Robin Herd facts for kids

Robin Herd in 1971

Robin Herd (born March 23, 1939 – died June 4, 2019) was a very smart English engineer, designer, and businessman. He helped create many famous racing cars and even worked on the super-fast Concorde airplane.

Early Life and Education

Robin Herd went to St Peter's College, Oxford, a famous university. He was so good at cricket that a professional team, Worcestershire, wanted him to play when he was just 18! But he chose to study instead.

He first studied math, but then changed to physics and engineering. He was very good at his studies, earning top grades in both subjects.

After university in 1961, Robin joined the Royal Aircraft Establishment. There, he worked as a design engineer on the amazing Concorde project. The Concorde was a special airplane that could fly faster than the speed of sound! Robin focused on how air moves around the plane, which is called computational fluid dynamics. He worked on Concorde for four years and was promoted to a senior scientist when he was only 24.

Designing Race Cars

Working with McLaren

In 1965, Robin Herd joined McLaren, a famous racing car company. His friend, racing driver Alan Rees, told him about the job. Robin helped design test cars, like the M2A, which later became the Formula One M2B race car.

He stayed with McLaren until 1968. During this time, he designed several Formula One cars, including the M4B, M5A, and M7. He also designed the very successful M6A car for the Can-Am racing series.

Moving to Cosworth and Frank Williams

After McLaren, Robin went to Cosworth to design a special four-wheel-drive Formula One car. He also helped Frank Williams in 1969. He changed Williams' Brabham BT26 car so it could use a different engine, the Ford Cosworth DFV. This allowed driver Piers Courage to race it in Formula One.

Co-founding March Engineering

In 1969, Robin Herd started his own company called March Engineering. He co-founded it with Max Mosley, Alan Rees, and Graham Coaker.

March Engineering became very successful in racing:

• They competed in 207 Formula One Grand Prix races between 1970 and 1992.
• They won three races and started from the front of the grid four times.
• They also had great success in Formula Two racing.
• In the 1980s, March cars were very strong in Indycars. They won the famous Indianapolis 500 race five years in a row, from 1983 to 1987!

Recognition

In 1986, Robin Herd was given a special award called a CBE. This award from the British government recognized his important work as the managing director of March Engineering.