The Editor: A visit to Prodrive’s HQ finds chief David Richards in fighting form

Drive along the M40 and approaching junction 11 your eye will be drawn to the vast white building on the western side of the motorway. Most people will hardly give it a second thought, but car people know it to be home to one of the most influential companies in British motor sport.

As we report on page 68, this year marks the 40th anniversary of Prodrive, the power behind the throne of – deep breath – 11 WEC titles, six Le Mans titles and six WRC titles. Last month the Prodrive customer team of Nasser Al-Attiya won the World Rally-Raid title too. But, like a skilled ghost writer to a celebrity’s best-selling autobiography, it remains invisible to all but those in the business: Colin McRae and Richard Burns’ World Rally titles, for example, will forever be associated with Subaru. The 2007 and ’08 Le Mans class wins are indelibly linked with the Aston Martin DBR9.

But that may be about to change: the company is tiring of hiding its light under a bushel. Last month it took over the centre of its home town of Banbury for a day of celebration with car displays and talks. (I had hoped to attend but found myself stranded at Bicester North when the Chiltern Railways train I was on was terminated with no warning. Memo to self: always drive).

But some weeks earlier I did manage to get to Prodrive HQ to meet the co-founder David Richards and wander the factory floor. Richards himself is a remarkable man. Now 72, he shows no sign of slowing down. Indeed after we meet for a morning cup of tea he dives straight into a conference call with the FIA Foundation (of which he is chairman) and then onto a waiting flight to Portugal for the third round of the World Rally-Raid Championship where Prodrive is constructor for the Nasser Racing team.

Richards told me how the business was undergoing a “fundamental shift” aimed at moving the brand out of the shadows and into centre stage. “Historically we have two core elements to the business – the motor sport programme and the engineering side,” he said. “Now we are going to bolt on a third, a Prodrive Lifestyle sector. This will promote Prodrive as a brand.”

“Richards told me how Prodrive was moving from the shadows to centre stage”

It will comprise a high-end racing simulator business, the very innovative Hummingbird folding bicycle which is now being re-branded as the Prodrive Folding Bike, and a clothing and luggage business.

“We are almost a secret brand to the consumer,” says Richards. “The racing aficionados know who we are but the man on the street probably doesn’t, so we are moving into that space.”

It reminds me of a time I interviewed Ari Vatanen with whom Richards won the 1981 World Rally Championship. The two remain friends and Vatanen is clearly a huge fan. “He is the Richard Branson of rallying,” he told me. “He was always dynamic in that way of spotting opportunities that others didn’t.”

Today Richards still has an eye for an opportunity. “We don’t say no to anything,” he said. “If something reaches the basic criteria then we will explore it. We are not fixed in our views. I was looking at a project this morning on an email which is not core to where we are today but we will consider it.”

And it doesn’t stop there. There’s the recent partnership with Dacia (see page 10) and a new drive towards sustainable motor sport. “Everything we do will be totally wedded to sustainability. We are embedding a sustainability philosophy within the whole business now.”

And, of course, there is opportunity in that area too: “We are looking at various environmental formulas. We put a proposal to Alejandro [Agag, founder of Formula E and Extreme E] about producing a car for him… so we would consider going back into Extreme E. We are agnostic about fuel whether hydrogen or electric.”

Not only that, but with his other job as head of Motorsport UK, the country’s motor sport governing body, he is pushing to embed sustainability at grass-roots level too. “I’d like all race tracks in the country to be run on sustainable fuels… I’m trying to persuade the government to offer that on a tax-free basis.”

So, after more than 40 years of success, what chance of retiring to the hotel he owns in Cornwall? “I don’t think I could ever retire, I just always think there is something else around the corner. I wake up thinking that today is the day that there will be another challenge.”

We are lucky to have Prodrive and I have a feeling more people are going to notice that white building on the side of the M40 in the years to come.

To Bicester (this time on purpose) for the last Scramble of the year. The autumn event is always my favourite. There is something about the golden glow from the trees that line the roads of the old RAF base and the sense that another year of domestic events is drawing to a close that give it a special magic.

This year the mellow fruitfulness was shattered by the clatter and roar of the V12 engine of the original Bluebird Land Speed Record car, the 350HP Sunbeam that Malcolm Campbell piloted to 146.163mph in September 1924 on Pendine Sands.

The car had been restored by the National Motor Museum and to hear its engine roar into life 100 years almost to the day on that bright afternoon was a spine-tingling moment. A fitting end to 2024’s events.

Joe Dunn, editor
Follow Joe on Twitter @joedunn90

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