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Tickford has formed a new engineering arm with the hopes to sell local engineering talent across the world – and beyond Supercars.
Headed by ex-Supercars race engineer, Dilan Talabani, the newly formed Tickford Engineering is looking to make the most of the talent that its racing division has fostered at its Campbellfield headquarters.
“Tickford engineering is a is an engineering company that is those looking to work with people in the automotive industry in motor racing, but we’re also looking outside of those industries, too,” Talabani, whose official title is business development manager, told Speedcafe.
Talabani, an engineer who studied in the UK and worked in rallying and the British Touring Car Championship before he joined Supercars as a race engineer in 2008 with Triple Eight Race Engineering. He’s also worked for Kelly Racing and was at Tickford from 2013-16.
“This team has been built up to be a significant operation in motor racing in Australia. They’ve brought almost all of their manufacturing capabilities in house. And then with the rule changes with Supercars Gen3, the requirements of having all these facilities and production departments has diminished somewhat.”
The change to Gen3 also saw Walkinshaw Andretti United open its engine service to race teams beyond its Supercars operations in late 2021, with the single-source engine supplier for Gen3 for each manufacturer meaning extensive in-house engine building is no longer required for Supercars.
“The launch of Tickford Engineering is more than just an extension of our brand; it’s a reiteration of our promise to deliver leading-edge solutions in an industry that is constantly evolving,” said Tickford CEO, Tim Edwards.
That future includes car makers in Australia, with Tickford’s former road car business model abandoned as it looks to supply the industry.
It faces competition, here, in the automotive space at least, from companies such as Herrod Performance – Supercars engine supplier and Ford Australia’s partner for the 2019 supercharged Mustang R-Spec project.
There is also Premcar, which includes former Tickford talent and engineers products locally such as the Nissan Navara PRO-4X Warrior. Premcar has also worked in aerospace among other industries.
Additionally, Ryan Walkinshaw has also made no secret of the fact that he would love to work with Ford beyond motorsport after the WAU Supercars team switched to Mustangs for 2023 and beyond.
It’s worth noting that Walkinshaw Performance, a division of the over-arching Walkinshaw business, was the chosen support team for Ford Australia’s record-setting 2023 Finke Desert Race campaign, which also wore Herrod Performance decals.
“We have a bit of capability on our hands – machine shop, fabrication, composites, all of these assets that we’ve got enables capacity that can be used for external customers,” said Talabani.
“We’re in discussions with OEMs, we have a contract with an industrial partner and there’s work in terms of preparing ourselves to enter the defence industry – that’s all I can say for now.”
“We’ve got a lot of capabilities, we’ve got very highly skilled staff here that can apply their abilities to outside of what we’ve currently been operating in – think of Williams Advanced Engineering, your Prodrives – that’s the business model that we’re looking at.”
