LCR engineering
LCR Engineering is a Swiss manufacturer of motorcycle sideboards for road and racing use, racing cars and frames for racing motorcycles , based in Rheineck in the canton of St. Gallen .
The abbreviation LCR stands for Louis Christen Racing , named after the company founder. LCR has been a pioneer in the development of racing teams for 30 years and dominates sidecar racing.
Today LCR manufactures racing teams of the formulas F1 (Sidecar World Cup) and F2 ( Isle of Man TT ).
history
Company founder Louis Christen built his first racing car in 1971, a Formula Vee vehicle with a capacity of 1300 cc , with which he also competed in races. By 1985 LCR produced a total of 35 racing cars in the Formula V (1300 and 1600 cm³), Formula Ford (1600 and 2000 cm³) and Formula 3 classes , which won several national championships.
In 1976 the first LCR racing team with a monocoque chassis was constructed, which in 1977 was equipped with an additional steering system for the sidecar wheel. In the 1978 season , the Swiss duo Bruno Holzer / Karl Meierhans, equipped with a Yamaha engine, celebrated their first Grand Prix victory in the motorcycle world championship for LCR at the Belgian Grand Prix in Spa-Francorchamps . In the following year , the two won the world championship title on LCR-Yamaha in the B2B category (sidecars with one or two driven wheels), with six second places in six races held . The particular feature of the vehicle used was that the pilot did not kneel in the machine, as was customary until then, but sat. For the 1980 season , the FIM changed the regulations and only allowed combinations with conventional configurations (kneeling driver), whereupon a completely new machine had to be developed.
Winning the title in 1979 was the beginning of a dominance of the LCR teams in the sidecar world championship that continues to this day. Some of the most successful team pilots ever, like the Swiss Rolf Biland , Steve Webster from Great Britain or the Dutch Egbert Streuer , equipped with Yamaha, Krauser or Suzuki engines, won over 100 Grand Prix and World Cup races.
Between 1983 and 1989 LCR also manufactured monocoque frames for 80 and 125 cc racing motorcycles, which were also very successful in the motorcycle world championship. Zündapp and later Krauser used LCR frames in the 80 cm³ class and won the world championship title once in 1983 and 1984 with the Swiss driver Stefan Dörflinger . In the eight-liter class, LCR machines with MBA engines celebrated Grand Prix victories.
In 1986, in cooperation with Krauser, LCR presented the Krauser-Domani road team, which was equipped with a BMW engine and built over 100 times. In addition, in 1987, LCR and another company designed a solar car that took part in the Tour de Sol . Furthermore, there exists a LCR Drag equipped with a 1499-cm³- BMW - Turbo engine with over 1000 horsepower is fitted, which by Nelson Piquet in the formula 1 was used.
Team World Champion on LCR
LCR teams won 14 titles in the World Team Championship, which was held until 1996 . In the Sidecar World Cup, which has been held since the class was separated from the World Championship in 1997, they have been victorious 15 times so far.
(yellow background = sidecar world cup)
| year | Driver / passenger | nation | machine |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 | (Cat. B2B) Bruno Holzer / Karl Meierhans |
|
LCR- Yamaha |
| 1981 | Rolf Biland / Kurt Waltisperg |
|
LCR Yamaha |
| 1983 | Rolf Biland / Kurt Waltisperg |
|
LCR Yamaha |
| 1984 | Egbert Streuer / Bernd Schnieders |
|
LCR Yamaha |
| 1985 | Egbert Streuer / Bernd Schnieders |
|
LCR Yamaha |
| 1986 | Egbert Streuer / Bernd Schnieders |
|
LCR Yamaha |
| 1987 | Steve Webster / Tony Hewitt |
|
LCR Yamaha |
| 1988 | Steve Webster / Tony Hewitt |
|
LCR Yamaha |
| 1989 | Steve Webster / Tony Hewitt |
|
LCR Krauser |
| 1990 | Alain Michel / Simon Birchall |
 /
|
LCR Krauser |
| 1991 | Steve Webster / Gavin Simmons |
|
LCR Krauser |
| 1992 | Rolf Biland / Kurt Waltisperg |
|
LCR Krauser |
| 1993 | Rolf Biland / Kurt Waltisperg |
|
LCR Krauser |
| 1994 | Rolf Biland / Kurt Waltisperg |
|
LCR- Swissauto |
| 1997 | Steve Webster / David James |
|
LCR-ADM |
| 1998 | Steve Webster / David James |
|
LCR-ADM / Honda |
| 1999 | Steve Webster / David James |
|
LCR- Suzuki |
| 2000 | Steve Webster / Paul Woodhead |
|
LCR-Suzuki |
| 2001 | Klaus Klaffenböck / Christian Parzer |
|
LCR-Suzuki |
| 2003 | Steve Webster / Paul Woodhead |
|
LCR-Suzuki |
| 2004 | Steve Webster / Paul Woodhead |
|
LCR-Suzuki |
| 2005 | Tim Reeves / Tristan Reeves |
|
LCR-Suzuki |
| 2006 | Tim Reeves / Tristan Reeves |
|
LCR-Suzuki |
| 2007 | Tim Reeves / Patrick Farrance |
|
LCR-Suzuki |
| 2008 | Pekka Päivärinta / Timo Karttiala |
|
LCR-Suzuki |
| 2009 | Ben Birchall / Tom Birchall |
|
LCR-Suzuki |
| 2010 | Pekka Päivärinta / Adolf Hänni |
/
|
LCR-Suzuki |
| 2011 | Pekka Päivärinta / Adolf Hänni |
/
|
LCR-Suzuki |
| 2012 | Tim Reeves / Ashley Hawes |
|
LCR-Suzuki |
| 2013 | Pekka Päivärinta / Adolf Hänni |
/
|
LCR-Suzuki |
| 2014 | Tim Reeves / Gregory Cluze |
/
|
LCR-Kawasaki |
| 2015 | Bennie Streuer / Geert Koerts |
|
LCR-Suzuki |
| 2016 | Pekka Päivärinta / Kirsi Kainulainen |
|
LCR-BMW |
| 2017 | Ben Birchall / Tom Birchall |
|
LCR Honda |
| 2018 | Ben Birchall / Tom Birchall |
|
LCR Honda |