Adrian Reynard

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Adrian Reynard - an Englishman and founder of Reynard Motorsport. As a student he was keenly interested in motorsport, particularly in the production of record-breaking motorcycles. He left Oxford Polytechnic (now Oxford Brookes University) without graduating - in place of the strain gauge he had been expected to present as a final-year project he turned up for his viva voce examination in Mechanical Engineering with a brand new self-designed Formula Ford chassis (which he had to disguise as a Formula Three as he was sponsored by a rival car manufacturer) on a trailer! Teaming up with the experienced mechanic Bill Stone, Reynard set up Sabre Automotive which later became Reynard Motorsport. Reynard's cars were originally built so he could go racing himself; he was successful in Formula Ford and Formula Ford 2000 but the company he built rapidly became successful in many other formulae.

Adrian Reynard had several brushes with Formula One early in his career -- he was commissioned to design a Hawke Formula One car for Rupert Keegan in the mid-1970s (perhaps fortunately at that point in his career, this was not seen through - Reynard had never designed a monocoque before), and later became Chief Engineer for RAM-March in 1982 when the team was struggling with overweight copies of the Williams FW07. He claims to have engineered the cars to the state they should have been in at the start of the 1981 season; but unsurprisingly, little was achieved. While Adrian Reynard was undertaking these contracts, other hands continued to run his firm for him.

A Reynard F1 project went sour in 1991 and took the company to the brink of bankruptcy (both Adrian Reynard and Rick Gorne had to sell many personal assets) but the firm fought back, continuing to dominate Formula 3000 until it became a single-chassis formula at the end of the 1995 season and entering Champ Car very successfully in 1994. Overambitious attempts to expand the company (and, possibly, Adrian Reynard's increasing involvement with British American Racing) led to financial difficulties.

Oxford Brookes university made up for Reynard's lack of a degree by awarding him an honorary doctorate.

He received the Queen's Awards for Export Achievement in 1990 and 1996. Currently, Adrian Reynard has signed up to join the "Founders" of Virgin Galactic, an elite group of civilians who will be among the first people to ride into space for a price.