Founded | 1977 |
---|---|
Folded | 1990 |
Team principal(s) |
Richard Lloyd Keith Greene |
Former series |
British Saloon Car Championship World Sportscar Championship |
Richard Lloyd Racing (RLR), originally named GTi Engineering, was a British auto racing team created in 1977 by driver Richard Lloyd. Originally named for the Volkswagen Golf GTIs that Lloyd raced in the British Saloon Car Championship (BSCC), they went on to become a successful Porsche privateer in the World Sportscar Championship (WSC). Richard Lloyd Racing eventually folded at the end of the 1990 season due to the increased cost of the World Championship.
The team was also known for their extensively modified Porsche 956s and 962Cs, developed to overcome some problems in the original Porsche design and construction. The cars, all named GTi after the team, were able to outperform their standard counterparts. The GTis made some of the first uses of exotic materials and innovative design elements that would later be adopted by Porsche and other manufacturers.
Even after the racing team had moved on to running Porsches, GTi Engineering remained a division of Richard Lloyd Racing and continued to offer car tuning for Volkswagen and Audi products. Parts and full conversions were constructed in their shared race shop at Silverstone Circuit. The tuning company was eventually sold off, but it remains in existence today.
GTi Engineering was created by Richard Lloyd in 1977 as his personal team in the British Saloon Car Championship, in which he had been competing for several years. The team was the primary entrant of the new GTi version of the Volkswagen Golf, which had been launched in 1976, and primary backing came from Volkswagen Great Britain. Lloyd not only managed the team, but also continued to drive. He earned a best result in the BSCC in 1978 when he finished second in the championship, and he earned several wins over the three-year period of the GTi program.