Robin Herd

Robin Herd (born 23 March 1939) is an English engineer, designer and businessman.

Herd graduated from St Peter's College, Oxford and joined the Royal Aircraft Establishment in 1961 as a design engineer on the Concorde supersonic aircraft project. He was recruited by McLaren in 1965 and worked on cars, such as the Mallite-bodied M2A test car for the Firestone tire company. The M2A subsequently evolved into the Formula One M2B car. Herd stayed with McLaren until 1968 — during which time he designed their M4B, M5A and M7 Formula One cars — before moving to Cosworth to design a four-wheel drive F1 car. He co-founded March Engineering with Max Mosley, Alan Rees and Graham Coaker in 1969. The team completed 207 Formula One Grand Prix races between 1970 and 1992, winning three with four pole positions.

He sold March Racing to the Japanese property company Leyton House in 1989 and created Robin Herd Ltd., a design office in Bicester. Following several unsuccessful projects, he quit racing in 1995 and bought Oxford United Football Club, becoming Chairman, and also established a company investigating natural ways of producing energy. Neither project was successful and he resigned in 1998. He formed an Indy Racing League team called March Indy International in 1999.

External links

* [http://www.brdc.co.uk/brdcarchive.cfm/flag/2/member_id/93 BRDC Archive Biography]