Adrian Reynard

Adrian Reynard (born March 23, 1951 in Welwyn , England ) is a British engineer and founder of Reynard Racing Cars Ltd.

Life

Reynard studied mechanical engineering at Oxford Brookes University . There he founded the Oxford Polytechnic Automobile Club , of which he was chairman until he finished his studies in 1972 without a degree. While still a student, he broke international and national speed records with self-built motorcycles.

Reynard developed his first racing car in 1973 as part of a student project while working as an engineer at British Leyland . In the same year he founded the company Saber Automotive with the former March production manager Bill Stone . The company got off to a slow start and Reynard also followed other development assignments. He built a Formula 3 car for David Lazenby and a Formula 1 car for Mike Keegan, the head of British Air Ferries , was discussed but never realized. In 1977 Stone left Saber Automotive , Reynard took over the company and renamed it Reynard Motorsport .

1979 Reynard's vehicles celebrated their first successes in the British and European Formula Ford . He was also an active driver in this class and won the European title. In 1980 he worked for RAM Racing on a used Formula 1 Williams , the following year he became the team's chief engineer. In this role he replaced Robin Herd and revised his March 811 , which in the original version had not proven to be competitive. Reynard designed the successor March 821 before he left the team. Reynard's Formula Ford car, the Reynard 82FF , made its debut at the Formula Ford Festival that same year and became a huge success. During the following seven years he was able to win many titles and sold a total of 661 times by Reynard's exit from Formula Ford in 1989.

In 1983 Reynard began to deal with Formula 3. The result was the Reynard 853 , the first car in this class with a chassis made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic . In 1985 Reynard's Formula 3 car won its first race with Andy Wallace at the wheel, in 1988 the first car for the Formula 3000 with Johnny Herbert as well and the debut in the Champ Car series also ended in 1994 with a victory for Michael Andretti in the team Ganassi Racing . A Formula 1 project of his own failed, but Reynard was involved as an engineer in the development of BAR's first Formula 1 car .

In 1997, Reynard was appointed Professor of Engineering and Applied Science at Cranfield University . In 2000 a visiting professor for motorsport design at Oxford Brookes University followed.

Honors

• In 1992 Adrian Reynard was awarded the Sir Henry Royce Gold Medal for Excellence in Engineering .
• In 1993 Reynard was inducted into the Institution of Mechanical Engineers .
• In 1997 he was accepted into the Royal Aeronautical Society .
• 1998 Duke of Edinburgh Award for Services to Motorsport.
• Reynard has been a member of the Royal Academy of Engineering since 1999 .

literature

• Simon Taylor: Lunch with Adrian Reynard . Motor Sport, issue 3/2013, p. 98 ff.