More Indy 500 Wins & F1 World Titles Were Powered By Ilmor Engines Than You Realized

Open-wheel racing is as much a competition in engineering as it is in skillful driving. The engines that power Indycar and Formula 1 race cars are intricately designed machines that must support hours of high-intensity driving at a stretch. Honda and Chevrolet provide engines for Indycar, and Ferrari and Mercedes currently make the engines used by seven of the 10 F1 teams. Red Bull's in-house outfit Red Bull Power Trains provides power units for Red Bull and VCARB, and Alpine is still a Renault works squad. 

One name that doesn't get mentioned on TV broadcasts but has been a critical player in the development of championship engines on both circuits is Ilmor Engineering, a company that was founded in 1983 by engineers Mario Illien and Paul Morgan. The two partners teamed up with General Motors and Roger Penske and built an eight-cylinder turbocharged Indycar engine under the Chevrolet brand. Al Unser took the Ilmor engine to the track in 1986, and the following year Mario Andretti won the Long Beach Grand Prix in an Ilmor-powered Indy car.

Between the start of that 1987 Indycar season and the end of the 1993 campaign, Ilmor-Chevy engines took 86 checkered flags, including six at the Indianapolis 500. Over that span, Ilmor-powered cars won five CART season championships. In 1993, Ilmor joined forces with Mercedes to build a new engine designed specifically for the Indy 500, and Al Unser, Jr. won that famous race with the Ilmor-Mercedes engine in 1994. Ilmor also teamed up with Honda from 2003 until 2011, winning more than 150 races over that stretch. In 2005, with a bankruptcy and restructuring looming just a few years on the horizon, General Motors bowed out of Indycar racing. 

A healthier GM returned in 2012, and Chevrolet and Honda worked together with Ilmor to build Indycar's new six-cylinder hybrid power unit, which made its debut at Mid-Ohio in July 2024. That new 2.4-liter hybrid engine was first proposed five years ago, but Indycar kept the old 2.2-liter engine on the track while the new one was being developed and tested. 

In the mid-'90s, Ilmor and Mercedes moved their partnership to Formula 1, and their success continued later in the decade. Mika Hakkinen won the Formula 1 driver's championship for Mclaren in 1998 and 1999 with an Ilmor-Mercedes engine behind his seat, and around that time, Ilmor moved its design, testing, and construction operations to a new facility in Plymouth, Michigan. That move came along with a new partnership with Daimler Chrysler on a NASCAR project, and separate efforts with Triumph and Harley-Davidson to design and build motorcycle engines. 

After the 2000 Indycar season, Ilmor jumped over to the Indy Racing League, which was a rival to the CART series. Paul Morgan died in 2001, and Mercedes bought the British division of Ilmor. Penske and Illien then reacquired the Ilmor Special Projects Group, along with the Ilmor name.

Ilmor engines won the Indy 500 in 2001 and 2002, after which the company teamed up with Honda Performance Development. That partnership lasted through 2011 and produced a remarkable 127 race wins. Ilmor then hopped back across the pit lane to rejoin forces with Chevrolet for an even more fruitful pairing. Between 2012 and 2020, Chevy-Ilmor engines won 64 Indycar races, four driver's championships, and six manufacturer's crowns. During that stretch, Ilmor also joined in the ARCA, Trans Am, and NASCAR Truck series. Ilmor also makes marine engines, working with boat manufacturers like MasterCraft, Formula Boats, and DCB Racing.