Tadek Marek

Who is Tadek Marek?

Tadeusz "Tadek" Marek was a Polish automobile engineer, known for his Aston Martin engines.

Marek was from Krakow and studied engineering at a Technical institute in Berlin before working for Fiat in Poland and also for General Motors. He raced, but had a serious accident in 1928, still winning with a Chevrolet Master sedan in the XII Rally Poland before moving to Great Britain in 1940 to join the Polish Army. He joined the Centurion tank Meteor engine development, but returned to Germany, working with United Nations in the rebuilding.

In 1949 he joined the Austin Motor Company, and eventually joined Aston Martin. He developed the alloy 6-cylinder engine of the Aston Martin DBR2 racing car, and redesigned the Lagonda engine with a new cast iron block using top seating liners, used in the DB Mark III. The DBR2 engine was subsequently used in the DB4, DB5, DB6 and DBS. Marek also developed the Aston Martin V8 engine, which was in use until the year 2000. It was first fitted to a DB5 driven by Marek personally, and two Aston Martin DB7 were also equipped with this V8.

Marek moved to Italy in 1968 and died in 1982.