AmD Essex

AmD Technik Essex (also known as Automotive Developments) is a British car tuning company and auto racing team. The team competed in the British Touring Car Championship under the MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square banner.

The company was formed in 1987, specialising in the Volkswagen-Audi marque, forming their own VW-backed race team in 1990.^[1] They went on to win many championships with AmD-built and tuned Volkswagen Golfs. The company now offers tuning parts for most European cars.

For the 2008 & 2009 seasons, AmD ran SEAT Leóns in the Dunlop Sportmaxx Cup and won the championship in 2009, with Simon Shaw driving.

Ant Whorton-Eales (left) and Ollie Jackson (right), the team's drivers, at the Knockhill round of the 2017 British Touring Car Championship.

In 2010, AmD Essex, under the name AmD Milltek Racing, raced in the British Touring Car Championship running a Volkswagen Golf Mk5, driven by their managing director, Shaun Hollamby. The car was previously run in the Baltic Touring Car Championship.

The team remained in the series in 2011, with Tom Onslow-Cole campaigning the Golf for the first four rounds of the season, running with a Lehmann built NGTC engine.

On Sunday 5 June, following Race 2 of round four at Oulton Park, Onslow-Cole announced he would be leaving the team following the final race of the day. Given the sudden circumstances, AmD Milltek took the decision not to field the car for the final round of the day. A day later, it emerged that Onslow-Cole was to return to his previous team, Aon Ford, to run a third car.

In the following week, it was announced that managing director Shaun Hollamby would pilot the car at round five at Croft, to give the team longer to find an appropriate replacement for Onslow-Cole. After Croft, Hollamby announced his retirement from high-level motorsport.^[2]

For the remainder of the 2011 season, the team signed former Renault Clio Cup champion, Martin Byford to drive the car.^[3]

At the Autosport International show, AmD announced that Ollie Jackson would be driving for the team during the 2012 season.^[4]

In 2013, AmD ran James Kaye in a Honda Civic for one round of the BTCC and four rounds in a Volkswagen Golf, which was also piloted by Hollamby and Aaron Mason for one round each. They sat out the Knockhill, Rockingham and Silverstone rounds of the championship.

Dave Newsham joined the team in 2014 and drove a Ford Focus ST for the season, picking up the team's first podium in race 3 at Newsham's home round at Knockhill and finished 17th in the championship.

For 2015, the team stuck with the Ford Focus ST with Mike Bushall piloting, and introduced the Audi S3 purchased from Rotek Racing to run Nicolas Hamilton for four rounds and Jake Hill at the final round at Brands Hatch.

Ollie Jackson returned to the squad in 2016 opting to run the Audi S3 and ditching the focus. Jackson completed the season in 26th place in the championship.

2017 saw AmD build a second Audi S3 for Ant Whorton-Eales to partner Jackson for the season with the two becoming regular points scorers on the way to 22nd and 23rd in the final standings.

AmD significantly expanded for the 2018 BTCC season with the purchase from the defunct Triple 8 team of a pair of race winning MG 6s. To drive the two machines, the services of young Scotsman Rory Butcher who debuted in 2017 and previous BTCC race winner Tom Boardman were called upon. AmD also retained the two Audi S3s with Jackson remaining in one for the 3rd consecutive season and youngster Sam Smelt called up to the sister car. They recorded their best season to date with Butcher regularly troubling the top points scorers. Boardman was replaced half way through the season by Ant Whorton-Eales for Snetterton, Glyn Geddie for Rockingham and Knockhill and Josh Caygill for Silverstone and Brands Hatch. Ollie Jackson also took a 3rd place finish at Brands Hatch in changeable conditions.

For 2019, AmD sold the MG 6s to new squad Exceler8 and bought a pair of Honda Civic FK2 from Eurotech, who left the series at the end of 2018. Butcher was retained for one of the new Honda seats and race-winner Sam Tordoff was brought in to partner him. Sam Tordoff was replaced after 7 rounds by Mike Bushall. The three of them secured the Independent Teams Championship with a combined 4 wins and 3 pole positions whilst Rory won both Independent Drivers title and the Jack Sears Trophy rounding off the team's most successful season to date.

Also in 2019, the Audi S3s were sold to Trade Price Racing but are still to be run for the team in a two-year deal by AmD, with Jake Hill taking one of the Audi seats and ex F1 driver, Le Mans & Indy Car race winner Mark Blundell taking the other. Jake took the Audis 1st ever victory at Knockhill.

