Prodrive is an auto racing and automotive engineering group based in Banbury, United Kingdom. It designs, constructs and races cars for companies and teams such as Subaru, Aston Martin and British American Racing (BAR). Its Automotive Technology division based in Warwick provides road car design and engineering consultation for various car manufacturers.
In addition to its British base, the group has activities in Germany, Detroit and California in the United States, Thailand and Australia.
History
Prodrive was founded in 1984 by Ian Parry and David Richards, who is now the chairman of the group. Their first involvement in auto racing was running rally teams for Porsche, MG and BMW, all of whom it had various successes with. In 1987 they expanded into touring cars, running BMW's M3, with which they won the 1988, 1989 1990 and 1991 British Touring Car Championships. Since then, Prodrive has been almost continuously involved in touring cars, running campaigns for Alfa Romeo, Honda and Ford.
In 1990 Prodrive began a long standing and highly successful relationship with Subaru, running their rallying campaigns and helping them to 3 Drivers' and 3 Manufacturers' World Rally Championships.
In 1999 APAX bought a 49% share in the Prodrive group.
Prodrive also runs specially-prepared sports car racing versions of the Ferrari 550 Maranellos in the GTS class of the American Le Mans Series. The cars have been run since 2001, and in 2003 they beat the rival Chevrolet Corvette C5R at the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race. The cars are ageing, however, and Prodrive will need to field replacements if they are to compete against the upcoming Corvette C6R.
Following their success with Ferrari's 550, Aston Martin commissioned Prodrive to built a GT racing version of the Aston Martin DB9, the DBR9. Prodrive will assist the works team, Aston Martin Racing, when they start competing in 2005. They will also build twenty cars for privateers.
In December 2001 Prodrive was brought in to manage the unsuccessful Formula One constructor BAR. Richards was appointed as team principal of BAR, but after Honda increased its share in the team in late 2004, Richards was replaced in that role by Prodrive's managing director Nick Fry.
Reference
- Cropley, S (November. 9, 2004). Beauty and the beast. Autocar pp. 44-51.
- Cropley, S (November. 30, 2004). Out, but not down. Autocar pp. 72-73.
External link
Prodrive's website
