IIlmor Engineering

By Sigur Whitaker

In 1983, Roger Penske was approached by Mario Illien and Paul Morgan to start a new engine company based in Brixworth, England, to build turbocharged engines for the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) series. A deal was struck. The company was started in November 1983 with funding from Penske. Illien and Morgan divided their duties so that Illien was the primary engine designer while Morgan was in charge of the behind the scenes work to make sure the operation ran smoothly.

 
The letter did not come out of the blue. Penske was very familiar with these two engineers who worked on the Cosworth engines.
 
From a young age, Paul Morgan was interested in cars. His father was involved in an automotive component company and enjoyed restoring cars. He gave Paul a 1904 De Dion-Bouton which needed to be restored for his 15th birthday. After restoration, Paul entered the car in several London-to-Brighton runs. He graduated from Aston University with a degree in mechanical engineering and found employment with Cosworth.
 
Mario Illien became fascinated with auto racing by following the career of Jo Bonnier. In 1971, he was employed by Bonnier. After Bonnier was killed, he studied mechanical engineering at Biel University. He initially joined Moway Company designing diesel engines for tanks. In 1969, he joined Cosworth in the engine department where he worked on F1 engines.
 
In 1974, Penske ordered five Cosworth racing engines for his CART racing team with a 2.65-liter engine rather than the normal 3.0 liter engine. By the time the engine was completed, Penske had changed his mind, and the engines were sold to the racing team owned by Vel Miletich and Parnelli Jones. This engine became the Cosworth DFX which dominated CART racing from 1977 through 1987.
 
In 1986, Al Unser Sr. was the first to race with an Ilmor engine and the first victory was the next year when Mario Andretti won the Long Beach Grand Prix.
 
Ilmor supplanted the Cosworth engine in 1988 and won seven consecutive Indianapolis 500’s (1988-1993). Two of Team Penske’s 20 Indianapolis victories during this period were with the Ilmor engine (1988, 1991).
 
In January 1990, Ilmor Engineering, Inc. was formed in Michigan to support the company’s CART racing program.
 
In 1993, Roger Penske saw something in the USAC rules which piqued his interest. There was a proviso that a race car with a V-8 turbocharged engine would get an extra “boost” of power. This was right up Penske’s alley. He was always looking for the “unfair advantage,” and he thought this engine could be it. His goal, pure and simple, was to win the Indianapolis 500. He commissioned Ilmor to develop the engine which they did in secret. Affectionately called “The Beast” by Emerson Fittipaldi, the engine powered Al Unser, Jr. to his second Indianapolis 500 victory in 1994 and Penske’s 10th.
 
Except for the Indianapolis 500, Team Penske used the Ilmor D engine during the 1994 season. Using this power plant, Team Penske cars dominated the CART racing schedule with 11 wins out of the 16 races. At the time, Ilmor was also producing engines for ten other racing teams.  The company also built racing engines for F1 and won the F1 World Championship with McLaren in1998 and 1999. In 1998, they began development of a NASCAR engine.
 
Ilmor Engineering continued its dominance at the Indianapolis 500 with wins in 2001 and 2002. They worked with Honda Performance Development where over an eight-year period, they won 127 races. In 2012, Ilmor partnered with Chevrolet and from 2012 through 2020 won 64 IndyCar races.
 
Closely aligned with the CART series, Ilmor Engineering was running out of room. As the CART series grew, Ilmor’s sales tripled. In 1998, Ilmor Engineering announced it would build a 28,000 square-foot technology center in Plymouth, Michigan, as part of a planned 65,000-square-foot campus on 55 acres. It was located close to where CART was headquartered in Troy, Michigan, a Detroit suburb. The company’s long-term strategy included engines for boats and motorcycles.
 
In 1998, the company established the Special Projects Group to develop engines for NASCAR with Daimler Chrysler. Subsequently, they developed engines for Triumph and Harley Davidson motorcycles and a defense used drone engine.
 
May 2001 saw the tragic death of Paul Morgan who was flying one of his airplanes. On the same day, an Ilmor engine powered Scott Sharp's car to the pole for the Indianapolis 500. Paul’s death resulted in Mercedes-Benz buying the United Kingdom division. Penske and Illien purchased the Special Projects Group and the rights to the Ilmor name.
 
In 2002, they started a specialty division building marine race engines. Ilmor is the sole provider for MasterCraft’s line of tow sport crafts. They also manufacture engines for the recreational markets. Ilmor Marine, LLC was established as a wholly owned subsidiary of Ilmor Engineering, Inc. It built a 50,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Mooresville, N.C. in 2010.
 
Today, the company continues to build marine engines and high-performance racing engines with sales of $60.1 million.
 
If you know of someone who would enjoy this article, please forward it to them. If someone sent this to you and you would like to be added to my subscriber list, please let me know at sigurwhitakerbooks881@gmail.com.