Few can match the record of his Lincolnshire-based Neil Brown Engineering company, which built engines that were victorious in European and British Formula Ford 2000 in the 1980s, via domination in British Formula 3, a host of DTM and British Touring Car Championship title successes, to servicing the spec engines in British Formula 4.
From his early days at Vegantune, then one of the top Ford twin-cam engine tuners in the 1600cc Formula 3 era, Brown formed NBE in 1973, initially working on Ford F3 and Cosworth BDA Formula Atlantic powerplants. But it was after the launch of the Pinto-engined FF2000 category in 1975 that his company really came to prominence in single-seaters.
NBE was also contracted by Ford in the late 1970s to prepare the 3.0-litre V6 engines powering the Group 1 Capri, and Gordon Spice won British Saloon Car Championship class titles with Brown-built powerplants, which also triumphed in the Spa 24 Hours.
After Pacific Racing and JJ Lehto won the European and British FF2000 crowns with NBE power in 1987, they graduated to the British F3 Championship in 1988. Team boss Keith Wiggins chose the promising Toyota engine – already winning races with the official TOM’S GB-supported Intersport Racing team – and asked Brown to prepare it. Lehto went on to claim the crown.
West Surrey Racing’s F3 deal with Mugen Honda for 1989 led the Japanese company to appoint NBE as its preparation house for European motorsport. The team’s Mika Hakkinen was the first to claim a title with NBE-supplied Mugen engines, in 1990, and NBE powered every British series champion but one with its Mugen hardware up to and including 2005.
Mugen and Honda took stakes in the company, which powered the manufacturer’s entry to the Super Touring arena in 1995. Drivers including Gabriele Tarquini, Tom Kristensen and James Thompson won races at the wheel of NBE-powered Accords, with WSR running the factory BTCC team from 1998-2000.
From then on, NBE was inextricably associated with Honda in the BTCC, its engines powering Team Dynamics pair Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden to three titles apiece. When the current NGTC formula was introduced, WSR also returned to NBE to build its turbocharged BMW engines, which have been driven to three drivers’ crowns by Colin Turkington.
Source: Autosport