Glenn Brooks interviews Prodrive’s Tony Butcher and other company executives to find out whether there is any substance to the theory that road cars benefit from technology developed for going faster on the track.
Prodrive, perhaps most famous for having been the long-time partner of the Subaru World Rally Championship team, is located within the UK’s high-tech motorsport technology cluster. Though the recent recession caused Subaru to cancel its racing programme in late 2008, Prodrive maintains strong links with the Japanese carmaker, while developing new OEM alliances as capital flows back into motorsport.
Tony Butcher, Prodrive’s Managing Director and Head of Automotive Technology, has developed his industry expertise through working at the top level of motorsport, including working with the former Benetton Formula 1 operation, which went on to be the current Renault F1 team.
Butcher’s days of F1 involvement may be behind him, but his vehicle design and manufacturing experience have proved invaluable as Prodrive continues to spearhead motorsport technology transfer programmes in partnership with some of the world’s major OEMs. “When I joined Prodrive 11 years ago, we were basically an assembler of racing cars,” Butcher states. “But then our strategy changed and we began to in-source and invest in machine tools.”
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