Jake was promoted to the AmD side of the team for 2020 and will be partnered by Sam Osborne, whilst the Trade Price Cars arm will be piloted by Bobby Thompson and ex British GT Champion James Gornall.

For 2020, a partnership with ex-F1 racer Mark Blundell was formed, taking over the running of the Honda Civics. Mark Blundell will act as sporting director of the two-car Honda programme featuring new BRDC Superstar Jake Hill and Sam Osborne, with AmD founder Shaun Hollamby retaining the position of team principal.^[5] The team merged with Motorbase Performance for 2021.^[6]

British Touring Car Championship results
Year	Team name	Car	Drivers	Wins	Poles	Fast laps	Points	D.C.	T.C.	M.C.	I.D.C.	I.T.C.
2010	AmD Milltek Racing.com	Volkswagen Golf	Shaun Hollamby	0	0	0	0	28th	16th	N/A	22nd	13th
2011	AmD Milltek Racing.com	Volkswagen Golf	Tom Onslow-Cole †	0	0	0	61	13th	12th	N/A	7th	10th
			Shaun Hollamby	0	0	0	0	29th			24th
			Martin Byford	0	0	0	0	30th			25th
2012	AmD Tuning.com	Volkswagen Golf	Ollie Jackson	0	0	0	61	18th	13th	N/A	13th	11th
2013	AmD Tuning.com	Honda Civic	James Kaye	0	0	0	5	27th	18th	N/A	26th	15th
		Volkswagen Golf
			Shaun Hollamby	0	0	0	1	33rd			29th
			Aaron Mason	0	0	0	0	29th			34th
2014	AmD Tuning.com	Ford Focus ST	Dave Newsham	0	0	0	70	17th	10th	N/A	13th	8th
2015	AmD Tuning	Ford Focus ST	Mike Bushell	0	0	0	22	23rd	5th	N/A	15th	9th
		Audi S3 Saloon	Nicolas Hamilton	0	0	0	N/A	N/A			N/A
			Jake Hill	0	0	0	0	35th			28th
2016	AmD Tuning	Audi S3 Saloon	Ollie Jackson	0	0	0	14	26th	16th	N/A	13th	10th
2017	AmD Tuning	Audi S3 Saloon	Ant Whorton-Eales	0	0	0	34	23rd	14th	N/A	12th	7th
			Ollie Jackson	0	0	0	42	22nd			9th
2018	AmDTuning.com with Cobra Exhausts	Audi S3 Saloon	Sam Smelt	0	0	0	0	34th	17th	N/A	21st	13th
			Ollie Jackson	0	0	0	59	23rd			15th
	AmDTuning.com with AutoAid/RCIB Insurance Racing	MG6 GT	Rory Butcher	0	0	0	99	17th	12th	N/A	10th	7th
			Ant Whorton-Eales	0	0	0	6	30th			23rd
			Tom Boardman	0	0	0	4	29th			20th
			Glynn Geddie	0	0	0	1	33rd			25th
			Josh Caygill	0	0	0	0	40th			29th
2019	Cobra Sport AmD with AutoAid/RCIB Insurance Racing	Honda Civic Type R (FK2)	Rory Butcher	3	1	3	266	5th	3rd	N/A	1st	1st
			Sam Tordoff	1	2	0	147	13th			6th
			Mike Bushell	0	0	1	27	24th			17th
	TradePriceCars.com	Audi S3 Saloon	Jake Hill	1	0	0	131	15th	11th	N/A	4th	4th
			Mark Blundell	0	0	0	5	27th			18th
Year	Team name	Car	Drivers	Wins	Poles	Fast laps	Points	D.C.	T.C.	M.C.	I.D.C.	I.T.C.

Notes

* Season still in progress

† Swapped teams mid season

• Official website
• http://www.amdessex.com/btcc.blog.cfm
• http://www.btccpages.com/news/1/1678/New-team-brings-VW-Golf-to-2010-BTCC/
• http://www.racecar-engineering.com/news/cars/438063/volkswagen-joins-btcc-grid.html^{[permanent dead link]}
• http://www.crash.net/btcc/news/155825/1/amd_reveals_volkswagen_btcc_plans.html
• http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/80796