St Neots firm Titan Motorsport held an open day to celebrate 55 years in business.
The cutting edge firm, based on the Harley Industrial Park, in Paxton Hill, welcomed special guests for the celebration on November 16, including Charles Lucas, the founder of the firm in 1963.
In its earliest days, Titan, which was known as Charles Lucas Engineering, was a motor racing organisation, running Formula 3 cars and working with some of the leading teams in the sport, as well as F1 and F2 teams.
After a foray into the Formula Ford racing world, the firm, which had changed its name to Titan and moved from London to Huntingdon, developed into a manufacturer of parts for other companies and projects.
By the end of the 1970s it was out of race car manufacturing and, after a flurry of engine projects that included building the engines for the Ted Toleman offshore powerboat racers of the early 1980s, it started work on engineering projects that evolved into road car programmes.
Today, Titan employs about 90 staff and, as well as its manufacturing innovation and expertise, which includes work with the world’s leading sports car firms, it also specialises in software for the automotive industry.
Addressing guests at the event, George Lendrum, managing director, said: “This event is about reminding ourselves about the long heritage of Titan and about looking towards the future of the business.
“Titan has flourished from a motorsport team into a highly regarded high performance automotive organisation and has grown almost beyond recognition form its origins which were under the arches on the Goldhawk Road, in Shepherds Bush, way back in the early 1960s.
“Britain’s motorsport industry has flourished over the last 50 years, and our transition as a business from purely motorsport into mainstream automotive mirrors the strategy of many other companies in this region, which has come to be known as ‘Motorsport Valley’.”
After a round of speeches, guests were treated to a guided tour of the facility and a buffet lunch was laid on. Among the items on show on the day was the very first Titan F3 production car, which dates back to 1967, along with a Titan Mark 6 car built in the 1970s.
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