BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Prodrive is one of the world's largest and most successful motorsport and vehicle technology businesses, with annual sales of £100 million and employing more than 500 staff in Europe, Australia and Asia-Pacific.
Today the company runs motorsport programmes for Aston Martin Racing in world sports car racing and Ford Performance Racing in the Australian V8 Supercar Series. The company also works with vehicle manufacturers to help them develop new technologies and performance vehicles for the road, and is increasingly involved in the aerospace, marine and defence industries, manufacturing specialist components for commercial passenger aircraft, satellites and racing yachts.
Motorsport
Prodrive is the world’s leading independent motorsport business. It has won six World Rally Championship titles with Subaru. In circuit racing, Prodrive has won five British Touring Car Championships (BTCC) and, in 2003, 2007 and 2008 took GT1 class honours at Le Mans.
Prodrive was behind the Subaru World Rally Team’s rise to fame and helped make Subaru synonymous with rallying, turning it into an icon on the rally stage and respected performance marque around the world. However, Prodrive’s rallying history is far more than just Subaru. Over the years, it has won more than 130 international rallies with other great motorsport names like Porsche, BMW and MG.
In touring car racing, Prodrive has worked with BMW, Alfa Romeo, Honda, Ford and Volvo, winning BTCC titles in the 1980s, 90s and in 2000. In 2003, Prodrive moved into the Australian V8 Supercar Series creating a new team called Ford Performance Racing.
The same year the team achieved its ultimate circuit racing accolade by winning the GTS class at the Le Mans 24 Hours with a Ferrari 550 GTS Maranello. Now the company is managing Aston Martin Racing, which saw the British company return to sports car racing in 2005 with the DBR9. In 2007 and 2008 the team won the GT1 class at Le Mans.
From the beginning of 2002 to the end of the 2004 season, Prodrive managed the BAR Honda Formula One Team, taking it from the middle of the grid to second in the manufacturers’ championship.
In 2009, Prodrive’s works' programmes are: Aston Martin Racing and Ford Performance Racing.
Automotive Technology
During the 1990s, Prodrive began offering its technical expertise and project engineering skills to the mainstream automotive market. Over the years, this part of the business has grown rapidly to represent nearly half the company’s turnover.
The company has the capability to take concepts through to full working prototypes. It has particular expertise in the design, calibration and testing of powertrains, drivelines and vehicle dynamics, as well as control and systems integration. In recent years it has begun to specialise in the development of emission reducing technologies such as electric and flywheel hybrids and variable compression ratio engines.
In the UK, Prodrive has a 250-acre proving ground, including a 2.5 mile test track; low friction straights; areas for suspension and dynamics performance testing; and a high speed, six lane, mile-long straight. In Australia a joint venture with Ford, called Ford Performance Vehicles, develops and manufactures more than 2000 high performance cars for Ford each year. Prodrive also manages the Toyota Racing Development (TRD) manufacturing facility near Melbourne. In addition, Prodrive Asia-Pacific has three operations in Melbourne, Bangkok and Shanghai with more than 100 engineers.
Specialist manufacturing
In the last three years, Prodrive has increasingly been offering its design and manufacturing expertise to businesses in the aerospace, marine and defence industries. Using its advanced machining and composite operations, it has made panels for imaging satellites; actuators for commercial jet engines and lightweight winches for racing yachts. The company’s composite operation also makes lightweight components for a number of formula one teams and sports car manufacturers. Its machining operation is AS9100 certified.
