Gibson Technology is an automotive and motorsport company based at

Repton Repton is a village and civil parish in the South Derbyshire district of Derbyshire, England, located on the edge of the River Trent floodplain, about north of Swadlincote. The population taken at the 2001 census was 2,707, increasing to 2 ...

, Derbyshire, England. It was founded by Bill Gibson and Brian Mason as Zytek Engineering in 1981.

Ownership history

In 1981 Gibson and Mason founded the Zytek Group with two main divisions:

Zytek Automotive Zytek Automotive is a British powertrain and vehicle engineering specialist, which has been part of Continental AG since 2014. Zytek Automotive designs, develops, and integrates electric motors into a range of cars and commercial vehicles. The U ...

, based at

Fradley Fradley is a village and civil parish in the Lichfield (district), Lichfield district of Staffordshire, England.OS Explorer Map 245: The National Forest :(1:25 000) :

, Staffordshire; and Zytek Engineering, based at Repton, Derbyshire. In 2000,

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It was founded by brothers Paul and Joseph Galvin in 1928 and had been named Motorola since 1947. Many of Motorola's products had been ...

procured 19% of the

. In 2006, this passed to

Continental AG Continental AG, commonly known as Continental and colloquially as Conti, is a German multinational automotive parts manufacturing company. Headquartered in Hanover, Lower Saxony, it is the world's third- largest automotive supplier and the fo ...

, a German engineering company, who purchased all of Motorola's automotive divisions and subsequently started raising their stock-holding of Zytek Automotive to 50%. Since 2014, Zytek Automotive has been part of

after they purchased the whole business. Zytek Engineering, the other part of the Zytek Group, remained under Gibson's leadership and was renamed Gibson Technology on 1 October 2014.

Motorsport history

Zytek Motorsport is the brand name used for the Zytek Group's motorsport product range and applications. In 1987, Zytek bought the British

Alan Smith Racing Alan may refer to: People *Alan (surname), an English and Kurdish surname *Alan (given name), an English given name **List of people with given name Alan ''Following are people commonly referred to solely by "Alan" or by a homonymous name.'' *Al ...

outfit in order to expand its motorsports involvement. The team initially supported the

Jordan Grand Prix Jordan Grand Prix was a Formula One constructor that competed from 1991 to 2005. The team was named after Irish businessman and founder Eddie Jordan and was based at Silverstone, England, but raced with an Irish licence. In early 2005, the team ...

team in

Formula 3000 Formula 3000 (F3000) was a type of open wheel, single seater formula racing, occupying the tier immediately below Formula One and above Formula Three. It was so named because the cars were powered by 3.0 L engines. Formula 3000 championship ...

before the team eventually chose to concentrate on engine development. Zytek returned to running a motorsports team in 2004 when the company entered the

Le Mans Endurance Series The European Le Mans Series (abbreviated as ELMS) is a European sports car racing endurance series inspired by the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The European Le Mans Series is similar to the fo ...

with their first sports car, the

Zytek 04S Gibson Technology is an automotive and motorsport company based at Repton, Derbyshire, England. It was founded by Bill Gibson and Brian Mason as Zytek Engineering in 1981. Ownership history In 1981 Gibson and Mason founded the Zytek Group wi ...

, which finished second in the team championship in

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

due to two overall victories. Zytek Engineering continues to campaign in the Le Mans Series as well as in the

American Le Mans Series The American Le Mans Series (ALMS) was a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada. It consisted of a series of Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance and sprint races, and was created in the spirit of the 24 Hours of Le M ...

and

24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans () is an endurance-focused Sports car racing, sports car race held annually near the city of Le Mans, France. It is widely considered to be one of the world's most prestigious races, and is one of the races—along with ...

2000s

In 2002, Zytek bought some of the remains of the defunct

Reynard Motorsport Reynard Motorsport was the world's largest racing car manufacturer in the 1980s. Initially based at Bicester and latterly at Reynard Park, Brackley, England the company built successful cars in Formula Ford 1600, Formula Ford 2000, Formula Va ...

from International Racing Management (IRM). These assets included the rights to the

Reynard 02S The Reynard 02S was a Le Mans Prototype race car built by Reynard Motorsport in 2002. Intended to replace the failed Reynard 2KQ prototype, the 02S would end up becoming the final new design from Reynard as the company went bankrupt prior to th ...

Le Mans Prototype A Le Mans Prototype (LMP) is a type of sports prototype race car used in various races and championships, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans, FIA World Endurance Championship, IMSA SportsCar Championship, European Le Mans Series, and Asian Le M ...

, of which only one had been completed since the company's demise. Zytek already supplied an engine to the existing chassis, and would therefore build further copies under the name Zytek 04S, offering both the chassis and engine as a complete package. Due to changes in the prototype regulations in 2006, Zytek upgraded one of their existing 04S chassis while building a third all-new car, named the 06S. Further regulation changes in 2007 required the team to build an entirely new car, the Zytek-07s, which campaigned in both the LMP1 and LMP2 classes of the

Le Mans Series The European Le Mans Series (abbreviated as ELMS) is a European sports car racing endurance series inspired by the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The European Le Mans Series is similar to the ...

