Brian Hart began his racing career in 1958 with a Lotus Seven and went on to compete in Formula Junior, Formula Three, and Formula Two, including a handful of non-championship Formula One races. He qualified for the 1967 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring in a Protos-Cosworth. By 1971 Hart had retired from driving as his professional engineering commitments grew.
Hart's engineering career took shape in the late 1960s. He worked briefly at the de Havilland aircraft company at Hatfield, gaining experience in airframe and aero-engine design, before joining Cosworth. He left Cosworth in 1969 to found his own company, initially contracted to service Cosworth's Ford FVA engines. Ford soon commissioned Brian Hart Limited to assist with new engine development, placing it in a role parallel to Cosworth itself.
The company's early reputation was built on the Ford BDA engine, developed for Ford's rally programs throughout the 1970s. Hart-tuned FVA and BDA engines also proved formidable in Formula Two: Ronnie Peterson won the European F2 title with a Hart-prepared FVA in 1971, and Mike Hailwood took the same title in 1972 with a BDA.
When BMW and Renault raised the competitive stakes in F2, Hart chose to design his own engine rather than continue with Ford. The result was the 420R, a unit first raced in a Chevron sportscar in 1976 that became a race winner in F2 in 1977 and 1978.
The transformative period for Brian Hart Limited came in the 1978–79 off-season, when the Toleman F2 team committed financial backing for further R&D. Toleman-Hart dominated the 1980 European F2 Championship, with Brian Henton and Derek Warwick finishing first and second in the standings.
Toleman's step up to Formula One in 1981 brought Hart with it. He developed a turbocharged version of the 420R for the new venture. Although initially underpowered and unreliable, the engine established Brian Hart Limited as an F1 supplier. Hart remained Toleman's engine partner until Benetton purchased the team. Through the 1980s the company also supplied RAM, Haas Lola, and Tyrrell. The ban on turbocharged engines at the end of 1988 returned Hart to naturally aspirated work, collaborating with Cosworth to develop the DFZ and DFR engines.
By 1992 Brian Hart Limited had self-funded the design of its first V10 engine, designated the Type 1035. In November of that year the company announced an exclusive two-year deal to supply Jordan Grand Prix. The partnership showed genuine promise: Rubens Barrichello took a third-place finish at the 1994 Pacific Grand Prix at Aida, one of the cleaner results either party had enjoyed. However, when Peugeot offered Jordan a full factory engine deal, Hart's contract was not renewed.
Hart pivoted to supplying Footwork/Arrows, though that team's financial difficulties prevented proper development funding. The older V8 had to be used in place of an evolved V10, limiting competitiveness.
In 1997 Hart began work with Minardi on a new V10 design, but the project could not secure sufficient funding to reach its potential. Later that year Tom Walkinshaw purchased Brian Hart Limited as part of his acquisition of Arrows. The capital injection allowed the V10 design to become the Arrows V10. The arrangement deteriorated into legal dispute over alleged unpaid debts, and Brian Hart parted company with Arrows and Formula One before the end of 1997. Arrows itself went into liquidation in 2002.
Brian Hart Limited occupied an unusual position in Formula One: neither the budget of a major manufacturer nor merely a rebadger of someone else's work, but a genuine independent engine constructor that competed across multiple eras and regulatory cycles. It produced successful engines in F2, turbocharged F1, and naturally aspirated F1, supplying a broad range of teams from Toleman through to Minardi. The company's engine work helped launch the careers of several drivers who went on to greater things, and its Jordan-era V10 represented a credible independent challenger during a period increasingly dominated by manufacturer power.