Andrew Thorby didn’t heed the best advice he says he was ever given in a motorsport career that has spanned over four decades designing and engineering cars across the spectrum of single-seaters and sportscars.
In 1981, Thorby left Lola to join Nimrod Racing Automobiles and moved his family up to rural North Staffordshire only for the company to go bust soon after. But what he calls the “invigorating challenge” of designing the NRA/C2 using the day’s new technology, carbon fibre, and doing so “totally on my own” against looming opposition in the form of Porsche’s Group C era-defining 956 demonstrates a determination to push the envelope even in less-than-ideal circumstances that he would rely on again in future years.
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Having initially pursued a law career upon finishing education, since “at the time I didn’t realise that there was a living to be made from designing cars”, Thorby never looked back upon taking the plunge into the motorsport industry. After cutting his teeth working on glassfibre bodywork at Specialised Mouldings in Huntingdon, he made “a massive upgrade” to the design office at nearby Lola in 1977 and got stuck in with everything from Formula Ford to Indycar and Group C, “on all aspects of those cars”.
Key to the appeal, he explains, was gaining experience with a wide variety of machinery, and learning the discipline of designing within a budget. It helped that Lola’s Eric Broadley, who had taken him on – “it must have been a gamble for Eric, though a cheap one!” – was “the best concept designer” he worked with.
“I was extremely fortunate to work at Lola at that time,” he says. “The depth of motor racing experience among the design and workshop staff was huge, and learning from them was easy. The breadth of work meant that you learned about engineering for value as well as for performance.”
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Having played a key role in shaping the T600 which immediately became a winner when it was fielded in IMSA in 1981, Thorby was no stranger to sportscars when he joined the Nimrod-Aston Martin project. Early promise as the car claimed seventh at Le Mans in 1982 – Thorby present as an observer – was not sustained and financial trouble caused the company to shut its doors in 1983. And although Nimrods raced on until 1984, Thorby had already moved on to Reynard in what turned out to be a short-lived stint designing the SF84 Formula Ford 2000.
Source: Autosport