Steve Broughton began his working life as an engineering apprentice at British Aerospace, then was involved in the motor trade, picking up numerous skills along the way. He rallied a Chevette as a hobby in his early 20s and as the area of the motor industry that he was in started to fade, so he turned his attention to seeing if his hobby could make him a living.

 

Steve started SBD Motorsport in 1992, almost the same day as his eldest son was born. When he first started, assuming it would be difficult to get into the motorsport arena, decided to simply sell dampers and fast road car associated parts, but found this a cut-throat market with everybody selling the same bits.

 

He began talking to companies such as Omega Pistons and Kent Cams, who were more than willing to sell components for motorsport use. 

 

The first 6 months was very hard going and Steve nearly gave up to become a house-husband! However, he had enquiries to build two engines; the first one was a customer called Roger Baird, Steve built him an engine for his Westfield and delivered it to Roy Lane, who looked after Roger’s car. 

 

The engine was duly installed, then went to Aldon Automotive to have the carburettors set-up, they said it was the most powerful XE that they had seen. Roger competed his Westfield in the hillclimbs and started to take class wins improving from his previous mid-field finishes.

 

Steve was also asked to build a Group A rally engine and through his connections with MBE Systems, which he had before he started the business, they gave him a lot of help since they supplied all the systems to General Motors for the Works Astras. The Group A car then went out and started to beat the Works rally cars. 

 

The results that came from these two engines alone, sparked up a huge amount of interest, not only in club motorsport but in professional motorsport as well. Everything took off at that point and Steve had more work than he could possibly deal with, building more club engines for all forms of motorsport and dealing with General Motors developing more rally engines and eventually the kit car system for the Astra Mk3, which was then run by all the GM Rally Teams.

 

Over time he did more work for professional teams but although cheques were large, the work was very hard and involved being away for weeks. GM then slowed a lot of their motorsport involvement, so Steve decided to move the business more towards club motorsport, working to produce the best parts he could, at an affordable price and although he does not produce the cheapest components, likes to give the best results, along with reliability and durability for your money. Customers include both retail & trade and over the years the export side has expanded worldwide.

 

Steve’s favourite part of the job is developing new areas, e.g. new taper throttle kits, electronics.  “The main aim is to make everything affordable for the customer,” says Steve. “I’m not into making everything bespoke, as I want the customer to be able to buy off the shelf. However, reliability has to be first.”

 

This was done initially and still is by testing and developing components on all the SBD Westfields (including the current EcoBoost Westfield), the JADE Sportscar, followed by a series of OMS racing cars and currently the Dallara, in addition to various other competition cars competing in other motorsport disciplines.

 

SBD is heavily involved in club motorsport, both as sponsors & competitors. All of their development work; both electronics & hardware are tested in race conditions. This continuous testing filters down into every kit SBD sell, meaning that the customer knows they're getting race tested kits, suitable for racing or the often-harsher demands of regular track days. Another benefit of club racing involvement is that all of their claims are on show for people to see, along with the results. The downside is that ‘oops’ factor, which happens occasionally, but then it’s back to the drawing board!

 

Steve’s future plans are to continue developing new products and systems in the aim to bring high quality components to club level motorsport.