Van Diemen
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For other articles of the same same, see Van Diemen (disambiguisation)
Van Diemen International, Ltd. is a British race car manufacturer based in Snetterton, Norfolk, England.
The company has a reputation for high-volume production runs of its cars, the most well-known of which is its series of Formula Ford chassis, which have been at the forefront of that class of motorsport for over 20 years.
Van Diemen was founded in 1973 by Ross Ambrose and Ralph Firman Sr., whose children Marcos Ambrose, Ralph Firman Jr. and Natasha Firman have since gone on to have successful racing careers. The company's name comes from the island of Tasmania, Australia, which was formerly known as Van Diemen's Land and is where Ambrose was born and lived before moving to the UK to co-found the company.
As well as Formula Ford, Van Diemen builds cars for Formula Ford 2000 and Formula Mazda series. The company's purpose-built manufacturing facility is located on the grounds of Snetterton Motor Racing Circuit, allowing racing teams to test the cars literally right off the production line.
In 2002, Van Diemen International was bought by Don Panoz and is now part of his Elan Motorsports Technologies group.
