20 Facts About Ilmor

Ilmor is a British independent high-performance motor racing engineering company.

Ilmor won the pole position for the 1987 Indianapolis 500.

Ilmor primarily was a provider for CART-based teams, and did not provide engines for any full-time IRL teams.

In 1991 Ilmor entered Formula 1 with a V10 engine as exclusive supplier to the ambitious Leyton House team .

Ilmor supplied engines to the Tyrrell team, starting from 1992.

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Ilmor were gaining a reasonable reputation in F1, and so the Sauber sportscar team and Mercedes-Benz, who were planning their Formula One entry together, signed a deal with Ilmor after scrapping plans for a Mercedes engine.

In 1994 Ilmor supplied the new Pacific GP team of Keith Wiggins with the old 1993 spec customer engines.

Ilmor continued working in the United States on the Oldsmobile Aurora V8 for the IRL Penske entries.

Ilmor is the option specification engine supplier of engines for the ARCA Menards Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.

Ilmor was heavily criticized when four of its NT1 engines failed during the 2019 World of Westgate 200 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, effectively eliminating ThorSport Racing drivers Grant Enfinger and Johnny Sauter from the playoffs.

In 2021 Ilmor partnered with Edelbrock to supply the 396 engine, which is primarily used in ARCA, for the Superstar Racing Experience.

Back in F1, for 1995 Mercedes had set its sights on higher goals and went looking for an engine supply deal with a more competitive team as Ilmor elected to reposition its Formula One programme from engine supplier to trusted engine builder and assembler partner for Mercedes-Benz.

Ilmor engines went on to be hugely successful with McLaren, scoring several podiums in both 1995 and 1996, leading to three wins in 1997 and back to back drivers championship in 1998 and 1999, as well as the constructor's championship in 1998.

In 2005 DaimlerChrysler became the sole owner of Ilmor and renamed the company Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines Ltd.

In close collaboration with Pete Hledin of Douglas Marine and Bob Morgan of Big Thunder Marine, the Ilmor V10's underwent extensive durability testing and the results were encouraging.

Armed with enough knowledge and experience from the initial marine exposure and having completed a comprehensive study of the marine business at large, Ilmor made long term plans to enter the powerboat business in a serious manner.

In 2009, Ilmor had to utilize its engineering expertise to create an entirely new generation of MV-10 marine products.

The twist for Ilmor, which is accustomed to manufacturing bespoke racing engines, was to race only engines identical to those already sold to the more typical high-performance powerboat customer.

In 2006, Ilmor announced that they would enter a two-bike team in the MotoGP motorcycle racing series and would enter a single rider team as a wildcard entry in the final two races of the 2006 season.

On 18 December 2006, Ilmor Engineering confirmed via their website that Jeremy McWilliams and Andrew Pitt had been selected as riders for the 2007 season.