Ilmor, founded by Mario Illien and Paul Morgan in 1984, is a British independent high-performance autosport engineering company. Education Prior to embarking on his motorsport engineering career Illien trained as a technical draughtsman Paul Morgan is the name of the following people Paul Morgan (engineer, British engineer Paul Morgan (footballer, Northern Irish association The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located With manufacturing based in Brixworth, Northamptonshire, and maintenance offices in Plymouth, Michigan, the company supplies engines and consultancy to the IndyCar Series, Formula One, and MotoGP. Brixworth is a large Village and Civil parish in the Daventry district of the county of Northamptonshire in England. Northamptonshire (or archaically the County of Northampton; abbreviated Northants Plymouth is a city in Wayne County of the US state of Michigan. The IndyCar Series is the premier series of the Indy Racing League. Overview A Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix was first organized by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM in 1949
After originally developing IndyCar engines, the company built a partnership with Mercedes-Benz to power F1 cars for both the Sauber and McLaren teams. Mercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of luxury Automobiles Buses coaches and Trucks It is currently a division of the Sauber is a Swiss constructor of racing cars for Sportscar racing and Formula One. McLaren, founded in 1963 by New Zealander Bruce McLaren (1937&ndash1970 is a Formula One team based in Woking, Surrey, UK 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. Mercedes-Benz HighPerformanceEngines Ltd (previously known as Mercedes-Ilmor) is an English -based Formula One engine manufacturer owned by Mercedes-Benz Roger Penske (born February 20, 1937 in Shaker Heights Ohio) is the owner of the automobile racing team Penske Racing, the Penske () is a Multinational corporation, engine Manufacturer and engineering corporation headquartered in Japan. Ilmor Engineering 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. The X3 (also known as the X3) is an 800 cc V4 race bike built by Ilmor Engineering to compete in the 2007 Overview A Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix was first organized by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM in 1949
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History
Ilmor is formed from the names of the two founders - Mario Illien and Paul Morgan.
The 265 V8
Both engineers were working at Cosworth on the Cosworth DFX turbocharged engine for the CART Indy Car World Series; differences of opinion over the direction in which DFX development should go (Cosworth were inherently conservative as they had a near monopoly) led them to break away from their parent company to pursue their own ideas. The DFV was an Engine produced by Cosworth originally for Formula One motor racing Champ Car, was the name for a class and specification of cars used in American Championship Car Racing for many decades primarily for use in the Indianapolis There was some acrimony in their split from Cosworth, their former employer claiming that the Ilmor engine was little different to their planned modifications to the DFX. [1]
Founded as an independent British engine manufacturer in 1983, it started building engines for Indycars with the money of team owner and chassis manufacturer Roger Penske. The Ilmor-Chevrolet 265A debuted at the 1986 Indianapolis 500 with Team Penske driver Al Unser. Chevrolet (ˌʃɛvroʊˈleɪ - French origin (also known as Chevy) is a Brand of Automobile, produced by General Motors (GM The 70th Indianapolis 500 was held at Indianapolis on Saturday May 31, 1986. Penske Racing is a racing team that competes in the Indy Racing League, ALMS, and NASCAR. Alfred Unser (born May 29, 1939 in Albuquerque New Mexico) is a former American automobile racing driver the younger brother of Bobby In 1987, the engine program expanded to all three Team Penske drivers (Rick Mears, Danny Sullivan, and Unser), Patrick Racing, and Newman/Haas Racing. Rick Ravon Mears (born December 3, 1951 in Wichita Kansas) is a retired American race car driver Daniel John "Danny" Sullivan III (Born March 9, 1950 in Louisville Kentucky) is a former racing driver from the United States. Patrick Racing was an Auto racing team in both Champ Car and the Indy Racing League. Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing (NHLR is a motor racing team competing in the IndyCar Series. Mario Andretti, driving for Newman/Haas, won the Long Beach Grand Prix, the engine's first IndyCar victory. Mario Gabriele Andretti (born February 28, 1940) is an Italian American former racecar driver and one of the most successful Americans in the The Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach is an Open-wheel race held on a temporary road course in Long Beach California. He also won the pole position for the 1987 Indianapolis 500. The 71st Indianapolis 500 was held Sunday May 24, 1987 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. A year later, the engine was rebadged as the Chevy Indy V-8, and Rick Mears won the 1988 Indianapolis 500, the engine's first win at Indy. Rick Ravon Mears (born December 3, 1951 in Wichita Kansas) is a retired American race car driver Results of the 1988 Indianapolis 500 held at Indianapolis on Sunday May 29, 1988. The engine went on to have a stellar record in CART. Champ Car, was the name for a class and specification of cars used in American Championship Car Racing for many decades primarily for use in the Indianapolis From 1987-1991, the engine won 64 of 78 races.
