Janspeed Technologies Ltd is an automotive performance tuning company, specialising in exhaust systems. The company was founded in 1962 by János Ódor. With a workforce of 74 employees, Janspeed works closely with many luxury and performance car makers including Aston Martin, Lotus and Bentley. As well as customer products, Janspeed has also been a race car preparation business, which has among others, built works

Datsun Datsun (, ) was an automobile brand owned by Nissan. Datsun's original production run began in 1931. From 1958 to 1986, only vehicles exported by Nissan were identified as Datsun. Nissan phased out the Datsun brand in March 1986, but relaunche ...

and later Nissan vehicles for the

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 ...

and DTM.

History

In 1956 János Ódor emigrated from

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

to Britain and after an apprenticeship with Downton Engineering, founded his company as Janspeed Engineering Ltd in

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of ...

in October 1962. Initially specialising in exhausts and performance parts for the

BMC Mini The Mini is a small, two-door, four-seat car, developed as ADO15, and produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors, from 1959 through 2000. Minus a brief hiatus, original Minis were built for four decades and sold during ...

, Janspeed soon expanded to providing turbocharging units and other equipment designed to fit

Vauxhall Vauxhall ( ) is a district in South West London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. Vauxhall was part of Surrey until 1889 when the County of London was created. Named after a medieval manor, "Fox Hall", it became well known for ...

and

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 ...

vehicles.

Products

Janspeed fabricates performance exhausts for a multitude of vehicles and leading car makers. After gaining Tier 1 & 2 supplier status, Janspeed now focuses on larger volume OEM projects. In previous years, Janspeed catered to bespoke orders and designs and supplied individual exhaust parts such as downpipes and manifolds. The company also provided turbocharger applications and conversion kits for many different car makers.

Motor Sport

As well as providing performance parts for road users, the company has a long established association with motor racing. Janspeed was contracted by

British Leyland British Leyland was an automotive engineering and manufacturing conglomerate formed in the United Kingdom in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd (BLMC), following the merger of Leyland Motors and British Motor Holdings. It was partl ...

in 1968 to prepare cars for the London to Sydney Marathon. Following this, Janspeed gained a contract from

and built works cars for the Avon Tour of Britain in 1973. Success followed in 1974, '75 and '76 with Datsun Sunny's winning the Dutch Touring Car Championship.

BTCC

In 1990, Janspeed built the Nissan Skyline GTR to Group N specifications for endurance racing, winning the 24 Hours of Spa and 24 Hours of Nurburgring races. Building on their partnership with Nissan, Janspeed was awarded the works contract to build the

Nissan Primera The is a large family car which was produced by the Japanese automaker Nissan from 1990 to 2007, for the markets in Japan and Europe. In Japan, it replaced the Auster/Stanza, and was exclusive to '' Nissan Prince Store'' locations. In North Am ...

for the

starting in 1991. The BTCC had just undergone a major rule change making the series open only to cars of 2.0 engine displacement in an attempt to eliminate homologation specials and attract manufacturer support, better known as the

Super Touring Super Touring, Class 2 or Class II was a motor racing Touring Cars category defined by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) for national touring car racing in 1993. It was based on the "2 litre Touring Car Formula" created ...

regulations. Nissan saw the potential in competing and decided to join the series full-time. János was installed as the team principal, and Alan Heaphy as the team manager. Their drivers were ex-Formula 1 driver Julian Bailey partnering Jan's son Kieth O'Dor and with sponsorship from

Castrol Castrol is a British oil company that markets industrial and automotive lubricants, offering a wide range of oil, greases and similar products for most lubrication applications. The name ''Castrol'' was originally just the brand name for co ...

oils, the cars had potential but required a lot of development work. Kieth finished 17th in the standings that season. Kieth was partnered in 1992 first by

