Touring car driver and engineer Ron Harrop named in industry honours

Now in its sixth year, the ‘Australian of the Year’ award has been announced by the country’s performance-car industry this Australia Day.

1971 – Ron Harrop – Harrop’s Howler FJ Holden.

The Australian Performance Automotive Council (APAC) has named Ron Harrop the industry’s ‘2024 Australian of the Year’.

Arguably best known to younger generations as the man behind Harrop Engineering – the firm responsible for making fast Holdens and Fords even faster – Ron Harrop got his start in motorsports through the family business, machining and fabricating parts for Norm Beechey and Bob Jane in the late 1960s.

While Harrop Engineering continued to supply equipment to Harry Firth and the Holden Dealer Team in the 1970s, Ron competed at Bathurst in HDT cars in the 1970s, hanging up his helmet to focus on the business in 1986.

Ron eventually became chief engineer for the Holden Racing Team in 1994, seeing the team through a golden era until his departure five years later.

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Harrop Engineering would continue on to become an OEM supplier of parts to Holden and Ford – and their performance subsidiaries HSV and FPV – as well as providing performance parts to car companies such as Toyota and Lotus.

While his son Tim continues to take the family business to new heights, Ron has taken on the job of historian to ensure future generations can learn of Australia’s engineering feats in the performance-car industry.

“Ron Harrop has made the Australian performance automotive industry a respected world leader and we congratulate and thank him for his foresight and sheer dedication to our country’s automotive industry and acknowledge his achievements with the [APAC’s] ‘Australian of the Year’ award 2024,” the council said in a written statement.

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