In today's motorcycle market, it is not uncommon for domestic brands to outsource the shape design of the car to foreign design companies; but it is still very rare to cooperate with big-name companies and package the overall positive development. Here we will mention the recently popular Seclon RX6, not only the engine is developed in cooperation with Norton in the United Kingdom, but also the design and tuning of the vehicle is also handed over to the British company Ricardo (Ricardo) company.
So, what kind of company is Ricardo? What exactly is its industry position? What does the Ricardo design mean? Today, Xiaobian will take you to find out...
Ricardo Ricardo is one of the big four in global vehicle engineering and internal combustion engine design, along with AVL in Austria, FEV in Germany, and Southwest Research Institute in the United States. Founded in 1915 by the founder, Sir Harry Ricardo, it is now 106 years old.
With more than 2,000 engineers, scientists and consultants worldwide, Ricardo has been at the forefront of vehicle engineering and internal combustion engine design with the founder's philosophy of "maximizing efficiency".
Sir Harry Ricardo was born in London in 1885 and graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge, a god-like college whose alumni include: Newton, Byron, Russell, Nehru, George VI, Rajiv Gandhi...
While in college, Harry Ricciardo competed in a race at the Cambridge University Motor Club to design a machine that could travel the furthest with one quart (about 1.14 liters) of gasoline. For the race, Ricciardo, who was less than 20 years old, built a motorcycle with a single-cylinder engine and won the race by reaching a distance of up to 40 miles (about 64 kilometers). In 1904, fuel consumption of less than 1.8 liters/100 km was sensational. He was then persuaded to join the research group of Bertram Hopkinson, a professor of mechanical and applied mechanics, to study engine performance. He received his degree in 1906 and continued his studies at Cambridge for a year.
After graduation, he helped John Alcock and Arthur Brown solve the problem of engine fuel consumption, successfully achieving the first human aircraft flight across the Atlantic, which made him famous in the field of engine engineering.
Because of the numerous improvements made in the field of engines at the time, which contributed to the significant development of piston engines, Harry Ricciardo was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1929 and was knighted in 1948 in recognition of his long-standing outstanding contribution to the internal combustion engine industry.
In 1906, Harry, a recent graduate of Cambridge, filed his first patent for engine design, which began production in 1908 by the Two-Stroke Engine Company. Not only was the engine mounted on a car called Dolphin, but it was also used in a variety of fishing boats made in the Solheim region, until almost all fishermen's fishing boats were equipped with a Dolphin engine. Because fishermen found that this engine can run at low speeds for a long time, it has shown excellent reliability in their actual use.
In 1915, Harry Ricciardo founded a company called Engine Patents Ltd (literally "Engine Patent Company Limited"), which is the predecessor of today's Ricciardo. The company's first business came from the British military, when the Daimler engine used on the British military's Mark V tank generated a lot of smoke at work, which was not only easy to expose to the position on the battlefield, but also because the air inside the car was often unconscious and unable to fight. Harry discovered that Daimler's engine would burn inadequately as pistons carried fuel into the exhaust port, and decided to redesign a six-cylinder engine for the Mark V tank. In addition to reducing smoke emissions, the new engine also increased maximum power from the original Daimler engine's 105 hp to 150 hp, and later versions were even capable of reaching 225 hp and 260 hp.
From 1917 onwards, Ricciardo produced more than 100 engines per week for the British military, which, in addition to being equipped with later versions of the Mark V tank, continued to be equipped with Mark VIII and Mark IX tanks, and France also procured hundreds of engines for military bases. The engine, which produced more than 8,000 units, not only became the first mass-produced engine in British history, but also made Ricardo a hit and won the first pot of gold. Taking advantage of this success, Harry Ricciardo purchased a plot of land in 1919, expanded the company, and officially changed its name to Ricardo Consulting Engineers Ltd in 1927.
In 1917, Harry's Cambridge university mentor, Bertram Hopkinson, then technical director of the RAF Department, invited him to join the military Aviation Department's new engine research institute, later the Royal Aeronautical Establishment. In 1918, Hopkinson was killed while flying a developed Bristol fighter, and Harry took over his position. One of his main research projects was on the issue of engine ignition advance angles, and he built a unique variable compression test engine, the E35 research engine, which was used to measure the highest available compression ratio (indicative knock threshold) to accurately analyze the combustion characteristics of the fuel.
The birth of this engine and subsequent research work established the fuel octane rating system we see today, as well as extensive research into octane-improved additives and refining systems. So, the next time you're at a gas station facing a 92 or 95 gas wrangling, don't forget to pay homage to Ricardo.
If you tell ricciardo's story at the previous rhythm, not to mention this company with countless achievements, the founder's life alone can sprinkle tens of thousands of words of dry goods. So, let's fast-forward to the well-known modern automotive industry and take a look at a few well-known and famous models.