Andy Middlehurst Andrew Michael Middlehurst (born 16 July 1962 in St. Helens) is an active British racing driver. Andy runs a successful Nissan dealership (Middlehurst Nissan) in the North West of England that is famed for its involvement with the Nissan Skylin ...

and then James Weaver, and results were better. O'Dor improved to finish 12th, however the year ended in a huge accident at the TOCA Shootout at Donington, when O'Dor's Primera vaulted the fencing at the Old Hairpin. 1993 was a much better season. O'Dor was paired with triple BTCC champion

Win Percy Winston "Win" Percy (born 28 September 1943, near Tolpuddle, Dorset) is a former motor racing driver from England. Percy was British Touring Car Champion three times, and at the time of his retirement was the most successful non-Antipodean drive ...

and the car was much improved. Kieth took a brace of podium places before a breakthrough maiden win at the

British Grand Prix The British Grand Prix is a Grand Prix motor race organised in the United Kingdom by the Royal Automobile Club. First held in 1926, the British Grand Prix has been held annually since 1948 and has been a round of the FIA Formula One World Ch ...

support round at Silverstone with Percy second. Kieth finished 6th overall at season's end. The Janspeed Nissan used a gearbox developed by David Brown David Brown Ltd. The following season was a struggle. The other manufacturers were starting to invest millions of pounds into the series, and although the team was now sponsored by

Old Spice Old Spice is an American brand of male grooming products encompassing aftershaves, deodorants and antiperspirants, shampoos, body washes, and soaps. It is manufactured by Procter & Gamble. Old Spice was launched as Early American Old Spice by W ...

and employed

Eric van der Poele Eric van de Poele (born 30 September 1961) is a Belgian racing driver and former Formula One driver. He participated in 29 Grands Prix, in 1991 and 1992. He is a three-times class winner at 24 Hours of Le Mans, and won three Formula 3000 races ...

, the cars were off the pace. At the end of the year Nissan pulled out of the BTCC to concentrate on the

STW STW is an Australian television station owned by the Nine Network that is based in Perth, Western Australia. ''STW'' broadcasts from a shared facility transmitter mast located in Carmel. The station callsign, ''STW'', is an acronym of Swan Tel ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. This caused Janspeed to also leave the series. Nissan rejoined the series in 1996 as a semi works team run by Andy Rouse and later run by RML with great success.

Super Tourenwagen Cup

Janspeed moved to the STW Cup for the 1995 season, with their 1994 driver line up of Kieth and van der Poele, running under the

BMS Scuderia Italia BMS Scuderia Italia SpA (sometimes referred to as simply Scuderia Italia) is an Italian auto racing team founded by Italian steel magnate and motorsports enthusiast Giuseppe Lucchini in 1983. Initially named Brixia Motor Sport (BMS) the team bri ...

banner. The season started promisingly despite being overshadowed by BMW and

Audi Audi AG () is a German automotive manufacturer of luxury vehicles headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. As a subsidiary of its parent company, the Volkswagen Group, Audi produces vehicles in nine production facilities worldwide. Th ...

. Kieth won the first race of the day at

AVUS The Automobil-Verkehrs- und Übungsstraße ('Automobile traffic and training road'), known as AVUS, is a public road in Berlin, Germany. Opened in 1921, it was also used as a motor racing circuit until 1998. Today, the AVUS forms the northern p ...

late in the season, but during the second race suffered a spin, then was hit in the side of the car by

Frank Biela Frank Stanley Biela (born 2 August 1964 in Neuss) is a German auto racing driver, mainly competing in touring cars and sportscar racing. He has raced exclusively in cars manufactured by the Audi marque since 1990. Career Biela started his care ...

's Audi. The impact critically injured O'Dor and he died later that evening.

References

External links

Official Website
{{Automotive industry in the United Kingdom Auto parts suppliers of the United Kingdom Automotive motorsports and performance companies Companies based in Wiltshire Technology companies established in 1962 British auto racing teams British Touring Car Championship teams 1962 establishments in England