Former HRT engineer Ron Harrop lands Australia Day honour

The 77-year-old turned Harrop Engineering, established by his parents, into a powerhouse of the automotive industry.

He was also engaged by the Walkinshaw Holden Racing Team in 1993 to become its chief engineer, with his five-year spell at the squad coinciding with its first championship, in 1996.

Harrop also made his mark on drag racing, with an FJ Holden-bodied car which came to be known as ‘Harrop’s Howler’ winning multiple national championships.

Harrop is the latest in a line of industry veterans to be bestowed the Australian Performance Automotive Council’s (APAC) Australian of the Year award, following John Crennan (2018), Rob Herrod (2019), Paul Gover (2020), Kees Weel (2022), and Larry Perkins last year (2021 paused due to COVID).

APAC is co-chaired by Graeme Rutgers and Kevin Fitzsimons.

See below for APAC’s announcement of Harrop’s honour

Ron Harrop APAC AOTY

Today, Australia Day 2024, we pay homage to another Automotive Industry Icon . . . The legendary Ron Harrop.

The 2024 Performance Automotive Industry “Australian of the Year” needs absolutely no introduction …. his life journey thus far is one for the ages!

Right from when he was a teenager, the High-Performance Industry had an Icon in the making: whether he was racing, engineering, prototyping, revolutionising, or leading his staff.  His journey is legendary to say the least.

Much has already been written about his prowess, and hurdles that have made his Automotive life exceptional.

Motorsport has been the catalyst to his professional life, and he’s pretty much done it all. From building Race Cars, to driving Race Cars, to developing and engineering Race Cars.  With those accomplishments he was able to take his passion into the Performance Automotive mainstream with a multitude of initiatives and futuristic performance products for both the Australian and International Automotive markets.

His engineering accomplishments cemented relationships and supplier status with GM Holden, Ford and their subsidiaries HSV and FPV plus Toyota and Lotus with a range of High-Performance components that included Braking Systems, Crankshaft Engineering and Superchargers plus other finite products developed to improve the performance of these brands and many others.

His determination for excellence would be the facilitator of these initiatives and he, combined with his team of engineers and craftsmen in many cases, became the “go too” supplier for solutions to performance and reliability issues of which history will continue to remind us of his awesome legacy in the Performance Automotive Industry.

Whilst he no longer presides over the famous entity, he and his esteemed father Len and mother Elsa created decades ago for us to enjoy and honour on this day, his son Tim continues the Harrop tradition of excellence at Harrop Engineering going forward.

He still continues as an Historian and preserver of our Australian Performance Automotive Heritage until this day!  We also wish to take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank all his staff, business associates and friends that contributed to his amazing career and life journey that we may never see the likes of again in our ever changing and evolving Motoring and Motorsport landscape.

Ron Harrop has made the Australian Performance Automotive Industry a respected world leader and we congratulate and thank him for his foresight and sheer dedication to our Country’s Automotive Industry and acknowledge his achievements with the Performance Automotive Industry “Australian of the Year” Award 2024.

We, with a huge amount of gratitude and appreciation, thank Ron for his dedication to our Automotive Industry and our Nation.