SPOTLIGHT
A Noble journey
Kevin Jones, managing director and founder of KJ Refrigeration, engineer and self-confessed pen pusher has another identity – that of a high octane, high speed, highly competitive racing driver. Lynn Sencicle managed to catch up with him at Brands Hatch, preparing for the third round in the Time Attack series.
“
My success with my customer is only good if I’m working with good partners.
For me, the journey is in the development of the car, as much as the cream at the end is driving it,” says Kevin Jones a moment after consulting with his race engineer, Andrew Baird regarding some tweaks that need to be made to the car before the next practice session. That passion for developing solutions is also what has driven Mr Jones to grow his business, KJ Refrigeration, from a one-man start up in 1984 to a major business covering the South West of England. Specialising in bespoke solutions, Barnstaple-based KJR now employs 38 expert staff , including fully accredited specialist installation engineers. “I earn my living by quoting for and specifying particular, bespoke equipment,” says Mr Jones. “Our success comes from bespoke refrigeration application and that’s where Hubbard comes into play because they supply bespoke refrigeration units for us.
“We can approach Hubbard with a bespoke application
– needing a compressor pack which will do this, this and this. They then design that compressor pack and we install and commission it. I’d like to think we work with Hubbard as a partner. Our success with my customer is only good if I’m working with good partners.”
Hubbard also sponsors Mr Jones’ race car and the unique solutions theme carries through. The car in question started off life in 2003 as a road legal Noble M12 GTO3 from British sports car manufacturer Noble Automotive. Then refrigeration engineer Kevin Jones got his hands on it and turned it into the racing car it is today. For
22 August 2016
the lesser petrol head, imagine a Lotus on steroids – and ramped up to 750bhp/612ft lbs. “I qualifi ed as an electrical engineer as well as refrigeration engineer,” says Mr Jones. “I try and adapt these skills towards what I do with the car – I like getting my hands dirty with it.”
“I got into motor sport late. I’ve always loved it, but in my early life, I didn’t have the money. Then it became no money or time – and then no time. Eventually though, it became a reality. I bought the Noble in 2003 as a road legal car and started doing sprint racing and a little bit of hill climbing in the South West.
“We ran the car as it was for the fi rst year, but since then it’s been evolving. Eventually we developed the car to the point where it needed to earn its keep, and that’s when we moved into Time Attack in 2014.”
The latest ‘bespoke’ evolution of the Noble is the new sequential gearbox made especially for it by Australian race gearbox specialist, Hollinger. “They were the only company in the world who could, or would make that gearbox,” comments Mr Jones. “There has been a lot of work and a lot of development gone into this car. Noble ran their own race car for a while – although it wasn’t as developed as much as this one. I believe that this is the most developed Noble there is in the world at the moment – it’s now a full GT-spec race car.”
One thing that almost all race cars have in common is the phenomenal amount of heat generated – so how do the
www.acr-news.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64
