Chamberlain Engineering was an
automotive engine builder turned
auto racing
Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition.
Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...
team founded by racing driver
Hugh Chamberlain in 1972.
The team moved through the British national sports car championships before becoming a competitor in the
World Sportscar Championship
The World Sportscar Championship was the world series run for sports car racing by the FIA from 1953 to 1992.
The championship evolved from a small collection of the most important sportscar, endurance, and road racing events in Europe and No ...
, eventually winning world titles in
1989
File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...
and
1992
File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...
. Chamberlain went on to develop sports cars for
Jaguar
The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus '' Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the th ...
and
Lotus in the 1990s before becoming a customer of the
Chrysler Viper GTS-R
The Chrysler Viper GTS-R (also known as the Dodge Viper GTS-R when raced in North America) was a successful racing variant of the Dodge Viper developed in conjunction with Chrysler of North America, Oreca of France, and Reynard Motorsport of the ...
program in the
FIA GT Championship
The FIA GT Championship was a sports car racing series organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO) at the behest of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The championship was mostly concentrated in Europe, but throughout ...
; the team later led
MG's return to Le Mans in 2001. Chamberlain later merged with
Gareth Evans to form Chamberlain-Synergy Motorsport to campaign
TVRs in 2004 before moving to the
European Le Mans Series
The European Le Mans Series (abbreviated as ELMS) is a European sports car racing endurance series inspired by the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The European Le Mans Series is similar to the fo ...
where they won another championship in 2005. Chamberlain-Synergy left active motorsports in 2008, although Hugh Chamberlain continues to work as a manager and consultant with other teams in sports car racing.
History
![Lola B0540 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Lola_B0540_2.jpg)
Chamberlain raced on the amateur level in the 1960s before entering the
Clubman series in 1968. Developing engines for his own Mallock U2 sports cars led to the formation of Chamberlain Engineering to build and sell engines for road and race cars as well as fund his own entries in Clubmans; the company later moved into their permanent race shop in
Buntingford
Buntingford is a market town and civil parish in the district of East Hertfordshire and county of Hertfordshire in England. It lies next to the River Rib and is located on the historic Roman road, Ermine Street. As a result of its location, it ...
in 1978. After teaming with
Will Hoy
William Ewing Hoy (2 April 1952 – 19 December 2002) was an English racing driver and the 1991 British Touring Car Champion, the highlight of a 20-year career in motor racing.
Biography
Born in Melbourn, Cambridgeshire, Hoy did not begin racing ...
in 1982 the pair led the Clubmans series for three years before signing
Creighton Brown
Creighton may refer to:
Places Canada
* Creighton, Saskatchewan
* Creighton, Simcoe County, Ontario
* Creighton Mine, a mine in Greater Sudbury, Ontario
* Creighton Mine, Ontario
South Africa
* Creighton, KwaZulu-Natal
United States
* C ...
, purchasing a
Tiga sports car and
Hart
Hart often refers to:
* Hart (deer)
Hart may also refer to:
Organizations
* Hart Racing Engines, a former Formula One engine manufacturer
* Hart Skis, US ski manufacturer
* Hart Stores, a Canadian chain of department stores
* Hart's Reptile W ...
turbocharged engine to move into the
Thundersports
The Thundersports Series was a domestic championship which took place in mainly at Brands Hatch ran circuits, for prototype sportcars and also featured cars that were eligible for Can-Am and Group C2 racing. To bring some real excitement, noise ...
series, although the engine suffered reliability issues throughout the season. Once sorting the Hart's issues for 1986 Chamberlain gathered the funding to move to an international series, entering the C2 category of the
World Sports-Prototype Championship
The World Sportscar Championship was the world series run for sports car racing by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA from 1953 World Sportscar Championship, 1953 to 1992 World Sportscar Championship, 1992.
The championship evo ...
with the best result of seventh in class at
Spa
A spa is a location where mineral-rich spring water (and sometimes seawater) is used to give medicinal baths. Spa towns or spa resorts (including hot springs resorts) typically offer various health treatments, which are also known as balneoth ...
. The team purchased a new chassis from the defending C2 world champions
Spice Engineering
Spice Engineering was a British racing team founded by driver Gordon Spice with Raymond Bellm in the early 1980s, later becoming a successful sports car constructor in 1986. They competed in the World Sportscar Championship in Europe as well as ...
for 1987 and
Nick Adams became the team's lead driver after the departure of Hoy. Although not a successful championship bid, Adams and
Graham Duxbury won their class at the non-championship
Kyalami
Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit (from ''Khaya lami'', ''My home'' in Zulu) is a motor racing circuit located in Midrand, Gauteng, South Africa, just north of Johannesburg. The circuit has been used for Grand Prix and Formula One races and has ho ...
event. Owner-driver
Jean-Louis Ricci
Jean-Louis Ricci (22 February 1944 – 27 February 2001) was a French racing driver
Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition.
Auto racing ha ...
also added his own Spice to Chamberlain's team in the latter half of 1987 and continued the partnership into 1988. Although winless, the two Spices were consistent finishers and the team was runners-up in the C2 teams' championship behind Spice Engineering, while Ricci and co-driver
Claude Ballot-Léna
Claude Ballot-Léna (4 August 1936 – 9 November 1999) was a French racing driver born in Paris.
Career
He won the 1969 Spa 24 Hours in a Porsche 911 and the 1983 24 Hours of Daytona in a Porsche 935 Turbo owned by Preston Henn. He also entered ...
were sixth in the drivers' standings.