F1 Début
In 1991 Ilmor entered Formula 1 with a V10 engine as exclusive supplier to the ambitious Leyton House team (formerly March). Leyton House Racing was a Formula One constructor that raced in the 1990 and 1991 seasons March Engineering was a Formula One constructor and manufacturer of customer racing cars from Britain. After some troubles Leyton House returned to racing as March again in 1992, still using Ilmor engines. Ilmor also supplied engines to the Tyrrell team, starting from 1992. Powered by the Ilmor V10, Tyrrell scored 8 points through Andrea de Cesaris and March another 3 through Karl Wendlinger. Andrea de Cesaris (born May 31 1959) is an Italian former race car driver Mercedes Juniors Wendlinger started his career in Karting and in Formula Ford before entering the German Formula 3 Championship in 1988
Sauber
Ilmor were gaining a reasonable reputation in F1, and so the Sauber sportscar team and Mercedes-Benz, who were planning their Formula One entry together, signed a deal with Ilmor after scrapping plans for a Mercedes engine. It should be noted that Sauber driver Karl Wendlinger had extensive experience of the Ilmor engine from his Leyton House/March career. In order to protect their image, Mercedes took on an observational role in the project and the cars had "Concept by Mercedes-Benz" written in the engine cover. The engine was officially called Sauber V10.
After an unexpectedly competitive performance in 1993 (12 points, and it could have been more but for many reliability problems and incidents) Mercedes finally entered officially in 1994, and now "Powered by Mercedes-Benz" was seen on the Sauber engine-cover. Coincidentally, in 1993 Mercedes-Benz acquired Chevrolet's 25% share of Ilmor. Chevrolet (ˌʃɛvroʊˈleɪ - French origin (also known as Chevy) is a Brand of Automobile, produced by General Motors (GM
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 attempts they only made it seven times, although the engine was not implicated in this poor display.
Racing in the USA
The "Chevrolet" 265A V8s ran briefly as Ilmor units in 1994.
But there was another extraordinary engine from Ilmor in 1994 - the Mercedes-Benz 500I (although work on this started long before the Mercedes takeover as a private project between Ilmor and Penske). The 500I exploited a loophole in the engine rules at the Indianapolis 500 (which was run under slightly different rules to other CART races). The Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, often shortened to Indianapolis 500 or Indy 500, and historically known simply as "The 500" is an American Originally stock-block engines based on production units, fitted with two pushrod and rocker arm actuated valves per cylinder, were permitted to run at increased cubic capacity (3. An overhead valve (OHV engine, also called pushrod engine or I-head engine is a type of Piston engine that places the Camshaft 43 litres vs 2. 65 litres) and significantly greater turbo boost than the pure racing engines. For several years Buick V6 units had been extremely fast but fragile; the restrictions were relaxed with the intent of permitting Buick-like engines to use stronger but still production-like blocks - the Menard engine based on the Buick took this approach, as did the unsuccessful Greenfield V8. Buick (ˈbjuːɪk is a Marque of automobile sold in the United States, Canada, China, Taiwan, Qatar, and Team Menard was an auto racing team in the Indianapolis 500 and Indy Racing League owned by John Menard.
