Andrew Thorby didn’t heed the best advice he says he was ever given in a motorsport career that has spanned over four decades designing and engineering cars across the spectrum of single-seaters and sportscars.
In 1981, Thorby left Lola to join Nimrod Racing Automobiles and moved his family up to rural North Staffordshire only for the company to go bust soon after. But what he calls the “invigorating challenge” of designing the NRA/C2 using the day’s new technology, carbon fibre, and doing so “totally on my own” against looming opposition in the form of Porsche’s Group C era-defining 956 demonstrates a determination to push the envelope even in less-than-ideal circumstances that he would rely on again in future years.
