GCRE now has its own website at www.gcre.co.uk
With the acquisition of a second car in 1995, developing a strong technical side of the team became a priority and Great Central Race Engineering was born. Its remit was to maintain, repair and improve both cars, with the eventual aim of constructing vehicles "in house".
From its inception, GCRE has provided full technical backup to the team both at and between races, always ensuring that GCR have the best possible hardware in the best possible condition. This dedicated work allowed the team's original car (GB/FW87) to enjoy seven full seasons of grueling racing for GCR, in addition to the five or six seasons prior to its acquisition by the team. In that time its age was no barrier to success as several race wins and a string of other good results proved. The car is still maintained today, for loan use by new teams.
GCRE also completed a huge amount of work on the second car, with a vast array of modifications and improvements undertaken to turn the rolling chassis that became the WindCutter into GCR's front line race car. This car ran to its seventh evolution, taking the team to several race victories and the 1998 and 1999 British Championships, before being passed to GCR2 for 2000 then sold mid-season to new team FAB Racing, following construction of new cars by GCRE.
The aim of constructing vehicles "in house" was fulfilled prior to the 1999 season with the construction of Apollo, GCRE's first entirely home grown race car. Our main sponsor at the time, Unusual Rigging, provided many of the design and construction facilities used in this project.
As an entirely new concept, Apollo was loaned to another, new, team (Rugby District Ventures) and used as a rolling test bed while Great Central retained the highly successful WindCutter Evo and the GB/FW87 for the successful 1999 defence of the British Championship title. In its first season Apollo helped the Rugby Ventures to a Scout Car race win (Wolverhampton) and several good BPCC results, including a visit to the podium at the South Berkshire event.
Following Apollo's successful 1999 season, two new Apollo/B cars were produced incorporating several modifications learnt from the original. Aquarius replaced Apollo as the Rugby Ventures' race car for 2000, while Odyssey was used as Great Central's first team car from the start of the season, such was the team's confidence in the new machinery. The WindCutter Evolution VII was passed to GCR2 with the GB/FW87 relegated to testing and loan purposes for newcomers to get a taste of racing, while Apollo was sold on to the Killay Racing PC1 squad.
From the start of the season, it was clear the new cars were the class of the field, with GCR2 now outclassed mechanically. GCRE took the bold decision to build a new car mid-season, whilst continuing a full maintenance program on the other vehicles. The result was Intrepid, which debuted at the South Berkshire weekend (rounds 4 & 5) with only a handful of testing miles under its wheels and the paint only just dry.
GCR2 promptly doubled the car's mileage within a few minutes of the start of the event, which they went on to win ahead of GCR1. The following day the positions were reversed to give another GCR 1-2 and secure a third consecutive championship for Great Central. GCR2 then drove Intrepid to another race win at the final round, Curborough, to secure an incredible championship 1-2.
By the end of the season, the Apollo design was indisputably the most successful in the BPCC, with type-B cars finishing 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the championship (GCR1, GCR2, Swebbelli) and the original type-A finishing 4th (Killay)
At the end of the 2000 season, GCRE took Apollo back off Swansea to undertake a series of modifications and upgrades to bring the original car up to Apollo-type B standard.
For 2001, GCRE fitted pit-to-car radios to both GCR race cars, and for round three, the Swansea 24-hour, produced an all-new car, Apollo/C, Clipper. Very similar to the type B cars, Clipper differs in having twin disk brakes and no mountings for caliper brakes.
Clipper arrived at Swansea with less than 20 testing miles completed, but Great Central were able to take full advantage of its out-of-the-box reliability, driving it to a debut race win in this most grueling of events. Subsequently, the first team completed the rest of the year in this car to take another win, two seconds and a third on their way to a fourth BPCC title, while the second team took another two wins and two second places to secure a second successive championship 1-2.
2002 saw another new car, "The D-type", produced for GCR's 1,000 mile World Record attempt. Slightly narrower than previous cars and with a much-modified chassis arrangement, the car was designed to be fully faired. The aerodynamic Kevlar body shell was designed and constructed over 100 miles away from the chassis, yet thanks to the use of full computer aided design, the two components fitted perfectly when mated.
Following the successful record attempt, the car was brought into racing use at round two, where it allowed the first team to win comfortably before going on to the Swansea 24-hour race where the team were so far ahead, the result was secured with 90 minutes remaining!
Development continued and a new, aerodynamically improved body shape was trialled towards the end of the season, to be used on various cars in 2003.