Ilmor realised that this provided scope for a completely new pure-bred racing engine - it would need to retain pushrods, but could be designed specifically for the requirements of the Indianapolis 500, and in strict secrecy schemed a completely new V8 engine which was approximately 200bhp more powerful than the Cosworth DFS and Ilmor 265A opposition. Team Penske's cars were by far the fastest at the 1994 Indianapolis 500, and Al Unser, Jr. won the race, with Emerson Fittipaldi also figuring strongly until an accident on lap 184. Alfred Unser Jr (born April 19 1962 in Albuquerque New Mexico) nicknamed " Little Al " " Al Junior " or simply " Junior Emerson Fittipaldi (born December 12, 1946 in São Paulo, Brazil) is a highly successful Brazilian automobile racing driver winning world championships The loophole was closed for 1995, and Penske, a year behind on development for Indy, failed to qualify their 265A-powered cars for that year's 500.
For 1995 the 265A V8s were rebadged Mercedes and continued to be highly competitive, but after the CART-IRL split, Mercedes gradually lost interest in American racing. The Indy Racing League, better known as IRL, is the sanctioning body of a predominantly American based Open-wheel racing series.
Ilmor continued working in America on the Oldsmobile Aurora V8 for the IRL, and later designed the Honda IRL engine. Oldsmobile was a brand of Automobile produced for most of its existence by General Motors. () is a Multinational corporation, engine Manufacturer and engineering corporation headquartered in Japan.
Mercedes-Benz in Formula One
Back in F1, for 1995 Mercedes had set its sights on higher goals and went looking for an engine supply deal with a more competitive team. Sauber had the opportunity to become a customer team, but Peter refused and signed a deal with Ford. Ford Motor Company is an American Multinational corporation and the world's fourth largest automaker based on Worldwide vehicle sales, following From now on Ilmor built the Mercedes-Benz engines exclusively for McLaren. McLaren, founded in 1963 by New Zealander Bruce McLaren (1937&ndash1970 is a Formula One team based in Woking, Surrey, UK
The Ilmor engines went on to be hugely successful with McLaren, scoring several podiums in both 1995 and 1996, leading to three wins in 1997 and back to back drivers championship in 1998 and 1999, as well as the constructor's championship in 98. "F1 1995" redirects here For the video games based on the 1995 Formula One season see F1 95. The 1996 Formula One season was the 47th FIA Formula One World Championship season The 1997 Formula One season was the 48th FIA Formula One World Championship season The 1998 Formula One season was the 49th FIA Formula One World Championship season The 1999 Formula One season was the 50th FIA Formula One World Championship season Although they have not won another championship since, the Ilmor-Mercedes engines have won several races.
In 2001 Paul Morgan was killed whilst landing his vintage airplane at Sywell Aerodrome, Northamptonshire. Sywell Aerodrome is the local aerodrome serving Northampton, Wellingborough and Kettering as it is situated midway between these towns Northamptonshire (or archaically the County of Northampton; abbreviated Northants In 2002 DaimlerChrysler increased its share to 55% and renamed the company Mercedes-Ilmor. Daimler AG ( (formerly DaimlerChrysler AG) is a German car corporation (not to be confused with the British car-maker Daimler Motor Company) and Mercedes-Benz HighPerformanceEngines Ltd (previously known as Mercedes-Ilmor) is an English -based Formula One engine manufacturer owned by Mercedes-Benz In 2005 Daimler-Chrysler became the sole owner of Ilmor and renamed the company Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines 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 IndyCar Series engines, and split away to become a separate company. () is a Multinational corporation, engine Manufacturer and engineering corporation headquartered in Japan. The IndyCar Series is the premier series of the Indy Racing League.
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 2006, Ilmor announced that they would enter a two-bike team in the MotoGP motorcycle racing series and would enter a single rider team as a wildcard entry in the final two races of the 2006 season. The X3 (also known as the X3) is an 800 cc V4 race bike built by Ilmor Engineering to compete in the 2007 Overview A Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix was first organized by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM in 1949 For the 2007 Motogp season, engine capacity was to be reduced to 800cc from 900cc so Ilmor's wildcard entries in 2006 would be the first appearance of an 800cc Motogp motorcycle at a race meeting. [2].
