David Appleby Engineering

Founded in 1988, David Appleby Engineering have built a World famous reputation for motorsport excellence.

David's interest in engineering started at an early age. After finishing an apprenticeship at Rolls Royce Filton, Bristol he then specialised in research and development on military aircraft. He began rallying in 1982 in a TR8 progressing from road rallies to becoming a tarmac stage specialist.

Rather than being just a hobby, he decided that he would like to work in the motorsport industry and took a position at British Leyland working as Tony Pond's technician on the World Rally Championship with the Metro 6R4. When the cars were banned in 1987 David decided to use his knowledge of the 6R4 by setting up his own company as a specialist.

He built many cars and even redesigned the 6R4 with his own DAM 4100 version.

David's contacts within the motorsport industry led him to Prodrive, and a move into the more modern WRC Subaru. Starting with an S8 he progressed to a S9 & S10 which he rallied although only a few times a year, still with great success.

This led to a working partnership with Prodrive on the Aston Martin Rally GT and then on the Aston Martin GT4 Race Cars. Generation AMR was formed at the end of 2010 to develop young talent in motorsport, not just drivers but budding engineers and mechanics. DAE are proud to be "The one stop Aston Martin shop" as they service and upgrade modern era Aston Martins in their purpose built workshop facility in Somerset. 

The TR recreation project which is on display at Race Retro, is arguably the most exciting build to date for DAE. Started in 2015, the cars are built to FIA appendix K regulations, making them an exact recreation of the original works car from the 1970's. 

The cars inaugural outing was in the 2023 Roger Albert Clark Rally, a 5 day marathon of an event. With very little testing and up against the strongest entry in the events history, the team set brilliant stage times.

The team on the stand look forward to showcasing the TR7 V8s alongside a period Rover V8 Sherpa service van and its modern day equivelent Iveco. Individual parts of the rally car will be on display alongside team merchandise available for sale.