Racing History

Having raced Karts whilst at school, Robin started his motoracing in cars, competing in Sprints in the mid 80's. This lead on to the modification of various types of special saloon cars ending up with the build of a purpose build spaceframe "Special Saloon" car for the 87/88 championship. All events entered were won and both championships claimed in both years.

As a result of the interest from fellow competitors in the manufacture and preparation of the cars, “Robin Hooker Racing” was started in 1989. Robin moved his attention to circuit racing and built a car for the 91` national Special Saloon championship which he won that year. Another championship was won the following year in 92` with his first taste of rear engine layouts and the development of the very successful "308 Silhouette Special". 93' saw the build of our first Escort Cosworth based car for the reformed "Thundersaloon" championship.

1994 brought a change in direction for the company with firstly the build of a car specifically for the new British GT championship, and the approach by "Richard Piper" of Group-C and LeMans fame, to be run by RHR in our car. Racing against factory supported cars was never going to be easy but we had the fasted car at most of the races. Further GT successes were had with the first Ascari GT car in which we initially developed the engine and subsequently ran the whole car.

Richard Piper British GT

A move to singleseaters was next with the advent of the BossFormula and the opportunity to work and develop hybrid F1 and F3000 cars. Many cars were built over the next few years for different customers around the world culminating in the building and running of the "RHR/Kockney Koi" Benetton 194's fitted with RHR Cosworth HB engines. Many races were won with many different drivers, Dave Shelton, Dave Hutchinson and Earl Goddard and the EuroBoss championship was won in 2000 with Dave Hutchinson and 2002 with Earl Goddard. Ian Flux had the chance of testing one of the cars for "Motoring News" and claimed it to one of the most complete cars he has ever driven.

A step back in time was next for the team as we were approached to maintain, restore and run a collection of historic FI cars in the TGP Championship and a Mclaren M8F in the SuperSports cup for racer and collector Richard Eyre. The team have restored and build various cars for the growing Group-C series Porsche 962, Jaguar XJR16, Gebhardt, etc. and are currently looking after and running the Aston Martin AMR-1 car for racer and enthusiast, and British GT driver with "Lotus Sport Cadena" Paul Whight.

As well as the cars, Robin has had a personal interest in bikes and bike racing. We have developed engines and supported competitors in several categories of motorcycle racing. In recent years with the ever growing sport of motorcycle "trackdays", we have responded to an increasing interest and demand for track bike preparation and the services that we can offer and this is currently an area of our activity that we are growing. A section of this site is tailored specifically for the bikesport enthusiast.

Robin Hooker Special Saloons