The Bugatti Veyron 16.4 is the world's fastest, most powerful, most fuel-consuming and most expensive supercar, and was named the Best Car of the Decade (2000-2009) by top Gear of the Three Thieves era, with a super sport version with a top speed of 431.072 km/h.
The name VEYRON comes from Pierre Veyron, who once drove the Bugatti 57 to win the 1939 Liman laurel. The 16.4 stands for 16 cylinders and 4 turbochargers. The car is equipped with Volkswagen's 7993cc W-type 16-cylinder engine, which we can think of as a power beast that connects two V8 engines to the same crankshaft.
Veyron's maximum horsepower output is up to 1001 hp, and it can output 730N .m of torque at a very low 1000rpm, and burst out 1250N .m peak torque at 2200rpm. How can such a powerful power perfectly transmit power output to the tires? Struggling to solve this problem, Volkswagen eventually turned to Ricciardo to help them with Veyron's seven-speed dual-clutch transmission and full-time four-wheel drive system.
Bugatti Veyron's unprecedented power performance requires a higher level of system integration in the gearbox and engine management system to provide a shift response and transmission efficiency commensurate with power output. Ricciardo offered the car the most aggressive downshift strategy, shifting gears 50 percent faster than Volkswagen had originally demanded, and switching gears in 150 milliseconds, so fast that the driver himself was unable to detect it. All versions of the final Bugatti Veyron and subsequent chiron models were supplied by Ricardo's Leamington plant in the UK, including a gearbox assembly with electronic control units and software.
In addition to the Bugatti Veyron, the McLaren P1 also chose Ricardo for its engine development. The 3.8T M838TQ engine on the P1 hybrid electric motor is the product of a collaboration with Ricciardo, this 90-degree V8 twin-turbo engine was originally developed for the McLaren MP4-12C, the initial version of the power and torque reached 600 hp and 600 N .m, after the P1 combined with the electric motor to drive, the performance parameters were enhanced to 1000 hp and 1050 N .m. Not only that, but the M838T engine delivers 80% of the maximum torque output at 2000 rpm and continues until 8500 rpm. This engine uses the same dual-clutch transmission as the Bugatti Veyron we mentioned earlier, but McLaren and Ricciardo call it a twin-clutch Seamless Shift Gearbox. This transmission adds something called "Pre-Cog" between the two wet clutches, which is used to semi-link the next gear before changing gears to increase the speed of shifting.
Whether it is a gearbox or an engine, two world-famous supercars are enough to prove Ricardo's technical prowess in the field of engines. But in terms of vehicle engineering, it is more worth mentioning the British Foxhound armored vehicle (Foxhound). Developed jointly by Ricciardo and Force Protection Europe under the name Team Ocelot, the Foxhound took ricardo less than two years to build such a modern, highly maneuverable wheeled armored vehicle from the time the design was drawn up until full finalization.
It is a highly mobile wheeled armored vehicle specifically designed to meet the requirements of the UK Ministry of Defence's £200 million LPPV scheme to replace the military Land Rover. The British army's previous military version of the Land Rover Defender has been widely criticized for its inability to provide soldiers with protection against improvised explosive devices and roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Foxhound uses a diesel-powered Steyr M16-Monoblock 3.2-liter turbocharged six-cylinder engine, which is a 7.5-ton 4X4 light armored vehicle that can still reach a top speed of 112 km/h at a load of two tons, and can also be airlifted to the battlefield by C-17\C-130 or CH-47 Chinogan helicopters.
In order to cope with the impact of explosives such as mines, the Foxhound adopts a V-shaped body structure, which has better explosion protection than other vehicles of the same type and weight, and can still drive normally away from the battlefield even if a wheelset and suspension system are destroyed by explosive forces. At the same time, the armored vehicle has excellent maintenance efficiency, the replacement of important components such as the engine assembly takes only half an hour to complete, and the rear half of the hull adopts an interchangeable "pod" design, allowing the foxhound to quickly switch to a flat pickup, ambulance or reconnaissance vehicle state. Ricciardo's four-wheel steering system makes the turning radius less than 12 meters, so the lightness and flexibility ensure that the foxhound can travel freely in narrow alleys, tunnels, bridges and ravines.
Seeing this, we have been able to clearly understand that Ricardo is indeed a research and development company with world-class technical strength, especially in vehicle engineering technology and engine and transmission system tuning. Although both bugatti veyrons and foxhound armored vehicles may be difficult to reach or experience. But it doesn't matter, now we can at least get in touch with the same ricciardo design tuned motorcycle, the Sycoron RX6.
This flagship SUV, powered by Norton in the United Kingdom and designed by Ricciardo, is undoubtedly a new attempt made in China: with the help of international top design resources, including vehicle shape design, full frame development, engine tuning, electronic control system integration, riding texture tuning, etc., to create a truly international model.
Start from the source to align with the world, and also start from the source, and strive to learn to really build a good car. Such a car is worth experiencing for yourself...