When Zytek was founded in 1981 by Bill Gibson, the company’s initial focus was to provide engine management systems to motorsport, with Zytek supplying the first fully electronic engine management system to be seen in Formula One, in the Toleman-Hart car driven by a young Ayrton Senna.
By 1987 Zytek had expanded into racing engine design and build and its engines finished first, second and third at the gruelling Le Mans 24 Hours and powered teams to championships in International Formula 3000, FR3.5, AutoGP, A1GP and the Le Mans Series. In recent years, under the Gibson name, their engines have competed in WEC, ELMS, AsLMS and IMSA.
Zytek was widely recognised as the number one engine supplier for one make championships, having supplied F3000 for nine years, A1GP for three and also the prestigious Renault FR3.5 Series and Auto GP Championships.
In 2009, Zytek produced its own Le Mans Prototype, which ran with a Zytek Q10 Hybrid system finishing on the podium on its debut at Lime Rock Park, Connecticut in the fifth round of the American Le Mans Series.
Zytek’s motorsport success led to a successful road car business, initially using its engine management knowledge to power a new generation of ultra high-power supercars such as the Jaguar XJ220.
Soon Zytek was working with some of the leading names in performance motoring, including Aston Martin, Jaguar, Rolls-Royce and Bentley. Today Zytek engine control technology was also fitted on the high performance V10 Dodge Viper.
In the mid 1990s Zytek began the development of what was to become the highest power-density electric vehicle drivetrain available at the time. Zytek’s technology was ideally suited to the smart fortwo which became the focus of Zytek’s electric vehicle research and development.
Zytek’s expertise in this arena was rewarded in 1999 when awarded a turnkey hybrid development programme by General Motors, firmly establishing the company as one of the world’s leading integrators of electric and hybrid-electric drive systems.
Zytek’s outstanding capability came to the notice of Motorola in 2000, procuring 19% of the Zytek Group. In 2006 this passed to Continental AG who purchased all of Motorola’s automotive divisions. Continental soon raised their stockholding to 50% in Zytek Automotive.
In February 2014 Continental purchased the remaining 50% shareholding to become 100% owners of Zytek Automotive.
Zytek Engineering at Repton remained 100% owned by Bill Gibson.
In order to clarify the identity of the company following the separation, the decision was made to rebrand Zytek Engineering as Gibson Technology Limited from 1st October 2014.
The company remains at the forefront of the motorsport world and is looking forward to exciting new opportunities.
1987/9 - Le Mans Winners Zytek EMS 1989 - FIA F3000 Champions 1991/2 - British Touring Car Champions 1998 - Zytek Hybrid podium at Petit Le Mans 2007 - ZG348 Wins Le Mans 24Hrs (LMP2), Zytek 07S 2nd 2009 - LMP2 Le Mans Series Champions 2011 - Zytek 011SN Wins Le Mans 24 Hrs (LMP2) 2011 - LMP2 Le Mans Series and ILMC Champions 2013 - First Ever Win for an ERS in Super GT 300 2013 - Le Mans 24Hrs LMP2 Winners with VK45 2014 - Zytek 011SN Wins Le Mans 24 Hrs (LMP2) 2015 - ELMS LMP2 Champions with 015S 2015 - WEC LMP2 Champions with VK45 2017 – First Ever 2nd & 3rd Overall Le Mans 24Hrs for LMP2 2017 - Race Engine Designer of the Year award for LMP2 GK428 2018 - GL458 3rd & 4th overall at Le Mans 2018 - GL458 1st & 2nd overall Silverstone 2018 - Burton Mail Business of the Year 2018 - Burton Mail Best use of Innovation and Technology 2019 - GL458 1st overall at Shanghai
MOTORSPORT SUCCESSES
