Windsor-Smith, who was born as Claude Peter Smith in 1922 (It is unclear where the Windsor came from; his mother's maiden name was Spiers) became an apprentice with the aviation firm Armstrong Siddeley at a young age before joining the Ricardo Engineering company in 1943. He then moved to the Midlands to join Daimler in 1950, who were based in Coventry, as were his next stop; Coventry-Climax. Windsor-Smith worked with Hassan and Mundy to create the 1.5 litre V8 F1 engine which had great success. When Jaguar took over Coventry-Climax in 1965, Peter moved to bus engine design. The racing bug didn't leave him and in 1970, he joined BRM as a development engineer for engine design and his input helped lead to a number of wins in the early 1970's. He later worked for Massey Ferguson and on truck transmissions. Windsor-Smith has a number of patents to his name; mainly on gearboxes and transmission for trucks, buses, tractors and cars.

Biography last updated 21 Dec 2019