Motorsport engine pioneer Bill Gibson

Bill Gibson started out in motorsport as one of the pioneers of electronic engine management, but the legacy of the Briton, who has died aged 78 after a long illness, ended up stretching far beyond that. The motorsport arm of his Zytek organisation, subsequently renamed Gibson, became one of the world’s leading engine builders and produced Le Mans 24 Hours-winning chassis. Also an enthusiast of alternative technologies, he produced the first hybrid system for the race track. 

Gibson started his career working on fuel injection systems at automotive parts supplier Lucas before going out on his own and establishing Zytek Engineering in 1981. By 1984 it was supplying the engine management systems for the Hart inline four-cylinder turbos used by the Toleman Formula 1 team. That quickly led on to an involvement in Tom Walkinshaw Racing’s Group C Jaguar programme, which went on to claim a pair of Le Mans victories in 1988 and ’90 with the British manufacturer’s production-based V12. 

Zytek’s successes remained largely unheralded, however, even after the business expanded with the takeover of Alan Smith Racing in 1987. It is largely forgotten that the Mugen Honda V8s that powered Jean Alesi to the Formula 3000 International Championship title with Eddie Jordan Racing in 1989 were prepared by Zytek. 

The company then hooked up with Engine Developments, looking after the customers of the Judd BV engine. Zytek subsequently won the contract to provide the spec engines for one-make F3000 starting in 1996, assembling and servicing the Judd KV that powered two generations of Lola chassis up to the end of 2004. The deal put Zytek front and centre in the world of single-seater motorsport. 

Gibson saw an opportunity to become what he called a “one-stop shop” after Reynard Racing Cars fell into financial difficulties early in 2002. He acquired key assets from the administrators in order to bid for both the chassis and engine deals for F3000’s successor, what became GP2. He didn’t get the deal, but the Reynard link resulted in Zytek and then Gibson becoming a leading player in the sportscar arena. 

Reynard had a new LMP675 class prototype under development and Zytek saw the project through to the race track with the four-litre normally-aspirated V8 that had initially seen service in the Panoz LMP07. Zytek was all of a sudden a constructor and went on to build 15 LMP prototypes, latterly called Gibsons, over a dozen or so years. 

“That car was originally going to have some kind of turbo engine, but Bill saw the project as a way of showcasing his V8,” recalled Trevor Foster, who headed up Zytek’s chassis operations for its first 10 years. “He kind of stumbled into becoming a sportscar constructor.”

The initial chassis raced as an IRM and then the DBA4 before the first Zyteks — “a tidied-up version of the car”, explained Foster — appeared in 2004. The design evolved over the years, a new monocoque built to the latest safety rules arriving in 2007, before it was developed into the Z11SN for the new LMP2 formula that came on stream in 2011. 

It was with this machine, powered by a Nissan V8 developed by the Zytek organisation, that Zytek and then Gibson claimed its biggest successes. The design won no fewer than three European Le Mans Series titles, two with Greaves Motorsport and one with Jota under the G-Drive banner. Jota also took P2 class honours at the Le Mans in 2014. 

The company, now rebranded as Gibson Technology, won the contract to supply the spec engine for the new generation of LMP2 car that arrived in 2017. Ten seasons later, its GK248 V8 has covered more than six million kilometres of competition across multiple series around the world. Gibson is now working on the next P2 one-make engine, a twin-turbo V6 developed around Nissan hardware, that will start racing in 2028. 

#38 LMP2 Class Jota Sport Zytek Z11SN Nissan: Simon Dolan, Harry Tincknell and Oliver Turvey

Photo by: Gerlach Delissen / Corbis via Getty Images

Gibson was also an innovator. His enthusiasm for hybrid technology piqued the interest of Panoz founder Don Panoz. The result was the Panoz Q9 that failed to prequalify for Le Mans in 1998 and then raced in the inaugural Petit Le Mans enduro at Road Atlanta at the end of that season. Zytek energy-retrieval systems would feature on the marque’s own chassis in the mid-2000s. 

Zytek also provided the expertise for the first McLaren F1 hybrid did in 2009 and produced a run of electric Smart car. The technology it pioneered was then adopted by Mercedes for a version of the car sold through its dealerships. 

“Bill was probably more businessman than boffin even if he did build his first engine management systems on his kitchen table at home when he was starting out; he was always coming up with innovative ideas that he wanted to bring to market and was always prepared to play the long game to make them successful,” explained Foster. 

“But he always did his bread and butter business well. There was a focus on quality, reliability and consistency. You’d have to go a long way to find a company that gives the level of track support that Zytek and now Gibson offer.” 

Gibson sold a stake in the automotive side of the business to Motorola in the early 2000s. Continental bought out Motorola in 2006 and took full ownership of Zytek Engineering in 2014, which resulted in the motorsport side of the business switching to the Gibson name.

#43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA 07 Gibson: Jakub Smiechowski, Tom Dillmann, Nick Yelloly

Photo by: Emanuele Clivati | AG Photo

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