Mechanic, designer and engineer who joined Astromega in F3000 after his spell in F1. Recently worked in the British Formula 3 and Formula 4 series as their technical director He also works as a consultant engineer and is involved in many other aspects of motorsport. He also runs and develops a racing simulation software company, DATAS Ltd. and runs Beau Ideal, which is a classic car hire company as well as an engineering and design consultancy. On top of all this, Chris, who now lives in Norfolk as well as Spain, somehow finds time to drive in the odd historic festival, in numerous Lotus cars, with his main motorsport role with the Classic Team Lotus outfit, as a chief mechanic, race team manager and consultant engineer for both racing and restoration. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Murphy moved from HNC Motor Vehicle design at Bolton Institute of Higher Education into a five year drawing office apprenticeship in Lancashire. This eventually led to preparing and driving Formula Ford racing cars, before he worked with Maurer in 1981 as mechanic, car builder and draughtsman. A spell in composites followed before a number of design projects, including Indycar and Can-Am cars. Chris' first F1 role was with Zakspeed, joining mentor Paul Brown and whilst in Germany he worked on a Group C sports car. He then moved to the US to become Zakspeed USA's chief engineer, overseeing their US race programme, working closely with Klaus Ludwig. He then moved to Lola as design and race engineer where the team, working with Larrousse, produced a number of impressive performances and led him to Leyton House. He spent three years at Lotus before the team wound down, which is when he started his Beau Ideal consultancy. Then there were spells in Indycar, GTI cars, Formula 3000 (the latter notably with Astromega). He founded his D.A.T.A.S Ltd. race sim software business in 1999, before a return to Germany as consultant race engineer in the DTM. He then worked in GP2, including a spell at Campos Racing and then Addax.

Biography last updated 15 Feb 2025