Robbie Dickson

Robbie Dickson is an engineer, entrepreneur, and writer who has worked with many Automotive and Aeronautical OEM's developing new products for commercialization. He is a seasoned Mechanical and Robotics Engineers with an emphasis on technology. He has also invented many new products and more importantly brought them to market. FIRGELLI® is considered to be one of his main baby companies that encompasses all the Engineering disciplines he enjoys (Robotics, Mechanics, and Electronics)  

Outside of Engineering, Robbie has pursued his passion for Motor racing by working with racing legend Jacques Villeneuve to create a racetrack located in Oliver, BC, Canada, named Area-27. The Racetrack has invigorated the Canadian racing industry, and the track has been featured numerous times on TV including Jeremy Clarkson's motoring hit The Grand Tour produced by Amazon. 

Robbie Dickson, Founder, Firgelli Automations

Robbie was born in the United Kingdom where as a child he watched the movie Cannonball Run, and immediately became fascinated with super cars and continues that fascination to this day through his involvement with the Diamond Rally, Luxury Supercar Weekend in Vancouver Canada, and his own car collection. He went on to pursue his passion in Engineering and eventually graduated with a degree in both Mechanical and Aeronautical engineering from the University of Wales. Upon graduating he worked in various engineering positions for companies including Rolls-Royce, BMW, and Ford.

Robbie became known for pushing the limits by constantly trying to break speed limits he set for himself. In early 2000 he competed in the Race the Base Event in Cold Lake Alberta. There he went 326 km/h (202.5 mph) in his Lamborghini Aventador. This led to nearly avoiding a crash as his car spun out of control. At this point Dickson realized he needed a more efficient braking system than the hydraulic brakes that came standard in most super-cars.

Being an engineer by trade he started to examine the braking systems of other fast moving vehicles such as Aircraft. These rely on airbrake systems that are far more efficient at higher speeds to create speed reduction, since they do not require a frictional breaking technology that becomes very inefficient at higher speeds. He then went on to invent the Air braking system used today for supercars that utilize the design as an auxiliary braking system when speeds are greater than 100 km/h and hard breaking is applied.  

Writer Iconic Concierge magazine

Robbie has been the chief Automotive writer for the Iconic Concierge magazine since 2016. The quarterly luxury lifestyle magazine features the latest in Cars, technology, travel and food. Robbie was featured on the cover of the first magazine edition in the summer of 2016 alongside his McLaren at the time. 

Robbie Dickson magazine writer

Area 27 and Cannonball Run
Dickson's love of the film Cannonball Run inspired him to team up with Bill Dorosso and the Canadian F1 legend Jacques Villeneuve to create Canada's first and only full sized racetrack, Area-27. The track derived its name from Jacques' racing number. Featured many times on TV the track is a private members only club that is currently 100% sold out and fully utilized. 

The Area-27 team negotiated with the Osoyoos Indian Band for a very long land lease to create the 4.9 km track and go-kart track and Large Clubhouse. GPS guided earth movers traced the layout of the track, and 12,139 feet of concrete was used on the track and its barriers. A special blend of asphalt was made to withstand the heat of the region.

Diamond Rally

Dickson also created a number of luxury automotive charity driven car rallies that send drivers throughout Canadian countryside for the sheer joy of driving, including co-founding the Canadian Bullrun Rally, a seven-day tour of the Rocky Mountains for luxury car owners. He also co-founded the annual Diamond Rally, an invite-only charity rally of 200 supercars, the largest Supercar rally in North America, sponsored by Hublot Vancouver one of Dickson's other ventures. The rally raises money for dozens of charities and runs from Vancouver to Whistler and the Okanagan via the Sea-to-Sky Highway.

Venture capitalist
Dickson has provided the guidance and financial backing for numerous businesses. He is an angel investor, who believes in a clean-tech future and only works with companies that are environmentally friendly and believe in a zero-emission future. He has backed several other companies that create technology Dickson believes will have a practical application in the future.

Personal life
Dickson is an avid car collector, and has owned hundreds of automobiles in his lifetime. He is very active in the Automotive world locally and around the world working with various OEM's solve engineering challenges they face with respect to motion control for various applications that sometimes utilize the technology Robbie invented or created himself. McLaren is one of his favorite brands and having owned many McLaren supercars himself he helped the engineering team create the motion control aspect of their adjustable wings and diffusers. 

To follow Robbie Dickson below are links to his personal social media pages

Instagram

Facebook

Sources:

Wikipeadia 

 

 

 

 

 

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