History

Premier Power was set up in 2004 by Stuart Cresswell, a long time established engine builder who has worked at most levels in motorsport.  From his early career in Formula Ford and Formula Renault, he went onto building championship winning engines in the British Touring Car Championship during the super tourer era for Nissan and Ford.  Following on from this he then moved to two wheels as engine shop manager for a Moto GP bike team.  After the collapse of this project, Stuart set about launching Premier Power having helped run a competitive Formula Ford race car in his spare time.

Interest grew in the company with other Formula Ford competitors opting to have their engines prepared by Premier Power.  In 2005 the company also prepared engines for a front running GT Sports Car manufacturer competing in British and European GT Sports Car racing.  New regulations in the National Formula Ford Championship meant an opportunity to build engines for the British Championship.  Two race wins at the end of the 2006 British Championship, required Premier Power to move to new premises and purchase more stock as the company then leased engines to several UK teams and one team competing in the new Benelux Formula Ford Championship.  Many race wins in the 2007 and 2008 British Championship also culminated in Premier Power winning it’s first of the companies three Benelux Formula Ford Championships.

In addition to the company’s motorsport commitments, the company also took on contract work, including in 2010, building 56 engines for a well know engine manufacturer for a limited high performance road car project.  The engines were built in two months, not smoke tested or dyno tested but fitted into the vehicles before being sold to the general public.  Due to the Premier Power’s meticulous attention to detail and processes, all of the cars were sold with no reported issues with the engines. This was a massive confidence boost to Premier Power and hence the company started to look at new market places for new products and its services.

In 2011 Premier Power purchased its own Caterham seven sports car.  Premier Power then developed its own performance engine upgrades to enhance the driving experience of the Caterham Seven.  Stuart commented “the company needed a new direction with the uncertain future of Formula Ford due to new technical regulations about to be introduced”.  “Having always had a passion for the Caterham 7 and having considerable experience with the Ford Sigma engine as used in Formula Ford, we were excited to see what performance we could get out of the engine” Premier Power soon developed three performance upgrades culminating in its 200bhp version of the 1600cc normally aspirated engine.  Not only did they extract this performance reliably from the engine at a lower maximum revs condition than others who have tried to get near performance level but they also they lightened the engine by 8kgs. 

Premier Power also developed upgrades for the 2.0 and 2.3 Duratec engines used to power Caterhams.  Some of these were used in competition with fantastic success. 

The introduction of the Sigma Ti-VCT in Caterhams enlisted another development programme.  The additional use of the “state of the art” Life Racing Engine management system allowed the company to develop several performance upgrades for the engine, including another 200bhp model but the addition of the Ti-VCT functionality gave the engine further low end and mid rpm performance gains.  In conjunction with this, the company also developed its own dry sump oil system for the Sigma.  The very neat and compact installation makes for a very efficient and low volume system.

In 2018 Premier Power were selected as a nominated engine supplier for the Caterham graduates Sigmax Championship.  The objective was to rebuild and support competitors in the series with Premier Power supplying reliable and equal performance engines to what is a club level motorsport championship. 

What does the future hold for Premier Power? The company plans to continue to develop further products for its Caterham upgrades range.  It also plans to continue to offer its expertise to support other companies with engine development programmes, sub assembly and turnkey engineering solutions