Ilmor: Difference between revisions

Ilmor, originally founded by Mario Illien and Paul Morgan in 1991, is an English independent high-performance autosport engineering company. With manufacturing based in Brixworth, Northamptonshire, and maintenance offices in Plymouth, Michigan, the company supplies engines and consultancy within Champ Car, Formula1, IRL and MoroGP formats.

After originally developing Indycar engines, the company built a partnership with Mercedes-Benz to power Formula1 cars for both the Sauber and McLaren teams. After the death of Paul Morgan in a vintage aeroplane crash in 2002, Mercedes increased its stake until it owned the entire company, and renamed it Mercedes-Benz HighPerformanceEngines Ltd.

In 2005, Mario Illen 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 Indy Racing League engines. In 2006, Ilmor Engineering announced that it would enter MotoGP racing, and it presently developing its 2007 800cc motorcycle.

History

Ilmor is merge of the names of the two founders - Mario Illien and Paul Morgan.

Founded as an independent British Formula One engine manufacturer in 1991, it started building engines for Indy cars with the money of Indycar team owner and chassis manufacturer Roger Penske. Also in 1991 Ilmor entered Formula 1 as supplier of the ambitious Leyton House team (formerly March).

After some troubles Leyton House started as March team again in 1992, still using Ilmor-engines. But Ilmor also delivered engines to the Tyrrell team, that had a bad season 1991. Powered by the Ilmor V10, Tyrrell scored 8 points through Andrea de Cesaris and March another 3 through Karl Wendlinger.

Sauber

Ilmor already had a good name in F1, and so the Sauber sportscar-team and Mercedes-Benz that were planning their Formula One entrance together signed a deal with Ilmor. But Mercedes stepped back from the project and didn't want to give their good name for it. So on the cars there where only the letters "Concept by Mercedes-Benz" and the engine was officially called Ilmor.

But after an unexpectedly fast performance in 1993 (12 points, and it could have been more but for many reliability problems and incidents) Sauber convinced Mercedes to enter officially in 1994. Now you could read "Powered by Mercedes-Benz" on the Sauber engine-cover. Coincidentally, in 1993 Mercedes-Benz acquired Chrysler, and gained acquired Chevrolet's 25% share of Ilmor.

In 1994 Ilmor also supplied the new Pacific GP team of Keith Wiggins with the old 1993 spec engines. Pacific had much trouble with qualifiyng the cars, in 32 attemps they only made it 7 times, although the engine was not implicated in this poor display.

Mercedes-Benz

For 1995 Mercedes had higher ambitions and Sauber wasn't good enough anymore. Mercedes offered Sauber a deal, but Sauber would have had to pay for an engine supply and so signed a deal with Ford. From now on Ilmor built its engines for McLaren-Mercedes.

In 2001 Paul Morgan was killed whilst landing his vintage airplane at Sywell Aerodrome, Northamptonshire. This led to Mercedes-Benz increasing their financial involvement in Ilmor, with the company being renamed Mercedes-Ilmor Ltd.

In 2002 the then Daimler-Chrysler increased its share to 55% and renamed the company Mercedes-Ilmor. In 2005 Daimler-Chrysler became the sole owner of Ilmor and renamed the company Mercedes-Benz HighPerformanceEngines Ltd.

Ilmor Engineering

In 2005, Mario Illien and Roger Penske concluded a deal to purchase the small Special Projects part of the company, which since 2003 had been contracted to design and build Honda's Indy Racing League engines, split away to become a separate company.

This new company, which is totally independent of Mercedes, is once again known as Ilmor Engineering Ltd. The new Ilmor continues to support Honda's involvement in the IRL as sole engine supplier.

MotoGP

In 2007 Ilmor is planning to enter a two-bike team in the newly revised MotoGP motorcycle racing series.([1]) Former 500cc race winner Garry McCoy has been confirmed as a rider for one of the bikes, and the team will be running Michelin tyres. The Ilmor bikes will be formally introduced at the 2006 Portugese Grand Prix at the Autódromo do Estoril ^[1].

Formula1 statistics

External links

• Ilmor Engineering Ltd