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 The Aston Martin Lagonda is a full-size luxury four-door saloon manufactured by British manufacturer Aston Martin between 1974 and 1990. A total of 645 were produced. The name was derived from the Lagonda marque that Aston Martin had purchas ...

Victor Gauntlett Malcolm Victor Gauntlett (20 May 1942 – 31 March 2003) was an English petrochemical entrepreneur and car enthusiast, best known for forming the largest independent petrol retail business in the United Kingdom, and for reviving Aston Martin. B ...

. The project was intended to build

sports prototype A sports prototype, sometimes referred to as simply a prototype, is a type of race car that is used in the highest-level categories of sports car racing. These purpose-built racing cars, unlike street-legal and production-based racing cars, are n ...

s for the

World Endurance Championship World Endurance Championship may refer to: * FIA World Endurance Championship, an auto racing series held since 2012 * World Sportscar Championship, an auto racing series which used the title World Endurance Championship from 1981 to 1985 * Endura ...

and

IMSA GT Championship IMSA GT was a sports car racing series organized by International Motor Sports Association. Races took place primarily in the United States, and occasionally in Canada. History The series was founded in 1969 by John and Peggy Bishop, and Bill F ...

using Aston Martin V8 engines. Although Aston Martin did not own the project, they offered their support for the chance to see success for their name in motorsports without the heavy cost of running their own team.

NRA/C2

Nimrod built three NRA/C2s for competition in 1982, with two being run by the works team while the third was sold to Dawnay Racing, a team owned by the then

AMOC The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) is part of a global thermohaline circulation in the oceans and is the zonally integrated component of surface and deep currents in the Atlantic Ocean. It is characterized by a northward fl ...

president

Viscount Downe Viscount Downe is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of Ireland. The first creation came in 1675 for William Ducie. However, the title became extinct on his death in 1679. The second creation came in 1680 for John Dawnay. He ha ...

. The cars were capable of running both in the World Endurance Championship's

Group C Group C was a category of sports car racing introduced by the FIA in 1982 and continuing until 1993, with ''Group A'' for touring cars and ''Group B'' for GTs. It was designed to replace both Group 5 special production cars (closed top touri ...

specification and IMSA GT's GTP specification. Combining a production-based

V8 engine A V8 engine is an eight-cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. The first V8 engine was produced by the French Antoinette company in 1904, developed and us ...

from the V8 and V8 Vantage models, the engine was refined by Aston Martin

Tickford Tickford is an automobile engineering and testing business in Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire, known for tuning and such products as the 140 mph Tickford Turbo Capri. Under the name Salmons & Sons and their Tickford products the firm has ...

to handle the increased output.

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 ...

designed the chassis while his employer Lola Cars International built the tubs. Ray Mallock would later evolve the NRA/C2's design into a B-spec model for the 1983 season.

Team history

Debuting at the 1000 km of

Silverstone Silverstone is a village and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is about from Towcester on the former A43 main road, from the M1 motorway junction 15A and about from the M40 motorway junction 10, Northampton, Milton Keynes and B ...

, Nimrod entered one of their own cars alongside the Dawnay Racing privateer entry. Nimrod faced mechanical troubles and did not finish, although

had a sixth-place finish. Problems continued for Nimrod Racing 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 ...

where their race was ended early with an accident. Nimrod's only success for the season came at the

1000km Spa The 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps (formerly the 1000 Kilometres of Spa-Francorchamps) is an endurance race for sports cars held at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium. History The Spa 24 Hours had been introduced in 1924, and other races fo ...

, where one of their two cars finished, taking eleventh place. The combined results of Nimrod and Viscount Downe earned Aston Martin third in the constructors championship that year. For 1982, with the evolved NRA/C2, Nimrod Racing would turn to the

in North America due to

EMKA Racing EMKA Racing was a British racing team founded in 1980 by Steve O'Rourke, manager of the band Pink Floyd. The team occasionally ran under the name of EMKA Productions, the name of O'Rourke's management company. The team's name comes from O'Rourke's ...

taking over Aston Martin's factory-backed efforts in Europe with their own car. Nimrod suffered throughout the season, earning their only success as the

12 Hours of Sebring The 12 Hours of Sebring is an annual motorsport endurance race for sports cars held at Sebring International Raceway, on the site of the former Hendricks Army Airfield World War II air base in Sebring, Florida, US. The event is the second round ...

with a fifth-place finish, third in the GTP class. The team would struggle to finish races for the rest of the season before financial trouble eventually forced them to return to Europe. Following their disappointing return to Europe, Nimrod Racing Automobiles closed due to continued financial troubles, ending the short life of the project. A new chassis had been under development at the time, known as NRA/C3, yet was never completed before the team was dissolved. Privateers continued to use Nimrod's NRA/C2 until the

1984 24 Hours of Le Mans The 1984 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 52nd Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 16 – 17 June 1984. It was also the third round of the 1984 World Endurance Championship. The works Rothmans Porsche team boycotted the 1984 Le Mans rac ...

, where two cars ran by Dawnay racing were destroyed in a fiery crash at the Mulsanne straight.

References

External links

Aston Martin Picture Gallery
– Aston Martin Nimrod {{Aston Martin Sportscar Racers British auto racing teams British racecar constructors Aston Martin World Sportscar Championship teams 24 Hours of Le Mans teams