Gibson Technology is anautomotive and motorsport company based atRepton, Derbyshire, England. It was founded by Bill Gibson and Brian Mason asZytek Engineering in 1981.
In 1981 Gibson and Mason founded the Zytek Group with two main divisions:Zytek Automotive, based atFradley, Staffordshire; and Zytek Engineering, based at Repton, Derbyshire.
In 2000,Motorola procured 19% of theZytek Automotive. In 2006, this passed toContinental AG, a German engineering company, who purchased all of Motorola's automotive divisions and subsequently started raising their stock-holding of Zytek Automotive to 50%. Since 2014, Zytek Automotive has been part ofContinental AG after they purchased the whole business.[1][2][3]
Zytek Engineering, the other part of the Zytek Group, remained under Gibson's leadership and was renamed Gibson Technology on 1 October 2014.[4][5][6]
Zytek Motorsport is the brand name used for the Zytek Group's motorsport product range and applications.
In 1987, Zytek bought the BritishAlan Smith Racing outfit in order to expand its motorsports involvement. The team initially supported theJordan Grand Prix team inFormula 3000 before the team eventually chose to concentrate on engine development.
Zytek returned to running a motorsports team in 2004 when the company entered theLe Mans Endurance Series with their first sports car, theZytek 04S, which finished second in the team championship in2005 due to two overall victories. Zytek Engineering continues to campaign in the Le Mans Series as well as in theAmerican Le Mans Series and24 Hours of Le Mans.
In 2002, Zytek bought some of the remains of the defunctReynard Motorsport from International Racing Management (IRM). These assets included the rights to theReynard 02SLe Mans Prototype, of which only one had been completed since the company's demise. Zytek already supplied an engine to the existing chassis, and would therefore build further copies under the name Zytek 04S, offering both the chassis and engine as a complete package.
Due to changes in the prototype regulations in 2006, Zytek upgraded one of their existing 04S chassis while building a third all-new car, named the 06S. Further regulation changes in 2007 required the team to build an entirely new car, the Zytek-07s,[7] which campaigned in both the LMP1 and LMP2 classes of theLe Mans Series.
Zytek'sGZ09S proved an immediate success in 2009, taking the LMP2 Le Mans Series Team Championship with Quifel-ASM and the Driver's Championship withMiguel Amaral andOlivier Pla.
In 2009 Zytek Engineering became the first manufacturer to score a podium with a hybrid LMP. The car, run by Corsa Motorsports, finished on the podium on its debut at Lime Rock. The Zytek Q10 Hybrid is a non-invasive parallel hybrid system, consisting of a motor-generator, battery and inverter. Its purpose is to recover energy normally wasted during deceleration and subsequently use this energy to assist the internal combustion engine during acceleration.
TheZ11SN has also won the LMP2 category of the24 Hours of Le Mans in both2011 and2014, and theLe Mans Series in2011, in the hands ofGreaves Motorsport (2011) andTeam Jota (2014).[8][9]
In 2017 the rebranded company became the supplier of a 4.2-litre, naturally-aspiratedV8 engine, producing approximately 600 hp, for theLMP2 Class for theEuropean Le Mans Series,FIA World Endurance Championship andWeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Two of the many LMP2 cars powered by Gibson engines finished on the overall podium, and one led the race overall for some time until a recovering factory Porsche reclaimed the lead.
In 2018, Gibson's new LMP1 engine, the 4.5 litre naturally aspirated GL458, was installed intoRebellion Racing's pair ofRebellion R13s and DragonSpeedsBR Engineering BR1. The engine brought Rebellion's R13s to a 3-4 finish (1-2 among privateer teams) at Le Mans, behind theToyota TS050 Hybrids. In February 2019,ByKolles Racing announced that they would be switching to the Gibson GL458, dropping the Nissan Nismo VRX30A 3.0 litre twin-turbo V6, for theirCLM P1/01.
Gibson was awarded the exclusive engine tender for the 2028 LMP2 regulations.[10]
Zytek Automotive is a specialist powertrain and vehicle engineering enterprise, which has been part ofContinental AG, a German engineering company, since 2014.[1][2] It designs, develops, and integrates electric motors into a range of cars and commercial vehicles.
Gordon Murray Design and Zytek Automotive developed anall-electric three-seatercity car, the T.27, made possible through a£4.5 million (US$7.2 million in June 2010) investment from the government-backedTechnology Strategy Board.[11][12]