In 1989, Spice moved to the upper class of the championship and Chamberlain switched from their turbocharged Hart motor to the more dominant
Ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
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 ...
V8. Nick Adams, partnered with
Fermín Vélez
Fermín Vélez (April 3, 1959 – March 31, 2003) was a Spanish sports car racing driver, two-time winner of the 12 Hours of Sebring and two-time World Sportscar Championship Group C2 champion.
Vélez was a driver in the Indy Racing League, racin ...
and sponsored by
Repsol
Repsol S.A.
El Nuevo Herald, 2012-05-31[Originally an init ...]
, won the first four races of the season. Their control of the category was enough that the team skipped the final race of the season, entering their Spice-Ford in the upper class of the championship instead, yet still winning the teams and drivers' championships in the C2 category. The lower class became defunct in 1990, moving Chamberlain into a class now led by manufacturer teams from
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquartere ...
,
Jaguar
The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus '' Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the th ...
,
Toyota
is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...
,
Nissan
, trade name, trading as Nissan Motor Corporation and often shortened to Nissan, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan. The company sells ...
, and
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 ...
, as well as returning to competing against the factory Spice team. A variety of drivers rotated through the team's two cars, although Vélez later moved to the Spice team and the season ended with Chamberlain not scoring any championship points. New regulations coming into effect for the series left Chamberlain to enter only select races in 1991 before a return to a full-season effort in 1992, once more in the newly established FIA Cup category. Chamberlain Engineering won the 1992 FIA Cup for Teams and Ferdinand de Lesseps, the only driver in the FIA Cup category to compete in all six races that season, handily won the drivers' title.
The World Championship folded after the 1992 season and Chamberlain began a slew of GT programs in the 1990s. A partnership with
Lotus Sport came in 1993, codeveloping
Lotus Esprit
The Lotus Esprit is a British sports car that was built by Lotus Cars at their Hethel factory in England between 1976 and 2004. It was among the first of designer Giorgetto Giugiaro's polygonal "folded paper" designs.
Background
In 1970 Tony ...
s for competition.
Although intended for Le Mans, Chamberlain returned to their British racing roots by competing in the newly founded
BRDC National Sports GT Challenge in 1994, winning their class title with
Thorkild Thyrring
Thorkild Thyrring (born 24 October 1946) is a Danish auto racing driver. He drove several times in the Le Mans 24 hour race, most recently in 2005 and 2006 for Sebah Automotive Ltd in a Porsche 911 GT3. His best result in the race was finishing ni ...
, as well as entering some other international events on the
BPR Global GT Series The BPR Global GT Series (sometimes referred to as the BPR Global GT Endurance Series or simply abbreviated as BPR.) was a grand tourer-based sports car racing series which ran from 1994 to 1996 before becoming the FIA GT Championship in 1997. The ...
. As Lotus took full control of the project in 1995, Chamberlain began various projects with British teams, developing a
Jaguar XJ220
The Jaguar XJ220 is a two-seat sports car produced by British luxury car manufacturer Jaguar from 1992 until 1994, in collaboration with the specialist automotive and race engineering company Tom Walkinshaw Racing. The XJ220 recorded a top sp ...
and running a
Porsche 911 GT2
The Porsche 911 GT2 is a high-performance, track-focused sports car built by the German automobile manufacturer Porsche from 1993 to 2009, and then since 2010 as the GT2 RS. It is based on the 911 Turbo, and uses a similar twin-turbocharged engin ...
. The team eventually became involved in
Chrysler's new GT program as the first customers of the
Viper GTS-Rs, entering a two-car team in the
FIA GT Championship
The FIA GT Championship was a sports car racing series organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO) at the behest of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The championship was mostly concentrated in Europe, but throughout ...
. By 1999 Chamberlain had moved up to second in the championship behind the factory-backed
Oreca
ORECA (Organisation Exploitation Compétition Automobiles) is a French racing team and race car constructor, founded in 1973 and run by Hugues de Chaunac, former team manager of F1 team AGS. Oreca has had success in many areas of motorsport. ...
team. Chamberlain Engineering returned to prototype racing in 2001 at the behest of
MG for a two-year campaign of their new cars at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Although ultimately unsuccessful, the team later purchased a Dome-Judd chassis for use in the
American Le Mans Series
The American Le Mans Series (ALMS) was a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada. It consisted of a series of endurance and sprint races, and was created in the spirit of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The American Le Mans' hea ...
at the end of 2002.
Chamberlain once again became sporting partners with another British entry, Gareth Evan's
TVR Tuscans from the British GT Championship. The new Chamberlain-Synergy team campaigned the cars internationally in 2004 at select events including the American Le Mans Series,
Le Mans Series
The European Le Mans Series (abbreviated as ELMS) is a European sports car racing endurance series inspired by the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The European Le Mans Series is similar to the fo ...
, FIA GT Championship, and at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Gareth Evans then made the transition to prototypes with a new Lola-AER chassis and won the LMP2 championship for the Le Mans Series. The partnership between Chamberlain and Evans continued through to 2008 when the team made their last start at Le Mans. Hugh Chamberlain would later continue to serve as a consultant and sporting director for British teams.
References
{{reflist
British auto racing teams
24 Hours of Le Mans teams
World Sportscar Championship teams
British GT Championship teams
American Le Mans Series teams
European Le Mans Series teams
FIA GT Championship teams
Auto racing teams established in 1972
Auto racing teams disestablished in 2008