Made in Australia, Faster Than F4: The Hyper Racer X1 Story
The world's lightest full ground-effects race car was designed and built in Melbourne by a father and son. Here's how the X1 came to exist, and why it's changing open-wheel racing.
The Hyper Racer X1 did not arrive fully formed. It took years of development, a willingness to challenge conventional thinking about what an affordable open-wheel car could be, and a belief that Australian motorsport was ready for something genuinely new.
At 395 kilograms dry, the X1 is the world's lightest full ground-effects race car. It's powered by a Suzuki Hayabusa GSX1340R engine producing around 195 horsepower. The combination of low weight and meaningful power produces 500 horsepower per tonne — a power-to-weight ratio that sits alongside machinery costing three times as much.
Jon and Dean Crooke — father and son, Director of Design and Director of Engineering respectively — built the X1 with affordability as a first principle rather than an afterthought. The chain drive eliminates the transaxle gearbox failure mode. The mirror-geometry suspension means one set of spares covers both sides of the car. The Hayabusa engine costs $8,000 to replace, not $50,000.
The car is now in the United States, the United Kingdom, and racing in one of Australia's oldest and most prestigious championship titles. Fifty units built and the production line still running.