Banbury HQ is a hive of varied motoring activity
It’s hard to find a definition that adequately covers every part of David Richards’ Prodrive firm – and that’s awkward, as this year it celebrates 40 years of more or less continuous business success, including some of the greatest moments in UK motorsport history.
Prodrive’s own brochure description of itself as “the world’s leading independent motorsport company” only goes partway towards doing the job. It certainly encompasses the company’s best-known successes, such as winning enough WRC rallies (46) for Subaru in 18 years to change the entire shape and public perception of the Japanese brand and scoring seven Le Mans class wins and 11 GT titles for Aston Martin since setting up a race programme in 2004. Yet it fails to cover a plethora of other activities. Your long-wheelbase Range Rover Autobiography might well have a mechanised cocktail cabinet made in Banbury. Your Gazoo Racing sweatshirt, your e-bike or your Ian Callum-designed driving simulator could all have had their beginnings there. Maybe Prodrive’s composites department made the immaculate carbonfibre body parts for your £100,000-plus British luxury saloon too.