John Piper - Engineering Consultant

John Piper is well known in the Motorsport industry, having built an enviable reputation for his design, engineering and project management skills within the top echelons of the sport. After graduating in Mechanical Engineering from Kingston University, his love of motorsport led him to David Price Racing in Formula Three, the Triplex Rover GpA Touring Car team and Formula 1.

He started at Williams Grand Prix as an F1 design engineer and was Nigel Mansell’s race engineer there in 1985, then became Design Project Leader on the prototype Metro 6R4 rally car.

John moved to Benetton in 1986 to work on transmissions and suspension dampers, and then to Prodrive Engineering as founding Technical Director on the Subaru rally programme. Following this success he was recruited as Chief Designer on TWR’s Le Mans-winning Jaguar V12 and the team later won the Sportscar World Championship with the Jaguar XJR14 Group C car in 1991 when he worked under Ross Brawn.

In 1994 Reynard Racing Cars recruited John as Technical Director, to head up the company’s Special Vehicle Projects division. Over a three-year period with the company he led numerous projects – the Ford Indigo concept car, which won 1995 Detroit Motor Show Best Car at Show Award; 1997/97 Ford Mondeo BTCC Car programme; the Panoz GT1 Sportscar; and Strathcarron Sports Car Prototype.

John then ran his own design and engineering company employing 25 people from 1998 to 2005, undertaking product design, racing car and special vehicle projects for leading companies such as Virgin Atlantic, Aston Martin, Cadillac, BMW, Rolls-Royce, Suzuki motorcycles, and designing and building the first FPR World Superbike.

He was chosen by JCB in 2005 to be Chief Designer leading the engineering project to set a new Land Speed Record for diesel power using JCB's own 444 engine. He established and controlled a 35-strong team of specialist designers, engineers, team management and technicians, innovating the concept and design of the car and leading it through detail design, manufacture and testing before directing the team on the Bonneville Salt Flats to achieve a new record of 350.092 mph in August 2006. His role entailed overall responsibility for project management of the engineering operations and coordinating JCB's own staff, Ricardo's engine development, and the car build, successfully achieving the task in only 10 months.

JCB DIESELMAX has since been awarded many accolades, including the RAC Dewar Trophy for engineering excellence.

John's datafile:

Role:	Engineering Director
Qualifications:	A level's - Physics, Mech Engineering Science OND - Mechanical Engineering City & Guilds - Computing B.Sc (Hons) Mech Engineering
Who do you work with?	The engineering team.
What do you do?	I have overall responsibility for the design and engineering programme and the building of the car.
What did you do before working on Bloodhound SSC?	Chief Designer for the JCB Dieselmax Land Speed Record car
What’s best about being part of the Bloodhound SSC team?	It’s great to be part of a team of enthusiastic and fun people all sharing a common ambition.
What do you do in your free time?	Motorbikes, cooking and I’m learning tenor sax.
What’s your favourite TV programme?	Rugby.
What kind of music do you like?	Modern Jazz, blues, soul, rock, reggae.
What’s your favourite website?	Multimap!
What’s your favourite computer game?	Don't play 'em
Not many people know this but …	… my Great Uncle won an Olympic medal for cycling.

John has also featured in Brian Lecomber's Outside the Box - see The Engineeing Juggler