Gordon Coppuck

Gordon Coppuck
Born (1936-12-08) 8 December 1936 (age 87)
Fleet, Hampshire
NationalityBritish
Occupation(s)Motorsport engineer and designer
Known forFormula One; (March, McLaren, Spirit)
Notable workCo-founder Spirit Racing

Gordon Coppuck (born 8 December 1936 in Fleet, Hampshire)[1] is a British racing car designer who was chief designer for McLaren and later worked for March and co-founded Spirit.

Born in December 1936, he attended Queen Mary's School for Boys before becoming an apprentice at the National Gas Turbine Establishment (NGTE).[2] In 1965 he followed his ex NGTE colleague Robin Herd to McLaren, working as his assistant.[3] In 1971 he became chief designer at McLaren, responsible for various models including the Indianapolis 500 M16 and world championship winning M23.[3] When McLaren merged with Ron Dennis's Project Four in 1980, Coppuck departed, rejoining Herd at March.[3] The following year he founded Spirit with March's Formula Two team manager John Wickham.[3] Spirit raced in Formula Two and then Formula One before Coppuck returned to March.[3][4] Coppuck's nephew Frank Coppuck is also a racing car designer.[3]

  1. ^ "Team Bosses: Gordon Coppuck". OldRacingCars.com. Retrieved 27 May 2010.
  2. ^ Nye, Doug (1988) [1984]. McLaren: The Grand Prix, Can-Am and Indy Cars (New ed.). Guild Publishing. p. 54. ISBN 0-905138-54-6.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "PEOPLE: GORDON COPPUCK". grandprix.com. Retrieved 17 May 2010.
  4. ^ "CONSTRUCTORS: SPIRIT RACING". grandprix.com. Retrieved 17 May 2010.