David Richards MBE – the man behind one of the UK’s most successful motor sport teams, Prodrive, and the chairman of Motorsport UK – will be providing an exclusive talk at hatmaker Marcel Rodrigues during Concours on Savile Row in the heart of Mayfair, London (Wednesday May 22-Thursday May 23, 2024).
Richards won the 1981 World Rally Championship as co-driver to Ari Vatanen in a Ford Escort, before setting up Prodrive with Ian Parry several years later. Since then, Prodrive has seen success with Subaru, BMW, Aston Martin and many more manufacturers, in circuit racing and rallying. Prodrive has also added its engineering nous to road cars, sprinkling its chassis know-how for companies as diverse as Alfa Romeo and Mazda, and many more.
More recently, Prodrive celebrated 25 years of the two-door Impreza World Rally Car (WRC), which in turn inspired the Subaru Impreza 22B, with the P25. Prodrive reimagined what the 22B would have been today, with the use of the latest 2.5-litre flat-four ‘boxer’ engine, producing over 400bhp and 600Nm of torque, combined with a six-speed semi-automatic gearbox, WRC-derived launch control and turbo anti-lag.
Just 25 cars were produced, each with an original two-door Impreza WRX chassis at its core. This is the very same chassis as was used in the first Impreza WRC, but now with reduced weight, a more powerful engine and improved vehicle dynamics.
David will be giving an exclusive talk at hat creator Marcel Rodrigues (pictured above) during Concours on Savile Row. Hat making was never on the career agenda for Marcel. A love of fashion and an interest in the industry led him to a career as an apprentice at Cad & The Dandy on Savile Row in 2008. An obsession with exceptionally made hats was ignited.
Marcel started honing his techniques, and he soon found that people began to take notice of his creations. In December 2017, the Marcel Rodrigues brand was formally founded, and the company has now opened its second location, at the home of bespoke tailoring, 20 Savile Row.
Head there at 12:30pm on Wednesday May 22, 2024 to hear David Richards MBE speak, and get an exclusive insight into the motor sport world.
On Thursday, there’s a chance to hear Nathan Rainbow Jones speak.
Nathan was a professional sportsman, receiving international honours in rugby, skiing and athletics, competing for Wales in rugby 7s, alpine skiing and Great Britain in athletics. Whilst studying Sport and Exercise Science at Loughborough University, Nathan signed a professional rugby contract at Leicester Tigers, until joining the Royal Air Force as a frontline pilot, serving on operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and was part of the UKs nuclear early detection capability.
In 2014, Nathan was flying a transport aircraft from the UK to Camp Bastian in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, when an inflight emergency forced the plane into a dive, throwing him into the ceiling of the cabin and breaking his back and neck. Whilst pinned to the roof, Nathan crawled back into the flight deck and regained control of the aircraft, saving the lives of all 200 people on board. After multiple surgeries and years of rehabilitation, Nathan competed in both the Orlando and Toronto Invictus Games in cycling and swimming, winning medals in both.
With his final flying tour being a VVIP Captain on the UK Royal Flight, Nathan commanded multiple Royal and Prime Ministerial campaigns around the world and was commended for his work by Prime Minister Teressa May. Whilst recovering from his third spinal surgery, Nathan went on secondment with the Royal Foundation and ran Special Projects for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
In 2020, Nathan co-founded Peak State: Mental Fitness, an organisation seeking to build a global community that understands the importance of mental fitness and that feels empowered to attain it.
As a TV presenter, keynote speaker or global thought leader, Nathan uses his harrowing real life events to inspire, destigmatise vulnerability and give take away insights on human performance.
To find out more about Marcel Rodrigues, head to www.marcelrodrigues.co.uk, and to find out more about Prodrive, head to www.prodrive.com.