing Automobiles (sometimes referred to as Aston Martin Nimrod) was a partnership founded in 1981 between racing driver and car dealer Robin Hamilton and chairman of Aston Martin Lagonda, Victor Gauntlett. The project was intended to buil ...

to work on the

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 ...

powered

Nimrod NRA/C2 The Nimrod NRA/C2 was the only Group C racing car ever built by Nimrod Racing Automobiles in partnership with Aston Martin. It ran initially in 1982 in the World Endurance Championship before also joining the IMSA GT Championship. The final NRA ...

. After leaving Nimrod Throby formed his own company, Amzel Ltd.

Formula 3

Through his own company Thorby was hired to work for a variety of racing car constructors, mainly in

Formula 3 Formula Three, also called Formula 3, abbreviated as F3, is a third-tier class of open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held in Europe, Australia, South America and Asia form an important step for many prospective Formula One driv ...

. Working with Martin Brigden and Kris Dwornik Thorby designed the first

TOM'S is a factory supported racing team and tuner of Toyota and Lexus vehicles. The name stands for Tachi Oiwa Motor Sport. Their head office is located in Tokyo, Japan. They are currently heavily involved with Super GT, Super Formula and Super Formu ...

Formula 3 car, the 031F. The 031F was competitive at first in the

British F3 The British Formula Three Championship was an international Auto racing, motor racing series that took place primarily in the United Kingdom with a small number of events in mainland Europe. It was a junior-level Formula racing, feeder formula ...

at the hands of

Rickard Rydell Rickard Rydell (born 22 September 1967) is a retired Swedish racing driver. He won the 1998 British Touring Car Championship, the 2011 Scandinavian Touring Car Championship, and has also been a frontrunner in the European/World Touring Car Champ ...

. An uncompetitive engine prevented strong results later in the season. Paulo Carcasci won the All-Japan Formula 3 Championship in 1991 driving the 031F. For 1992 Thorby joined

Ralt Ralt was a manufacturer of single-seater racing cars, founded by ex-Jack Brabham associate Ron Tauranac after he sold out his interest in Brabham to Bernie Ecclestone. Ron and his brother had built some specials in Australia in the 1950s under t ...

to design their RT36. The car was Ralt's first fully composite chassis.

Marcel Albers Marcel Albers (April 29, 1967 – April 20, 1992) was a Dutch motor racing driver. Having progressed through the ranks of the Dutch formulae, including a Formula Ford championship win in 1989, Albers moved to the Opel Euroseries for 1990, going ...

was very successful in the Ralt winning the opening round of the

1992 British Formula Three season The 1992 British Formula Three season was the 42nd British Formula Three Championship, won by Brazilian Gil de Ferran. The season started on 22 March at Donington Park and ended on 4 October at Silverstone following sixteen races. Dutch driver ...

. However the season had a turn for the worst when Albers had a deadly crash at

Thruxton Circuit The Thruxton Circuit is a motor-racing circuit located near the village of Thruxton in Hampshire, England, United Kingdom, about 30 miles north of Southampton. It has hosted motorsport events including the British Touring Car Championship, B ...

. Fellow Ralt RT36 driver

Philippe Adams Philippe Adams (born 19 November 1969 in Mouscron, Belgium) is a racing driver. Career Early career Adams first began in motorsport at the age of twelve, racing karts, before beginning in car racing in 1984. In 1992, Adams competed in the B ...

finished second in the championship. In 1992 Thorby also helped

Van Diemen Van Diemen International, Ltd. was a British race car manufacturer based in Snetterton, Norfolk, United Kingdom. The company had a reputation for high-volume production runs of its cars, the most well-known of which is its series of Formula For ...

develop the RF92. The car did not live up to the Van Diemen expectations. The car was first raced by

Jason Plato Timothy Jason Plato (born 14 October 1967) is a British racing driver who last competed in the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) for BTC Racing. He has twice been BTCC Champion, in 2001 for Vauxhall and 2010 for Silverline Chevrolet. He ...

and later by Julian Westwood in the British F3 scoring a couple of podium finishes. In 1995 Thorby was again contracted by TOM'S to design a new Formula 3 car, the 035F. Thorby was partnered by F1 designer

Martin Ogilvie Martin may refer to: Places * Martin City (disambiguation) * Martin County (disambiguation) * Martin Township (disambiguation) Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Austral ...

. The car was never run in any championship. The cars successor, the 036F, had more success.

Tom Coronel Tom Romeo Coronel (born 5 April 1972) is a Dutch professional racing driver. Tom's twin brother Tim is also a racer, just like their father Tom Coronel Sr. His most important results are winning the Marlboro Masters of Formula 3 race in 1997, th ...

finished third in the Japanese F3 championship driving the car. Thorby's last involvement in Formula 3 came in 2004.

Holzer Motorsport Holzer is a German surname that could be translated to English as "Wood". Notable people include: * Adi Holzer (born 1936), Austrian artist * Daniel Holzer, Czech footballer * Friedl Kjellberg ( Holzer; also Holzer-Kjellberg) (1905-1993), Austrian ...

would enter Thorby designed Mygale's in the

2005 Formula 3 Euro Series season The 2005 Formula 3 Euro Series season was the third championship year of Europe's premier Formula Three series. The championship consisted of ten rounds – each with two races – held at a variety of European circuits. Each weekend con ...

the deal however came never into fruition.

Le Mans

In 1991 Thorby joined

March Engineering March Engineering was a Formula One constructor and manufacturer of customer racing cars from the United Kingdom. Although only moderately successful in Grand Prix competition, March racing cars enjoyed much better success in other categories ...

to design the March 92S

. In collaboration with

Nick Wirth Nicholas John Peter Wirth (born 26 March 1966) is an automotive engineer and the founder and owner of Wirth Research. He is also the former owner of the Simtek Formula One team, a former aerodynamicist at March and former technical director at ...

Simtek Simtek (Simulation Technology) was an engineering consultancy firm and Formula One racing team. The Formula One (F1) engineering consultancy arm, Simtek Research, was founded in 1989 by Max Mosley and Nick Wirth. It originally was involved i ...

company the Judd powered car was developed. However when competition from Porsche and Jaguar emerged the project was put on hold. Thorby again designed an LMP car in 1996, the TOM's Toyota LMP.

Tom Kristensen Tom Kristensen (born 7 July 1967) is a Danish former racing driver. He holds the record for the most wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with nine, six of which were consecutive (from 2000 to 2005). In 1997, he won the race with the Joest Racing te ...

tested the car, but the car was never raced. A car that was raced at the

24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans (french: link=no, 24 Heures du Mans) is an endurance-focused Sports car racing, sports car race held annually near the town of Le Mans, France. It is the world's oldest active Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance r ...

was the

Panoz LMP07 The Panoz LMP07 was a Le Mans prototype built in late 2000 for Panoz for competition in the American Le Mans Series. The car was designed as a successor to the Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S which had competed since 1999. Although retaining the unusual f ...

. Technical difficulties prevented the car achieving notable results. A car designed by Thorby appeared at Le Mans in 2003, the

Lister Storm LMP {{Racing car , Car_name = Lister Storm LMP/Hybrid , Image = , Category = LMP900 & LMP1 , Constructor = Lister Cars , Designer = Andy Thorby , Team = Lister Racing , Drivers = John Nielsen, Casper Elgaard, Jens Reno Møller, Jamie Campbel ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thorby, Andrew Year of birth missing (living people) Living people British motorsport designers Place of birth missing (living people)