ABOUT US
Empire Racing Cars is the racing car company led by Bill Chaplin.
Bill is an vastly experienced constructor of racing cars that have taken speed hill climbing records in many classes over the past decade.
Following this experience of a multitude of class wins and national championship honours, Empire Racing Cars is going to the next level of design and competition in speed hill climbing.
Bill’s previous company, Force Racing Cars, spawned 43 chassis, starting in 1999 with an aluminium honeycomb construction for a 600cc engine for Phil Cooke who remains a customer to this day.
BILL CHAPLIN
The man behind Empire Racing Cars. Bill has been involved in motor racing for most of his life, professionally building cars and motorcycles since for 20+ years.
An accomplished motorcycle and trike rider, 1998 saw Bill as British National Hill Climb Champion on his trike with his wife ‘Livvy’.
Bill has designed and built record holding cars on British and European hills. Some of these records include four at Shelsley Walsh – the hill considered as the pinnacle of speed hill climbing in the UK, if not the world! The 600cc, 1100cc, 1600cc, 2000cc and sports libre records have all been held by cars built by Bill.
RON KING
Working closely with Bill in the workshop, Ron's craftsmanship and attention to detail is second to none.
2018 saw Ron compete on the hills in his Empire Renault Clio 182 with great success from his debut outing onwards.
Ron's passion for motorsport sees him at the majority of British and Midland Hillclimb Championship meetings whether it be competing or supporting existing Empire drivers.
WILLEM TOET
Willem is a Formula 1 race and world championship winning aerodynamicist.
Formerly Willem worked at Benetton F1, at Ferrari during the height of the Schumacher years before returning to the UK to work at Honda F1. He is now Head of Technical at Sauber F1 in Switzerland
Willem has an enormous amount of driving talent, having taken Top 12 Run Off victories in the British Hill Climb Championship with his own ever aerodynamically modified car. The charismatic engineer can ‘see air’ flowing over a car with a commanding eye.