Hyper Racer

THE IDEA ....

Racing driver, Jon Crooke, makes a 'napkin' sketch of the Hyper PRO Racer. It’s 1998 and the ‘racer’ is a concept he has had floating around in his head since the mid-eighties. Jon has a vision to produce a small racing car for long circuit racing. It will be an affordable step up from go-karts and will incorporate performance and safety features unheard of at the budget end of motor racing. Traditionally, the first serious step into racing cars has been Formula Ford. Originally designed as an affordable starter class, the current high cost of this category has stopped almost all kart drivers from making the move up. As a result, the real racing talent, generations of potential National and World Champions, have melted away into the suburbs and obscurity. The Hyper PRO Racer is an affordable turn-key product that will provide a 'real' solution to the current class gap. Jon calls his concept "The Missing Link". Jon's first sketches feature design concepts such as the exo-skeleton space frame with the inside-out cockpit, swing-arm rear suspension, exposed mono-shocks front and rear, the longitudinal cockpit intrusion bars and the tube hugging body details - all features that will make it through to the final design. But Jon is a designer engineer, not an engineer fabricator. Unable to find an engineer fabricator that shares his vision and passion, Jon pins an artists impression of his Hyper PRO Racer to the wall of his study and puts the project on the back-burner.

10 YEARS ON ....

“Why don’t we build this?”
It's 2009 and Dean Crooke was pointing at the artists impression on the wall of his fathers office. Dean had grown up glancing at the sketch from time to time, while practicing the art of karting and motocross. Jon’s ‘Missing Link’ racer was as valid now, as it was when he first imagined it a quarter of a century ago. Only now, Dean, with a very successful career as a Superkart designer and driver behind him, was a race car design engineer and fabricator. And he shared Jon’s vision and passion - to build the world’s first fast, safe, affordable AND sustainable racing car. They locked themselves in their workshop and a ‘skunkworks’ project was born. Days turned to weeks - months into years. Slowly an object of breathtaking beauty emerged. A racing car that satisfied their high standards of engineering quality and aesthetics. A serious toy - no compromises. And when the car was finished?
...... They opened the workshop doors - and let the sun shine in.

2016

​The TERRA Racer is born.

2019

The X1 Racer is born.