Heritage

The Story Behind BMS Design Ltd

Motorsport runs deep in the Boardman family. MD Dan Boardman’s grandfather, John “Johnny” Boardman, raced alongside Stirling Moss in the 1950s and became well‑known for his performances on legendary events such as the Monte Carlo Rally, the Tulip Rally, and the Liège–Rome–Liège.

Dan followed the same path from an early age. After years of building and racing model cars, he constructed his first real car from a wreck. By 19, he was running his own private rally team in New Zealand with a Group A Subaru Impreza, competing in the 1999 Rally New Zealand against icons like Colin McRae, Carlos Sainz, and Tommi Mäkinen.

Returning to the UK, Dan earned a Motorsport Engineering degree from the University of Central Lancashire while simultaneously:

• Running a classic Reynard Formula Ford — and winning the championship

• Supporting the running of a Juno Supersports race car

• Designing and building the Best Engineered Formula Student car of 2003

• Establishing a university rally team and competing in the 205 Challenge with a Peugeot 205 1600 GTI

• Spending a year as a design engineer at TVR Blackpool, also assisting the TVR Speed 12 race team

Dan’s work impressed TVR founder Peter Wheeler, who offered him a full‑time role after graduation. At TVR, Dan became a key figure in the development of the TVR Sagaris — widely regarded, including by Jeremy Clarkson, as the best TVR ever built.

His obsession with solving long‑standing TVR quality issues shaped the Sagaris into a standout car. Dan personally spent weeks perfecting bodywork fit and finish, redesigned the bonnet from a single‑skin race-style panel to a robust double‑skinned road‑ready assembly, and transformed the car’s handling by eliminating bump‑steer, refining suspension geometry, and improving damping. Over 200 brass bobbins were added to replace the typical production screws, dramatically improving build quality.

Alongside his engineering work, Dan continued rallying — winning a rally scholarship, competing in the Fiesta Sporting Trophy with M‑Sport, and famously entering the Manx International Rally seeded 180th and winning his class by over 12 minutes.

After TVR, Dan joined General Motors as Chief Dynamics Systems Engineer at Millbrook Proving Ground. He was later recruited by Ginetta, where he helped productionise the G50 and G40 race cars and supported the Ginetta LNT Panoz and Zytek LMP programmes.

With experience spanning OEM, motorsport, R&D, and high‑performance vehicle development, Dan founded BMS Design Ltd. His philosophy is simple: If you can design a race car with over 2,500 components — many of them moving — you can design almost anything.

Since then, BMS Design Ltd has delivered engineering and manufacturing solutions across multiple sectors. Projects include:

• Supplying components for LMP race cars and McLaren road cars

• Designing suspension systems, uprights, and assemblies

• 3D scanning fighter jets and historic race cars for accurate reproduction

• Supporting specialist automotive and motorsport programmes worldwide