Prodrive - History

History

Prodrive was founded in 1984 by Ian Parry and David Richards, the latter is now the chairman of the group. Their first involvement in motorsport was with the Rothmans Porsche Rally Team running a Porsche 911 SC RS for Saed Al Hajri in the Middle East Rally Championship. In 1986, in addition to the Rothman's programme, Prodrive ran a MG Metro 6R4 in British and Irish rally championships. In 1987, they expanded into touring cars, running BMWs M3 in the British Touring Car Championship. They were the outright 1988 champions, and class champions in 1989 and 1990. Since then, Prodrive has run touring car programmes for Alfa Romeo (BTCC champions 1994) for Honda, for Ford (BTCC champions in 2000) and with Volvo in FIA European Touring Car Championship (ETCC). It currently runs the Ford Performance Racing team in Australia's equivalent touring car championship, the V8 Supercar Series.

In 1990, Prodrive started rallying with Subaru, a relationship which lasted until December 2008, when the global economic downturn forced their withdrawal from World Rallying. During the near 20 year partnership, the team won three drivers' WRC titles for Colin McRae (1995), Richard Burns (2001) and Petter Solberg (2003), as well as three manufacturers' titles (1995,96,97).

In 1999, investment group Apax Partners bought 49% of the company. In 2007 Apax sold their investment in the business and in 2008, The Investment Dar company, based in Kuwait, acquired a share of the business.

In 2000 Prodrive expanded out of its base in Banbury, UK and bought a private proving ground in Warwickshire to house its automotive technology business. In 2001 the company acquired Tickford and merged this automotive engineering business into its own operations. With Tickford came subsidiary businesses in North America and Australia. The businesses in North America were subsequently sold, while in Australia, the Tickford brand was replaced by the new Ford Performance Vehicles (FPV) brand. FPV now designs and manufactures around 2000 high performance cars for the local market.

In 2001, Prodrive entered sports car racing with its own privately-developed Ferrari 550 GTS Maranello. Prodrive raced the car until 2004 winning numerous races in the FIA GT and American Le Mans Series. The highlight for the programme was GTS class victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2003. The success of this project led to a full works programme with Aston Martin and the creation of Aston Martin Racing in late 2004, a partnership between Prodrive and the British motor manufacturer. The team won on its debut at the 12 Hours of Sebring in 2005 with its new DBR9 GT1 car. Aston Martin Racing subsequently competed in the American Le Mans Series and at Le Mans with the highlights of the programme being two GT1 class victories at Le Mans in 2007 and 2008. In 2009 the team developed a new LMP1 car and won the 2009 Le Mans Series and was fourth at Le Mans and the fastest petrol powered car. This programme continues today.

In December 2001 Prodrive was brought in to manage the unsuccessful Formula One constructor BAR. Richards was appointed as team principal of BAR. Under Prodrive management the team's fortunes were turned around and by the end of the 2004 season, the BAR Honda F1 team was second in the F1 manufacturers' championship. At that point the owners, BAT (British American Tobacco), sold the team to Honda. The Prodrive management contract was ended and Prodrive's managing director Nick Fry assumed the role of team principal. Prodrive has subsequently been linked with Formula One on a number of occasions since (see below for details).

In March 2007 a consortium led by Prodrive chairman David Richards bought British sports car firm Aston Martin from Ford, bringing Aston Martin back into British control. Prodrive has no financial involvement in the deal. Richards himself is a long-time Aston Martin enthusiast, and owns an extensive collection of both modern and historic models.