motor sport
Having established from ground up, a small business designing and manufacturing racing cars and racing car parts, there is much experience in this field. The mix of engineering and entrepreneurial skills were forced into the competitive world of motor sport for thirty years and during this time Reynard Racing Cars grew into the largest racing car company the world had ever seen.
Adrian pioneered applications of simultaneous engineering, CAD CAM, Composite manufacture, optimised factory design-and-build and whilst doing so also created a great team of people.
Adrian is Visiting Professor in Motor Sport Design at Oxford Brookes University where he helped establish the first M Eng degree in “Motorsport Engineering”. He is also Visiting Professor in Engineering and Applied Science at Cranfield University. Adrian is a founding member and ex chairman of the Motorsport Advisory Board for the M.Sc course in Motorsport Engineering and Management.
aviation
A member of the Royal Aeronautical Society, Adrian has always been fascinated with aerodynamics and flight. He gained his PPL in 1983 and has owned and flown a wide variety of aircraft including Harvard, Spitfire, Pitts Special, Citation Jet and Aero Vodochy L39. Since 1985 a helicopter PPL was added with most hours attained in Robinson R44 to date.
Reynard Aviation Ltd was established in Brackley on Reynard Park in a joint venture with Virgin Atlantic. Adrian was elected Chairman. In this 15,000 sq ft facility the Virgin Upper Class lay-flat bed was designed and manufactured. RAL equipped all of Virgin Atlantic’s Boeing 747 and Airbus A340 fleet. In so doing RAL acquired both C.A.A. and F.A.A approvals and became original equipment certified suppliers to Boeing and Airbus.
aerodynamics
It was early in the career of Adrian when he realised the importance of aerodynamics. From his first wind tunnel experiences in the Fluids Lab at Oxford Polytechnic (now Oxford Brookes University), he has been captivated by this primary performance effect. Whilst studying for a Masters Degree in Vehicle Dynamics at Cranfield Institute of Technology (now Cranfield University) he was able to conduct his thesis in the larger model wind tunnel and produced his first 33% scale model of an F1 car to his own design.
In 1982 full-scale tests were undertaken when Reynard was Technical Director of March Formula 1 Team and subsequently all Reynard cars have been subjected to intense wind tunnel development.
In 1991, Adrian ventured into Formula 1 and hired Rory Byrne and Pat Symonds plus a twenty-man team to design his own car. This project had to be abandoned through lack of finance but it did spawn a radical development by way of a 40% three quarter open-jet wind tunnel being designed and built at Shrivenham Military College of Science (now part of Cranfield University). This 50m/s moving ground tunnel was exclusively used by Reynard for over a decade and was responsible for the successful analysis and development of all the Reynard model range.
In early 1995, whilst living in the USA in readiness to attack and dominate the CART Indy car scene, Reynard decided to build a larger version of the Shrivenham Wind tunnel at Indianapolis. America only had one wind tunnel of similar type in existence and that was on the West Coast. The tunnel was a huge project and was not finished until 1997. It attracted investment from Honda and CART Teams with Reynard maintaining a controlling interest.
Today, Adrian Reynard is the Chairman of the Auto Research Centre LLC. The client base ranges across all motor sport and there is strong support from industry. A seven-post rig has been added and ARC also specialises in model making and scanning procedures.
Since 1997, three other wind tunnels have been designed and project managed by Adrian Reynard. The first was a similar design but incorporating a yawing road that was built for BAR F1 Team in 1999 where Adrian Reynard was also co-founder and Technical Director. This 50% scale wind tunnel has been the sole aerodynamic resource, which has lead to the successful development of the BAR F1 car to challenge Ferrari in the 2004 drivers and Constructors championship.
In 2000, Roger Penske asked Reynard to construct a similar facility to ARC LLC in Mooresville N Carolina. ARC Mooresville was constructed on time and within budget and was commissioned in 2001. One distinct advantage of this unique concept wind tunnel is the relative simplicity of the design and the unbeatable value-for-money offered for a 50% scale wind tunnel at 50 m/s speed.
These features attracted the Ford Motor Company to commission Reynard to design and build another wind tunnel for their Jaguar Formula 1 Team in 2002. Again, constructed and delivered on time and within budget, this facility actually occupied the building previously housing Reynard Racing Cars at Bicester. This facility was adopted by Red Bull to develop their championship winning F1 cars for Sebastian Vettel and is now the used by the Torro Rosso Formula One team.
Adrian Reynard owns the intellectual property of the design and records of the successful blueprint for the project management and acquisition of all the components needed to construct replicas of these innovative instruments. Typically, replicas can be constructed for under $18m in the USA or £11m in the UK; these facilities can be provided as a turnkey aerodynamic solution within 12 months.
marine
Adrian Reynard has consulted on many projects including Boat design and World Water Speed Record attempts. He has personally laid out design parameters for a sailing yacht and in 2002 has supervised the build and commissioning of a 26 metre motor yacht including obtaining MCA Approval.
A keen sailor for 30 years, he has wins from dingy racing in Bantham, Devon to Best Crew, 1st in Fleet, 1st in Class, Best Elapsed Time in Antigua Week May 2003. He has owned fly-bridge motor yachts since 1994 and travelled extensively for over 20,000 miles across the Mediterranean as Commercial RYA Yachtmaster and Skipper. November 2011 saw Adrian skipper his own Lagoon catamaran on a Trans-Atlantic voyage to St. Lucia.
Water related hobbies include water skiing, jet skiing, scuba diving (PADI Advanced Diver) and kite boarding and has provided aerodynamic consultancy to a leading kite board manufacturer.
public speaking
Always popular with aspiring motor sport enthusiasts or young engineers, Adrian Reynard is in great demand for his talks and presentations, which draw from the experiences in his personal career and the business of motor racing including Formula 1. Venues include many Colleges where he seeks to inspire young people to achieve goals that they may think unattainable, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Motor Industry Research Association, the Motor Sport Industry Association and the Society of Automotive Engineers. Since Adrian Reynard is now resident overseas, these bookings need planning well in advance and remuneration and expenses are considered on an individual basis.
