Reynard closes its doors

[SevenGrain]

Some of CART's top teams will be scrambling in light of today's announcement that Reynard has been forced into receivership. Mo Nunn and Team Green already have Lolas available, but PWR, Patrick, Forsythe,and Walker look to be S.O.L. when it comes to getting any parts for their Reynard chassis. It looks like Lola will have some business coming their way, hopefully they will be able to supply everyone, (if they can afford new chassis that is, PWR still has not announced a sponsor)

Adrian Reynard, founder and Chairman, Reynard Motorsport, said of the decision, “It is the worst day of my business life and in the history of the company. Reynard has had so much success over the last three decades and I’m devastated that it has ended this way, but we had no choice.”

Reynard adds, “It has been a combination of factors which has led to our situation today. Our aborted float on the US Stock Exchange, which put a strain on our financial resources, and the subsequent changes in the US auto racing market are just some of the influences on the downturn in fortunes of the company. Reynard has suffered from several management changes and strategy shifts over the past three years and it eventually found itself in two of the wrong market places at the wrong time, having invested huge amounts of money in those products. I had hoped that we could retrieve the situation, but sadly we were not able to achieve this.”

[Crash Test]

A very sad day indeed...

But didn't Honda purchase 7 Lola chassis for their teams after they found out about Reynard's dramas?

[DNQ]

A terrible day for CART, and a sad day for the motor racing world - a shame really, another name lost it seems.

[enzo]

Let's see, that's 3 now that went into recievership when they decided to go F1 racing - first March, then Lola, and now Reynard.

Amasing how they (British based chassis makers) never seem to learn that you don't forgo your core business in the hopes of a bit of F1 glory.

Maybe they'll get lucky and a purchaser will step in in time to keep things going.

[StuiE]

thats no good at all i always liked the look of the Reynard better than the Lola

[Rambo]

Hell, that's bad news. They're one of the best groups in the biz. I knew they were in a spot of trouble, I didn't know it was as bad as that.

[StuiE]

o yeah and what about CART Fantasy racing, will everyone automaticcaly go to Lola's?

[Muzza]

Hello, Enzo,

I beg to disagree - Formula 1 is insanely expensive, but the financial woes of March and Reynard cannot be explained by their involvement with this category.

March was in management disarray since the late-80s, when members of the top echelon of the company got involved on other interests, from real estate to tourism industry to media, and sometimes shifting March personnel to these other investments.

March became a mere appendix of their attention. Reynard, having conquered everything on smaller categories, came into F-3000 with a full force effort and blew March away. March lost an important market. Having dominated F-3000, CART - the last March bastion - become the next step to Reynard. There was nothing else left to March.

March had previously left Formula-1 (on a low tone) in the early 80s, when the company (wisely) decided to pursue other categories - this led to their success in F-3000 and CART. March did not come back to F-1 until the late 1987, when turbo engines were to be banned and a "second class" was created for cars with normally aspirated engines.

March's strategy for F-1 was going on correctly, slowly building the necessary structure to support the team.
March had had a semi-works team in F-3000 sponsored by a certain Leyton House corporation, a Japanese real estate and insurance group. When they moved up to F-1, Leyton House provided the necessary financial support.

They put in place a good design team and gave full autonomy to a certain Mr. Adrian Newey, who later would become one of the most successful engineers to have ever worked in Formula 1.

Their 1988 car was not bad, and by 1989 the March-Judds were fighting for podium positions, with Capelli and Gugelmin. This was to be done without draining resources from the other categories, but people had left for other reasons...

This was to be, sadly, a short-lived success, for the reasons I listed above. The other markets were gone, with Dallara dominating F-3 and Reynard on F-3000 and CART. By then March was little more than an engineering F-1 office and team.

Things got much worse when Leyton House, which had acquired a share of March (to the point of changing the car name) went belly up on a financial scandal. March raced for a little while under its on banner and then disappeared.

Reynard's financial woes have little relation with their involvement with BAR and Formula 1. Reynard was actually hired to design the BARs, and it has always been understood that Reynards did not lost money in the contract. They were paid to conceive, design and build the car, which is not in all means run by Reynard.

As Adrian Reynard expressed in his communiqué', the decision to go public on the US Stock Exchange drain a lot of cash from the company. This had been known for a while and even the BAR management had publicly expressed its concern.

Also, the choice for going public was not at all an unanimous decision at the Reynard board of directors, and key persons left, including Rick Gorne, who had been with Adrian Reynard for many years.

Reynard was actually making money with F-1, but was losing other markets everywhere. Many CART teams have criticized their poor marketing, sales and (more important) after-sales performance.

