THUNDERSTRUCK
Mike Borland’s future looks
bright, light and loud. The
Melbourne racing car constructor
is helping to develop the
proposed Formula Thunder 5000
single-seater category, using a
Formula Nippon carbonfibre tub,
425kW Ford Coyote 5.0-litre V8
and almost entirely Australian
and NZ-made components.
“They’re designed to be difficult
to drive and exciting to watch.”162 WheelsMag.com.au
WHEELSTORIES MICHAEL STAHL
THINK of Australian racing car constructors and
chances are you’ll think of Jack Brabham and
Ron Tauranac. Aside from Aussie-influenced
internationals like Van Diemen and Tiga, there’s
been a whole raft of successful home-growns:
Elfin, Matich, Birrana, Bowin, Rennmax and
Cheetah, to name some of the majors.
Add to that list Borland Racing
Developments, of Braeside, Melbourne. Mike
Borland, 52, has racked up almost 30 years
as a constructor. His Spectrum Formula Ford,
F2000 and Sabre Formula Vee cars have been
consistently successful in Australia, have twice
won Formula Ford’s pinnacle Walter Hayes
Trophy in the UK (2011 and 2013), and are
reigning US Formula Ford champions, with
Australian driver Scott Andrews.
Borland also constructed the steel
spaceframe chassis for the Daytona Coupes
and regularly restores and repairs notable
historic racing cars.
There’s no mystery how this trained diesel
mechanic fell into designing and building
chassis that can take on the world’s most
hard-fought categories. Borland’s uncle is Brian
Shead, who under the marque Cheetah single-
handedly built a variety of formula cars (mainly
F2 and F3) from 1960-89.
“Yep, it’s all his fault,” Borland says. “I
started in ’84, running F2 cars that my uncle
had built. I ran Peter Glover, Jon Crooke, Rohan
Onslow... We won a few championships. Then
I started to build my own cars.
“Steve Richards raced that car in ’91, and
in ’92 we won a Victorian state series. And
in ’93 we built our first customer car, for
Jason Bright.”
With Formula Ford being an international
feeder category, Borland has had some pretty
famous bums in his seats, including Chaz
Mostert, Mark Winterbottom, Scott Pye and
Will Power.
Along with local customers, Borland has a
number of F1600 cars and winged, slick-tyredF2000s racing overseas. “We’ve got maybe half
a dozen cars racing in New Zealand, I think six
or seven in England, and 23 in America and
Canada,” he says. “We won the US [Honda-
powered F1600] series for three of the last four
years, and the last two Canadian series.”
Taking the fight to international chassis
makers such as Reynard, Van Diemen and
Mygale, has he thought about larger single-
seater categories?
“Until recently, the carbonfibre part of it has
been beyond our reach here a little bit [but]
it’s getting easier and easier. It’s been a good
market for the Formula Fords. The investment
in the other things is so high.
“A lot of the one-make series have gone
carbon now ... Unfortunately I didn’t get into
this as my business, I got into it because I love
building cars and trying to make the next one
better than the last one. To do one-make cars,
it defeats the purpose for me. You might as well
make shopping trolleys.”Formula for success
Unassuming local engineer takes on the world, and wins