People

Mike Royce

A Yorkshireman now resident in the United States, Royce graduated from Queens College, Cambridge with a Masters degree in mechanical engineering and then went on to get a second Masters in automotive engineering at the Chrysler Institute of Engineering in Detroit, Michigan.He worked for the Rootes Group in Britain and then for Chrysler UK before emigrating the United States in 1970 to work for Chrysler in Detroit. He started out as a truck development engineer before moving on to product planning and program manager on a variety of products. In 1987 Royce became Chrysler's liaison with French companies.That same year Chrysler took over Lamborghini and hired Mauro Forghieri from Ferrari to be technical director the new company, overseeing the design and construction of a Lamborghini V12 engine.This continued until the end of 1992 when Chrysler decided to have a more active involvement in F1. Royce was made technical manager of the Lamborghini Engineering's F1 program. The engine showed promise and at the end of 1993 McLaren built a test car to try out the V12. This was run by both Ayrton Senna and Mika Hakkinen and both men reported that the engine had potential but McLaren decided at the last minute to do a deal with Peugeot instead.This left Lamborghini with no team in F1 in 1994 and not long afterwards Chrysler decided to sell the entire Lamborghini company and Royce went back to Detroit to continue his career in the United States.A former hobby racing driver Royce and his wife are both well-known scrutineers in the United States.