David Bruns

David Bruns is one of America’s most prolific and successful racecar designers. A Formula Ford racer early in his career, he partnered with Paul White to design and build the radical ADF Formula Ford in 1973, which won the SCCA Runoffs in the hands of Bob Earl. Bruns’ ADF MkII won the ’75 and ’79 Runoffs. Bruns, White, Alex Cross and R.K. Smith formed Swift Cars in ’83. The DB-1 FF would revolutionize the industry, as Smith won the ’83 Runoffs in the car’s first outing. The DB-1 won 10 national championships from ’83 through ’96. Each of Bruns’ subsequent designs would win its first time on the track…the DB-2 Sports 2000 in ’84; the SE-3 Ford 2000 in ’85; the DB-4 Atlantic in ’88; the DB-3 Ford 2000 in ’89; the DB-5 Sports 2000 in ’95; and the DB-6 Ford 1600/FCont in ’90. All this time, Bruns wanted to build “The Big Car”, and with Hiro Matsushita now the principal owner of Swift Engineering, Bruns got the green light. A wind tunnel was needed, so Bruns designed a 140mph/40pct scale model tunnel, and the Swift fabricators built it. The 1997 Swift 007.i (for IndyCar) won its first race at Homestead in the hands of Michael Andretti. Bruns has worked as senior design engineer for advanced products at Dan Gurney’s All American Racers. He continues to do consulting work and track engineering.