Simon Dunn:

Following a misspent youth around engines & machinery, I followed a practically biased academic career culminating in the award of an honours degree in mechanical engineering from Coventry University.

From there I entered the automotive industry, straight into Land Rover Diesel Engine development where I was part of the core team looking after the 300TDI, TD5 and L Series mechanical development, and production support when the 300TDI and L Series engines entered volume production.

From Land Rover I joined the mechanical development team at Cosworth Technology in Northampton, looking at durability issues for various clients' gasoline engines, ranging from a clean sheet design V6 family of 2.5l, 3l & 3.5l to model year updates of existing in-line 4 cylinder and V6 engines.

I then joined a small independent test house in Peterburough running a range of test and development programmes for a number of projects for globally recognised diesel and gasoline engine manufacturers in the automotive, marine and industrial markets.

To summarise, my 10 year automotive career has been centered around running and breaking engines on test beds, with a focus on cylinder head, valvetrain, cranktrain and exhaust system development towards production solutions. Seeking a change of scene, I bought my boat and have been closely involved with the marine environment since 2002.