With a lifelong passion for motor sport and having studied engineering at Imperial College London, Martin’s career has perhaps unsurprisingly been based entirely in the motoring engineering sector. Here he talks candidly about his start in the business.
His professional career started at Ecurie Bertelli, established Aston Martin specialists, where he worked on mostly pre-war Aston Martins including the Ulster team cars of Nick Mason. In 1987 he moved to Pearson Engineering where he gained valuable experience in race preparation of a wide variety of historic cars which included overseeing the preparation of the highly successful long-nose D-Type Jaguar raced by “Fearless” Frank Sytner at the time.
In 1997 Martin established Classic Performance Engineering with the ethos of good old-fashioned service combined with engineering prowess to extract the best results for his clients cars at competitive events. Martin can be seen regularly competing in his own Elva GT and has been invited to drive clients’ cars at events as far afield as the USA and South Africa. He and his clients are regular competitors at top-flight events such The Goodwood Revival, Monaco Historique, Le Mans Classic, Silverstone Classic and Tour Auto, Monte Carlo Historic and Mille Miglia. He also competes in vintage rallies and even hill trails in the family Model A Ford.
Martin’s enthusiasm and passion for historic motorcars, combined with his extensive engineering knowledge and understanding of the historic motoring world mean he is well placed to steer Classic Performance Engineering. His aim going forward is to ensure that Classic Performance Engineering remains as one of the foremost race preparation and restoration facilities in Europe. He will be happy discuss your individual requirements with you personally.