Former 500 cc race winner Garry McCoy was confirmed as the rider for the Michelin-shod bike in its 2006 appearances, scoring points both in the 2006 Portuguese Grand Prix at the Autódromo do Estoril and the 2006 Grand Premio De La Comunitat Valenciana. Garry McCoy (born April 18, 1972 in Sydney, Australia) is a professional motorcycle racer. Michelin (full name SCA Compagnie Générale des Établissements Michelin) ( based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne Région __FORCETOC__The 2006 Portuguese motorcycle Grand Prix was the sixteenth race of the 2006 Motorcycle Grand Prix season. The Autódromo do Estoril (officially Autódromo Fernanda Pires da Silva) is a 4 __FORCETOC__The 2006 Valencian Community motorcycle Grand Prix was the last race of the 2006 Motorcycle Grand Prix season. [3] becoming the first rider to score points on an 800cc Motogp machine.
On 18 December, 2006, Ilmor Engineering confirmed via their website that Jeremy McWilliams and Andrew Pitt had been selected as riders for the 2007 season. Events 218 BC - Second Punic War: Battle of the Trebia - Hannibal 's Carthaginian forces defeat those of the Jeremy McWilliams (born 4 April 1964 in Belfast, Northern Ireland) is a former Motorcycle road racer. [4]. On 15 March 2007 after one race, the team announced that they were taking a break from Moto GP as a result of funding issues. Events 44 BC - Julius Caesar, Dictator of the Roman Republic, is stabbed to death by Marcus Junius Brutus, Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. [5] On 30 April they announced that they would run a "slimmed-down" set-up focused purely on engine development, releasing all unnecessary personnel but keeping under contract riders McWilliams and Pitt. Events 313 - Roman emperor Licinius unifies the entire Eastern Roman Empire under his rule [6] They have yet to return to the Motogp paddock as of the 2008 season.
Formula One statistics
| Year | Team | GPs | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Leyton House-Ilmor | 16 | 1 |
| 1992 | Tyrrell-Ilmor | 16 | 8 |
| 1992 | March-Ilmor | 16 | 3 |
| 1993 | Sauber-Ilmor | 16 | 12 |
| 1994 | Pacific-Ilmor | 5 | - |
Notes
- ^ Graham Robson, "Cosworth: The Search For Power"
- ^ MOTOGP: EXCLUSIVE: Ilmor explain MotoGP plans
- ^ MOTOGP: Ilmor confirms McCoy, Michelin., motorsport news, results, features, teams, drivers, updates
- ^ Ilmor Announce 2007 Riders official Ilmor press release, accessed 18 December 2006
- ^ Ilmor pull out of MotoGP temporarily autosport. The 1991 Formula One season was the 42nd FIA Formula One World Championship season Leyton House Racing was a Formula One constructor that raced in the 1990 and 1991 seasons The 1992 Formula One season was the 43rd FIA Formula One World Championship season Lower Formulae (1958 - 1967 Tyrrell Racing first came into being in 1958 running Formula Three cars for Ken Tyrrell and local stars The 1992 Formula One season was the 43rd FIA Formula One World Championship season March Engineering was a Formula One constructor and manufacturer of customer racing cars from Britain. The 1993 Formula One season was the 44th FIA Formula One World Championship season Sauber is a Swiss constructor of racing cars for Sportscar racing and Formula One. The 1994 Formula One season was the 45th FIA Formula One World Championship season Pacific Racing was a Formula One team from Great Britain. The team took part in two full seasons 1994 and 1995 entering 33 Grands Prix Events 218 BC - Second Punic War: Battle of the Trebia - Hannibal 's Carthaginian forces defeat those of the com, accessed 15/03/2007
- ^ The Official MotoGP Website
See also
External links
Throughout its long history Mercedes-Benz has been involved in a range of Motorsport activities including Sportscar racing and rallying Mercedes-Benz HighPerformanceEngines Ltd (previously known as Mercedes-Ilmor) is an English -based Formula One engine manufacturer owned by Mercedes-BenzDapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic