News
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05 May 2010
Viper Motorcycle Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Viper Powersports Inc., announced today delivery of the first re-designed production short stroke engines for the 2011 Viper build.
09 February 2010
Ilmor announced today they have successfully run the first prototype Ilmor - Viper Motorcycle Company engine on the dyno ahead of schedule and are already seeing promising results.
07 October 2009
Ilmor Engineering is pleased to announce that its presence at the Professional Motorsport World (PMW) Expo in Cologne, Germany from 3rd-5th November
26 August 2009
Ilmor Engineering Ltd has achieved ISO 9001:2008 certification through TUV UK, demonstrating our longstanding commitment to the quality of Ilmor’s products and customer satisfaction
12 August 2009
With its first prototype Five-Stroke having achieved an impressive fuel consumption figure of 226g/kWh, engine designer and manufacturer Ilmor Engineering is planning a second phase development engine...
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ILMOR PROFILE - a history of being ahead
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Ilmor Engineering Ltd. was founded by Mario Illien, Paul Morgan and Roger Penske in 1984, initially to design, develop and manufacture engines for the IndyCar series. With backing from General Motors under the Chevrolet banner it quickly became successful in Indy racing, taking its first race win at Long Beach in 1987 (Mario Andretti). In 1988 Ilmor achieved the milestones of its first Indanapolis 500 win (Rick Mears)and CART championship (Danny Sullivan). Since then Ilmor have gone on to win more than 200 IndyCar races including 15 Indy 500 wins.
1990 saw the Ilmor business expand to the USA with the establishment of Ilmor Engineering Inc. in Plymouth, Michigan to provide engine build and trackside support for the supply of IndyCar engines.
In 1994, with backing from Mercedes-Benz, Ilmor entered the Indy 500 with the now infamous 500I pushrod engine which was the first engine in history to achieve pole position and win the Indy 500 in its debut race. Raced by Al Unser Jr, it exceeded 1000bhp and had a top speed of 250mph.
In the early nineties Ilmor made the natural progression to Formula One, supplying Leyton House, March and Tyrrell. In 1993 Mercedes-Benz announced their collaboration with Ilmor, providing the financial backing for the V10 engine supply to Sauber.
Two years later the Mercedes return to F1 was complete, with the Ilmor V10 badged as a Mercedes-Benz and the start of the long-standing relationship with McLaren. In 1997 David Coulthard took the first Ilmor Formula 1 race win, then in 1998 and 1999 Mika Hakkinen raced the Ilmor engines to the Formula 1 World Championship.
In 1998, the decision was made to broaden the Ilmor business base and a separate offshoot began to grow, first around a project to produce components for Roger Penske’s NASCAR team, followed by successful projects for Triumph Motorcycles, Harley Davidson and a number of other clients.
In 2001, Ilmor began to develop the GM IRL engine, which led to a speculative engine design for the new 2003 IRL rules and the beginning of the relationship with Honda. The design, manufacture and joint development of this engine resulted in a further expansion into what became known as the Special Projects Group, forming a discrete business with its own dedicated resources, within the rest of the company. This group, working in partnership with Honda Performance Development (HPD) in California, created an engine that totally dominated the 2004 and 2005 IRL seasons. Since 2006 Ilmor and HPD have been responsible for the sole supply of engines to the IRL series and are proud to have achieved a 100% reliability record for all IRL race engines since the start of the 2007 season.
In late 2002, Mercedes-Benz elected to begin a phased buyout of Ilmor. The Special Projects Group found that this limited opportunities to expand its business portfolio and so Roger and Mario elected to buy Special Projects from Mercedes, along with the Ilmor name. This was accomplished by the end of June 2005 and a new Ilmor was born. Ilmor is now led by Steve Miller, an engineer with more than two decades of success in US racing.
Ilmor Engineering Ltd now possesses its own independent design, development, testing and manufacturing facilities, along with the necessary support functions such as finance, procurement, production planning and inspection, employing over 50 staff in the UK. The main business is the design, development and production of racing engines and components, acting as a consultant for motorsport clients from all forms of racing. Additionally the business is using its racing expertise to diversify into other areas such as OEM automotive, defence, marine and energy efficient engine applications.
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