Ilmor, founded by Mario Illien and Paul Morgan in November 1983, is a British independent high-performance autosport engineering company. With manufacturing based in Brixworth, Northamptonshire, and maintenance offices in Plymouth, Michigan, the company supplies engines and consultancy to the IndyCar Series and MotoGP.
After originally developing IndyCar engines, the company built a partnership with Mercedes-Benz to power F1 cars for both the Sauber and McLaren teams. After the death of Paul Morgan in a vintage aeroplane crash in 2001, Mercedes increased its stake until it owned the entire company, and renamed it Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines Ltd.
In 2005, Mario Illien concluded a deal to purchase the Special Projects part of the company in partnership with Roger Penske, which had been contracted to supply Honda with IndyCar engines between 2003 and 2005. This new company, which is totally independent of Mercedes, is once again known as Ilmor Engineering Ltd. They once again developed the Ilmor X3 for the 2007 MotoGP World Motorcycle Championship, which they entered in one race before withdrawing and effectively shutting down the race team, due to funding problems.
Read more about Ilmor: The 265 V8, F1 Debut, Sauber, Racing in The USA, Mercedes-Benz in Formula One, Ilmor Engineering, Inc. - Expansion To The U.S., Diversification - Ilmor High Performance Marine, LLC., Powerboat Racing World Champions, MotoGP, Formula One Statistics