Ricardo Motorsport HQ – Midlands Technical Centre (MTC) – Radford Road, Leamington Spa.
Ricardo PLC has operations worldwide with a technical centre in Leamington Spa.
A potted history of Ricardo:
Harry Ricardo was born at 13 Bedford Square in London on 26 January 1885 and was schooled at Rugby, and then studied at Cambridge Trinity College, but as a Civil Engineering student.
In 1904 he is now studying Mechanism and Applied Mechanics.
He has had an interest in the internal combustion engine from an early age, by the age of 17 he had produced his own engine to pump water at his family home.
In 1915 he now has a company “Engine Patents Ltd” and has designed a new reduced emission engine for the Mk V Tank. Over 8000 of these tank engines were produced for the military.
In 1919 he designed the cylinder head swirl chamber for petrol and diesel engines.
1927 he formed Ricardo Consulting Engineers in Shoreham-by-Sea, then became Ricardo PLC as it is today.
Harry Ferguson, also mentioned in Derek Gardner/Ken Tyrrell of Warwick, produced four-wheel-drive systems for F1 and the Jensen FF.
The Ferguson Company is then known as FF Developments (Ferguson Formula) and was bought by Ricardo in 1994.
Moving on, in 1980 one of the most innovations in motorsport was the Viscous Coupling pioneered by FF Developments and used in Group B rally cars and used on the Ford Sierra XR4 x 4 and Sapphire Cosworth.
Working with Jaguar/Land-Rover from 2011, Ricardo supported the development of the manual transmission and the four-wheel-drive models for the Jaguar F-type Sport Convertible and Coupe.
Motoring History of Leamington Spa & Warwick 