HOW GM won with SENNA by Peter Windsor
297To the background of his recently-published autobiography, Peter Wright, the former BRM, Lotus and FIA engineer, talks about winning races with Ayrton Senna and General Motors in 1987. Peter's book, fittingly titled "How Did I Get Here?" is the revealing and captivating story of one of the most important engineers in F1 history. In a career that began in the late 1960s, Peter has ridden the edge of the racing envelope in every direction, looking at composite materials and a full wing car for BRM in 1968-69; maximising the benefits of ground effect with Colin Chapman and Lotus in the late 1970s; creating the first active-ride F1 car in the late 1980s; and, for 26 years with the FIA, playing a major role in the team that brought into motor sport such life-saving devices as the HANS collar; the survival cell; wheel tethers; the halo; safer track barriers - plus mandatory aero fixes to prevent sports prototypes from becoming airborne. Peter has also been significantly involved with NCAP (the New Car Assessment Programme) and, along the way, not only learnt to fly a Tiger Moth and gliders but also designed his own "self-sustaining" glider. He has lived in both France and the UK countryside; where, in the early 1960s, he even found time to be a bit of a hippy. It's all there in Peter's brilliant book, details of which can be found below. In this video, and in part two, Peter Windsor asks Peter Wright about some of the nuggets he found in the book. These videos hopefully capture the essence of Peter's thoughts and achievements; for the full story, however, you must read the book.
With thanks to Jetcraft, the world's largest buyer and seller of executive jets:
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To OEM Exclusive, the passionate suppliers of OEM upgrades for exotic and high-performance vehicles
And to TrackNinja, a lap-timer and data app designed to help users improve their on-track car and driver performance through analysis and an innovative Data Garage. A lite version is free; the loaded edition is US$9.99 pcm or $99.99 yearly
https://trackninja.app/
"How Did I Get Here?" can be ordered from:
https://www.howdidigethere.co.uk/
Don't forget to ask him to sign it!
Images: Grand Prix Photo (Peter Nygaard); Wikimedia Commons; the Peter Windsor Collection; Ian Scott-Watson and Paul Hobson
https://grandprixphoto.com/
Music: Specially composed for this channel and performed by Cory Pesaturo
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