Josef Newgarden – Prodrive Visit

Banbury, England (October 21, 2008) – Today Conor and I were able to take a tour of the Prodrive factory. We have been especially excited about this visit ever since Jeremy told us back in late September. Conor and I both have Subaru STI’s as personal cars, so obviously visiting the factory that preps the Subaru World Rally Team cars was going to be good. One of our mechanics Bob brought us to the factory and was able to accompany us on the tour.

When we arrived, we were greeted by Jackie Irwin, the senior receptionist for Prodrive, and Laura Hanson, one of the marketing assistants for Aston Martin Racing. We began the tour in Prodrive’s History Showroom which displayed some of the famous cars that Prodrive has produced, including their one off P2 car that was driven by Jeremy Clarkson on the BBC television show Top Gear last year. The Showroom also had Jenson Button’s 2004 BAR Honda F1 car – this one was my personal favorite.

After starting the tour with a trip to the past we began to explore deeper into the heart of Prodrive. Our next stop was the engine and transmission assembly room. This entire section of the factory was kept pretty secretive, so they asked us to not take any pictures. Nearly 85 percent of the parts that are used in a Prodrive built car are in-house manufactured. We were able to see the engines and transmissions being assembled up close and ask a couple of top secret questions. One fact that I found overwhelming was that the Subaru world rally car produces almost 800 ft/lb of torque even when being limited to 300 bhp – pretty impressive for a flat-four!

We then moved to the section where they were assembling race prepped Aston Martins for various customers. Another interesting thing we learned was that the entire frame is held together with a special bonding glue and the only thing bolted on the frame is the roll-cage! Seeing this many Aston Martins was like being in a dream. We were also able to see the fabrication room where Prodrive custom-makes most of their parts from solid pieces of various materials.

For our final stop in the factory we were shown the actual shop where the SWRT preps their cars. They were actually just unloading Petter Solberg and Chris Atkinson’s cars from a recent event and placing them into their bays. The entire cockpit was like a jet fighter pilot on wheels! The amount of technology under the hood of these cars was seriously impressive and was a sight for our eyes. I wouldn’t mind taking a stab at rallying one day if the right opportunity presented itself. We were then escorted back into Prodrive’s History room for a couple more photos and to end our tour. Wow, what an impressive place!