What about F-3000, that once Reynard dominated completely? Well, Martin Birraine, who bought Lola assets after this other manufacturer went boom, orchestrated a perfect political dance to get the chassis manufacturing contract when the category went into a single-car formula.

They were somehow making money in Japan with Formula Nippon, but the margin of profit in that market is not huge. When the Japanese economy begun to slide downhill, about three years ago, teams opted to refurbish used cars instead of buying new ones... (our friend Mekola in the F-1 forum posted a good message on this regard) I remember reading an interview with Ralph Firman when he lengthily discussed this issue.

Being a sportscar fan, I have to say that the last Reynards on this field have been disappointing, and Lola ate them on this one too...

Reynard then looked into the Premier GP Series - but how serious this category is something that remains to be seen. When the first Premier GP championship was postponed from 2002 to next year Reynard saw its last opportunities vanished.

And I cannot forget to mention that recently they also lost a contract to Dallara for the Indy Racing "junior" League.

So, was it really F-1?

Cheers,

Muzza

[calais]

i have read somewhere that reynard's involvement in F1 was on a personal level, nothing to do with the company

[enzo]

Sorry to have to disagree with you about March's demise - I was there, and got to see from the inside just what went on.

First off, March went F1 from the start of '87, not late in the season. The '87 CART car was designed primarily by leftover noephites - the experienced personnell had been shifted to the F1 program. The aerodynamics were particularly a disaster - remember the flying cars at the Speedway? The car had such a narrow setup window that if you weren't in it, it would respond totally backwards to what you would expect. (I could give you the full technical reasons for why it behaved that way, but that isn' really part of this thread subject).In it's defense, however, IF you were lucky enough to find that window, AND stay within it's boundaries, the car was awesome. Get just the tiniest bit out of it, and......

The '88 car was even worse. Emerson's nickname for it was "The Beast" (for public consumption, that is, privately it was something unprintable!). It was an even more sensitive version of the '87.

When the F1 program was started, not only did they get all of the good personnell, but much of the best equipment was transferred too, and quite illegally, I might add. Seems that the British version of the Securities and Exchange Commission was about to go after them when they went belly up.

With the concentration being on the F1 program, the performance, and then ultimately the sales, of the '87 & '88 cars, suffered badly. We had sold (I think) 56 cars in '86, then only 32 in '87 as Lola got it's act together (and was smart enough to do great purchase deals with good teams - each car sold was worth 3/4 million $ in parts sales), and only 17 in '88. '89 saw ZERO sales,(the handwriting was on not only the walls, but the ceiling and floor also), except for the abortive Alfa and Porsche projects.

I could bore you (or enthrall, if you're masochistic!) with all sorts of details of nefarious goings on at March between the F1 division and the CART side, and how it absolutely drove the CART customers away, but suffice it to say that there is no question by those who were there that March's decision to go into F1, and how they handled it, was their undoing.

March was long gone from the Indy scene by the time Reynard dove into it. it was Lola that reaped the benefit of March's demise, and ultimately, their involvement in F1 killed them too.

Reynard wasn't much better than March once they went F1 - the word I get from friends on CART teams is that once BAR was started, the customer support they recieved went downhill, parts delivery became circumspect, and it became more and more difficult to communicate, causing many customers to seriously look at the only alternative - Lola - much like what had happened with March. Losing sales to Lola excaberated the already growing image (and monetary) problems. The Stock Exchange deal was part of the delusion that their F1 involvement would somehow make them immune to the normal vaguarities of being in the race car business. In short, their egos ran amok, and they forgot what their core business was (sorta like CART itself for the last few years).

Being in the race car business is iffy at best, and takes constant vigilance to maintain the focus and drive that is necessary. It also takes being so damed superior to all the alternatives that customers have no choice but to come to you. Once you allow yourself to slip up, your customers will go elsewhere VERY quickly, especially if they think that you aren't as serious about your effort as they are about theirs.

Diluting yourself is a great way to get that negative image.

[mac]

It is a very unfortunate situation.

Just a quick note SevenGrain, PWR are already using Lolas.

[Muzza]

Hello, Enzo.

Thanks for sharing the insider's view of March decline, I really liked your message. I understimated the consequences of the migration part of the technical team from CART to F-1. We agree that a lack of a competent business strategy - which, as you said, must consider that resources (no matter what, technical, commercial or any other) are limited - was behind March demise.

I join those hoping that Reynard can raise again, as it happened to Lola, but I recognize that the latter has had the very rare luck of finding patrons as Martin Birraine and his team.

