Philippe was raised in Edmonton, East London, and attended the Latymer School in Hammersmith. He began his professional life as an apprentice for the De Havilland aircraft company in Hatfield, where he worked as a draughtsman and helped develop the wing structures for the Comet 4. The company's technical department included several motor racing enthusiasts, such as Frank Costin and Brian-Hart. While at De Havilland, Philippe joined the 750 Motor Club and built his first racing car, the MPS (Maurice Philippe Special), in 1955. In the late 1950s, he collaborated with Hart and Len Terry to build a front-engined Formula Junior car called the Delta, which was destroyed in its debut race by driver Peter Warr. Before entering full-time car design, he worked as a development engineer on the Ford Anglia engine.
After racing a Lotus 7 in 1963 and 1964, Philippe was invited by Colin Chapman in September 1965 to serve as the design team for Team Lotus. His early work involved redesigning the Lotus 39, followed by the BRM-engined Lotus 43. He played a key role in designing the Lotus 49, a classic model that achieved immense success through 1970. Philippe was also involved in the Lotus 56 gas turbine car for the Indianapolis 500, as well as experiments with four-wheel drive in the Lotus 63 and Lotus 64. His tenure at Lotus culminated in the ground-breaking Lotus 72, which remained competitive until 1975.
In 1972, Philippe joined Parnelli Jones's USAC team. Working with drivers Al Unser, Joe Leonard, and Mario Andretti, the team won the 1972 USAC National Championship. During this period, the program achieved 53 Indy car races and three United States Auto Club Championships. Philippe also designed the Cosworth-powered Parnelli VPJ4 for Formula One, which debuted in late 1974 and was campaigned by Andretti throughout 1975. Additionally, he contributed to a successful Formula 5000 program using Viceroy-sponsored Lola chassis.
Following a period as a freelance designer, Philippe was hired by Ken Tyrrell in 1978 to replace Derek Gardner. His first design for the team, the Tyrrell 008, was driven by Patrick Depailler and Didier Pironi, leading the team to fourth in the Constructors' Championship. The 1979 Tyrrell 009 utilized ground-effect technology but was less successful, earning four third-place finishes. The subsequent Tyrrell 010 was used in modified form from 1980 through 1983, securing victories at the 1982 Las Vegas GP and 1983 Detroit GP with Michele Alboreto.
Though his 1984 design performed well with Martin Brundle and Stefan Bellof, the team's results that year were canceled due to rule infringements. After a period using Renault turbo engines and a return to Cosworth power in 1987, Philippe was replaced by Harvey Postlethwaite at the end of 1988. He then established a design consultancy and developed the March 89CE Indycar, powered by Alfa Romeo, for March Engineering.
Maurice Philippe committed suicide on 5 June 1989, shortly before the March-Alfa Romeo project reached fruition.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.