. Zytek's GZ09S proved an immediate success in 2009, taking the LMP2 Le Mans Series Team Championship with Quifel-ASM and the Driver's Championship with

Miguel Amaral Miguel Maria de Sá Pais do Amaral, 8th Count of Anadia, 4th Count of Alferrarede, KHDSMOM, commonly known as Miguel Amaral (born 31 July 1954) is a Portuguese aristocrat, businessman and amateur racing driver. Family Miguel Amaral, born in ...

and

Olivier Pla Olivier Pla (born 21 October 1981) is a French racing driver who competed in the Asian Le Mans Series for AF Corse. Career French Formula Campus and Formula Three Born in Toulouse, Pla started his career in 2000 in French Formula Campus befor ...

. In 2009 Zytek Engineering became the first manufacturer to score a podium with a hybrid LMP. The car, run by Corsa Motorsports, finished on the podium on its debut at Lime Rock. The Zytek Q10 Hybrid is a non-invasive parallel hybrid system, consisting of a motor-generator, battery and inverter. Its purpose is to recover energy normally wasted during deceleration and subsequently use this energy to assist the internal combustion engine during acceleration.

2010s as Zytek

The Z11SN has also won the LMP2 category of the

in both

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

and

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

, and the

, in the hands of

Greaves Motorsport Greaves Motorsport is a British auto racing, racing team, currently competing in the European Le Mans Series and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In 2006, Greaves Motorsport, founded and run by Tim Greaves, entered the Le Mans Series (LMS) for the fi ...

(2011) and Team Jota (2014).

2010s as Gibson

In 2017 the rebranded company became the supplier of a 4.2-litre, naturally-aspirated

V8 engine A V8 engine is an eight- cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. Origins The first known V8 was the Antoinette, designed by Léon Levavasseur, a ...

, producing approximately 600 hp, for the LMP2 Class for the

European Le Mans Series The European Le Mans Series (abbreviated as ELMS) is a European sports car racing endurance series inspired by the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The European Le Mans Series is similar to the fo ...

FIA World Endurance Championship The FIA World Endurance Championship, abbreviated as WEC, is a world championship for automobile endurance racing organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The se ...

and

WeatherTech SportsCar Championship The IMSA SportsCar Championship, currently known as the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship under sponsorship, is a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada and organized by the International Motor Sports Association (I ...

. Two of the many LMP2 cars powered by Gibson engines finished on the overall podium, and one led the race overall for some time until a recovering factory Porsche reclaimed the lead. In 2018, Gibson's new LMP1 engine, the 4.5 litre naturally aspirated GL458, was installed into

Rebellion Racing Rebellion Racing was a Swiss racing team that competed in endurance racing. The team competed in the 2011 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup season and won the LMP1 teams' title in the 2011 Le Mans Series season. The team started as an association ...

's pair of Rebellion R13s and DragonSpeeds

BR Engineering BR1 The BR Engineering BR1 is a sports prototype non-hybrid racing car built for the SMP Racing and DragonSpeed teams. It is designed to meet the 2018 LMP1 regulations for Le Mans Prototypes in the FIA World Endurance Championship as well as at the ...

. The engine brought Rebellion's R13s to a 3-4 finish (1-2 among privateer teams) at Le Mans, behind the

Toyota TS050 Hybrid The Toyota TS050 Hybrid is a sports prototype racing car developed for the 2016 Le Mans Prototype rules in the FIA World Endurance Championship. The car is the direct successor of the Toyota TS040 Hybrid, which competed in both the 2014 FIA Worl ...

s. In February 2019,

ByKolles Racing ByKolles Racing, formerly known as Kodewa, is an Austrian-German auto racing team based in Greding, Germany. The team most recently fielded the No. 4 Vanwall Vandervell 680 in the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2023. It was founded in 2000 b ...

announced that they would be switching to the Gibson GL458, dropping the Nissan Nismo VRX30A 3.0 litre twin-turbo V6, for their CLM P1/01.

2020s

Gibson was awarded the exclusive engine tender for the 2028 LMP2 regulations.

Zytek Automotive

Zytek Automotive is a specialist powertrain and vehicle engineering enterprise, which has been part of

, a German engineering company, since 2014. It designs, develops, and integrates electric motors into a range of cars and commercial vehicles. Gordon Murray Design and Zytek Automotive developed an

all-electric An electric vehicle (EV) is a motor vehicle whose propulsion is powered fully or mostly by electricity. EVs encompass a wide range of transportation modes, including road and rail vehicles, electric boats and submersibles, electric aircraft a ...

three-seater

city car The A-segment is the first category in the passenger car classification system defined by the European Commission. It is used for city cars, the smallest category of passenger cars defined. A-segment sales represented approximately 4.2% of the ...

, the T.27, made possible through a ( in June 2010) investment from the government-backed

Technology Strategy Board Innovate UK is the United Kingdom's innovation agency, which provides money and support to organisations to make new products and services. It is a non-departmental public body operating at arm's length from the Government as part of the UK Re ...

References

External links

Zytek Automotive

Gibson Technology
{{Automotive industry in the United Kingdom Companies established in 1981 Engine manufacturers of the United Kingdom Motor vehicle engine manufacturers British racecar constructors British auto racing teams 24 Hours of Le Mans teams European Le Mans Series teams American Le Mans Series teams