by Robert Lewis (15 Sep 02)

Shoreham-by-Sea in Sussex is a very pleasant little south-coast port on the estuary of the River Adur. It dates from as long ago as Saxon times. The Normans operated here too, and they were the ones who built the 12th-century church.

There's an interesting museum, and you can't miss all the sea and river birds, especially on the Widewater lagoon. Shoreham Airport, still busy with light planes, is reckoned to be the oldest in the country.

Leaving all that to one side, Shoreham has another claim to fame. It's the headquarters of Ricardo Consulting Engineers, a company whose founder was one of the most innovative thinkers of the 20th century. Some of its current research projects may not come to full fruition till 2020 or so, because Ricardo - at Shoreham and elsewhere in the UK, as well as in the United States and the Czech Republic - is right at the cutting edge of 21st-century vehicle engineering research and development.

Car manufacturers and other interested parties regularly beat a path to its door, when they want either bright ideas or a reliable partner to help with the development of engines, transmissions and hybrid powertrains. Or they might need help with NVH problems, detailed calibrations of the working of some component, improved combustion methods, low-emission vehicles or whatever - back in 1972, GM even commissioned Ricardo to build a prototype steam engine suitable for installation in a passenger car.

A great deal of what goes on at Ricardo is highly confidential, and there is simply no way a company representative is going to let an outsider know something that shouldn't be mentioned beyond the bounds of Shoreham's secure environment.

An Early Starter

It's been like that with Ricardo pretty much from the very start. Harry Ricardo (later - much too late, in the opinion of many people - Sir Harry) was born and brought up in Shoreham and started building engines when he was a schoolboy. He was only 17 when he set up the Two-Stroke Engine Company, whose products were fitted to many of the local fishing boats, and also in the Dolphin car he designed.

During World War I he was involved in secret government work with engines for the original British Army tanks. In 1919 he set up the Shoreham establishment. From there, he developed the measurement system which led to octane ratings, helped with the reduction in aero-engine fuel consumption which made it possible for Alcock and Brown to fly the Atlantic in their Vickers Vimy, and patented the "turbulent" cylinder head for side-valve engines which was still bringing in royalties at the end of the 1930s.

Ricardo was involved with diesel engines for road vehicles from a very early stage. He designed the Comet combustion chamber used in the first AEC diesel buses operated in 1931 by London Transport. A later development of it featured in the world's first volume production diesel passenger car, the 1933 Citroen Rosalie. And in 1936 when George Eyston set a new 159mph diesel world record at Bonneville Salt Flats, his "Flying Spray" record car used a V12 engine Ricardo had designed for Rolls-Royce.

In the late 1970s, the company built a series of 45 prototype Stirling external-combustion engines for the US Department of Energy. That project was undertaken to see if these quiet and low-emission engines - of a type invented in the middle of the 19th century - might be suitable for vehicle use; but they were at their best in steady-speed running, and nothing further was done.

In 1986, 12 years after Sir Harry's death, Ricardo was responsible for the re-design of the Teledyne Continental engine which powered the Voyager plane on the first-ever non-stop round-the-world flight which didn't involve refuelling.

What's Doing Right Now?

So what are Ricardo people (around 1400 of them, 70% graduate engineers and technicians) up to in 2002? It's almost a matter of you name it, they do it - and that's only in projects where their involvement is a matter of public record. One major interest remains the development of diesel engines, in which the company has been heavily involved with, among others, the Renault dCi series and the Volvo D5.

Ricardo is emphatic that diesel technology has a very long way to go, and that few people outside the industry have any real idea of just what improvements are not only possible, but also nearly at production status, in power, torque, economy and emission levels. But it also has plenty of petrol engine development work on hand, although it's noticeable that "gasoline" is the word it uses.

Among UK-built production cars, as just two examples from many, the MINI benefited from Ricardo work on the powertrain, while Jaguar came to Ricardo for engineering support on the X-Type's four-wheel drive system. On a rather larger scale, there are no prizes for guessing who won the contract to design and engineer the chassis, and look after powertrain systems integration, on the Hummer H2.

And what a remarkable diversity of customers Ricardo's motorsport division has gathered. They're in Grand Prix racing, CART and NASCAR, and in various one-make formulas thanks to link-ups with companies like Dallara.

Audi's hat-trick of wins at Le Mans came thanks in no small measure to the transmission Ricardo designed for the R8 (pictured). And a development of that system was fitted to the one-off Volkswagen W12 sports prototype which lapped the Nardo bowl in Italy at an average of 185mph - for a whole day and night, to set the current World 24-Hour Speed Record.

Right now, one of the major programmes in which Ricardo admits to a presence is the collaboration with Valeo in the i-MoGen project. The partners have turned a three-door Astra into a demonstration vehicle for a "mild hybrid" diesel-electric powertrain, with a downsized 1.2-litre engine running at a low-for-a-diesel compression ratio of 17.5 to one, a 42-volt electrical system, an integrated starter-alternator, regenerative braking - in fact, the whole shebang.

Is it any good? Well, the Astra is already showing emissions levels at only 50% of the Euro 4 maximum due to come into force in 2005, and it's capable of giving just over 70mpg on the combined cycle.

There's much more on www.ricardo.co.uk.

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