Regards,

Muzza

[enzo]

Keep your eye on the news - there is something going on that so far is hush-hush. Don't be surprised if Reynard is bought within the month.

[Muzza]

Hello, Enzo and Friends,

Take a look at this really clarifying interview with Adrian Reynard at Autosport.com:

http://www.autosport.com/newsitem.cf...eries=7&type=f

Amazing how frank and transparent Adrian Reynard's words are.

Regards,


Muzza

[ghinzani]

Yeah I was surprised by the frankness of Adrian Reynards words.. is he a good guy then? I went to the factory a few times when they were doing the design study that eventually became the Pacific F1 car and he seemed a decent enough chap. That was back in 91 I think when they had to be lean and competitive in all aspects of their business as they were up against Ralt in F3 and Lola in F3000 so they needed to have their heads together in case they produced a turkey (step forward 903, 933!)- do you think virtual domination like Dallara in F3 or single make (ala Lola in f3000) is bad for companies because it makes 'em complacent?

[Robin Plummer]

I cant understand how a succesfull company that is as old as me (28) that has won in every catergory other than F1 and continues to do so. Has cars in Formula Nippon, Sportscars and CART that allways win races a year and allways get orders can go bust?

It doesnt make sense. I remember thinking in 1997 when Lola went bust "That would never happen to a succesfull company like Reynard".

I know the explainations given, but it still doesnt add up unless they were seling their cars at no more than cost price!!!

[OVERSTEER]

Does this mean that everyone will have so switch to Lola chassis mid-season? or will there be a way for the Reynard runners to carry on with Reynards for this season and then switch to Lola next year?
The reason why I ask this is that Team Motorola who usually run Micheal Andretti in a Reynard, was running a Lola chassis recently in testing as a reaction to Reynard going into Recievership.

[SevenGrain]

Unfortunately for the non-Honda Reynard teams, Lola chassis will be hard to get, at least for a few months as the demand now outweighs the supply.

The Reynard teams have not yet received their oval-track kits, which they have paid for. The word is that the receiver will not release any of the parts until the teams pay for them (again.) This will surely end up in the courts.

We may see the remaining Reynard Teams look to a third parts to manufacture patrs and spares for the cars until Lola can catch up.

Tom Elliot of Honda, who purchased seven Lola chassis for the Honda teams; Green and Mo Nunn (Fernandez was already using Lolas)looks like a genuis. Patrick, Forsythe and Walker are the odd men out.

Perhaps Barry Green and Mo Nunn could sell thier unneeded Reynard spares to Patrick, Forsythe and Walker to stretch the supply.

[OVERSTEER]

Well Penske produced alot of bits for their Reynard in 2000/2001 so couldn't teams do that, or don't the teams have facilities to do that?

[enzo]

The teams make a lot of the normal replacement parts - a-arms, brackets, bushings, etc - but lack the molds & patterns necessary to make things like udertrays, bodypanels, noseboxes, bellhousings, gearbox internals and housings, etc. The arms may be an issue this years as Reynard switched to flexures, and the material & heat treat specs is probably not known outside of Reynard. Uprights are wire EDM'd forgings, and will be impossible to duplicate without horrendous upfront costs.

It MAY be possible for the teams to pool resources and order parts directly from some of Reynards suppliers, but as the designs are proprietary, and the molds,etc., property of Reynard, that opton may not be available until the courts let it happen.

Makes me glad that I'm not a team owner!

[knackaneal]

Somehow Mo Nunn expects to be able to see out the season with Reynard apparently, even though they are all over red rover.

[macdaddy]

One major reason why Penske Cars could tweak their chassis is because of an in-house wind tunnel. No current team has this luxury.

[OVERSTEER]

Well it looks like it'll be a big court battle with the reciever for use of the Reynard oval kit, otherwise the season is as good as for the Reynard runners that can't get use of a Lola chassis.
Would Swift have a supply of 1 or 2 year old chassis that could be loaned to the teams that can't get hold of Lola's?

[bobdrummond]

Did you notice how p*ss*d at PWR Adrian Reynard was? Shame, they produced some nice cars but I thought it strange that with Bruce Ashmore on board they didn't see off the relatively impoverished Lola (Ben Bowlby is turning into a star).

I remember the '88 March, with its pullrod suspension getting a lot of flak from its operators. Didn't its designer Alan Mertens went on to create the beautiful Galmer chassis? Speaking of Galmer, whatever happened to them?? Wasn't Chip Ganassi part-owner?

[SJ Spode]

It may not be all over yet

Apparently British company International Race Management might be on the verge of purchasing the assets of Reynard including the 021 Champ Car rights, chassis etc.

See www.autosport.com for more