Spring 2003

New Horizons in JapanNew Horizons in JapanGroundbreaking co-operation agreement with HORIBA

Chrysler HEMI V8Ricardo helps reinterpret an engine legend for the 21st century

Mitsubishi Pajero EvolutionResounding victory in gruelling Dakar rally for works team – and Ricardo transmission

Racing DieselsThe astonishing 600bhp Ricardo V10 that could make Le Mans

R

Spring 2003 3Ricardo Quarterly Review

contentsSpring 2003

NEWS

Industry update 4Second-phase PSA/Ford diesels unveiled;Delphi bullish on solid oxide fuel cell; Fordrealigns its product development processes;GM and Ford co-operate on six-speedautomatic

Welcome to Japan 8Thanks to a ground-breaking co-operationagreement with leading test equipmentmaker HORIBA, Ricardo will soon have asubstantial presence in Japan. Tony Lewindiscusses the important new opportunitieswith Ricardo CEO Rodney Westhead

News from Ricardo 20Ricardo acquires leading embeddedsoftware specialist; transmission seminarspells out future trends; Ricardo developsengine front-end module for Gates

FEATURES

The HEMI® is back! 10Engines don’t come any more legendarythan Chrysler Group’s HEMI® – which iswhy Ricardo was selected to reinterpret thiseight-cylinder icon in the light of today’sautomotive environment. Jeremy Burnemeets the engineers

Desert dominator 14Mitsubishi’s Pajero Evolutions scored aresounding success on the gruelling Dakarrally – thanks in part to innovativetransmission systems developed andmanufactured by Ricardo. Jesse Crossereports

Diesel takes to the track 16A diesel car on the grid at Le Mans? It’s avery real possibility, says WilliamKimberley, now that Ricardo has begundevelopment of a V10 giving 600horsepower

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

Atsushi Horiba 6CEO of the leading Japanese testequipment specialist founded by his father,Atsushi Horiba is an idealist and visionarythinker – and has just concluded a historicaccord with Ricardo

Volker Barth 18Delphi’s new president of Europe, Africa and the Middle East takes over at aturbulent time for the automotivecomponents industry

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Head office: Ricardo plc, Bridge Works,Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex BN43 5FG, United KingdomTel: +44 (0)1273 455611

Conceived and produced for Ricardo by TwoTone Media LtdEditor: Tony LewinContributors: Lucie Brown, Jeremy Burne, Jesse Crosse,

William Kimberley, Ian Morton, Anthony Smith

Ricardo contacts and locations: www.ricardo.com/contactsRQ subscriptions: www.ricardo.com/rqSales enquiries: busdev@ricardo.com

TwoTone Media Ltd contacts:Anthony Smith AVSmith@2tmedia.comTony Lewin tonylewin@2tmedia.com

4 INDUSTRY NEWS Spring 2003Ricardo Quarterly Review

● in brief

Lexus goes to Japan

More than 13 years after thelaunch of the brand in the US,Toyota is to introduce itspremium Lexus nameplate tothe Japanese market. Untilnow, Lexus models haveappeared under the Toyotalabel in their home market.

GM to promote ethanol mix

General Motors is toencourage the use of E85ethanol fuel in order topersuade more filling stationsto offer the blend, which mixes85 per cent corn-derivedethanol with 15 per centgasoline. According to a reportin Automotive News, just 150outlets across the US currentlydispense E85.

Diesel engines to cost more

The advent of the 2007 USemission regulations willincrease the price differentialbetween gasoline and dieselengines, according to PatrickCharbonneau, chief technicalofficer of International Truckand Engine Corporation, whichbuilds the 6 litre PowerstrokeV8 diesel for Ford pickuptrucks. Quoted in AutomotiveNews, Charbonneau cited theneed for more sophisticatedinjection systems,turbochargers and electronicsas adding to the diesel pricepremium, which currentlystands at $4000.

Renault installs new modelin Russia

Following several years ofholding back due to marketuncertainties, Renault is toinvest in new productioncapability in Moscow to build afresh model for the Russianand Romanian markets. Thesedan model will replace theClio Symbol and will be basedon the new Nissan/Renault Bplatform, which alreadyunderpins the new Micra.Production will be 60,000 unitsfrom 2005 on; the Russianmarket currently stands at1.5m units and is expected togrow at 10 per cent per year.

PSA Peugeot Citroën and Fordannounce second range of dieselsPSA Peugeot Citroën and Ford have unveiledtwo additional series of state-of-the-art dieselengines. The new 1.6 and 2.0 litre common-railfour-cylinder units represent the second phasein the three-part diesel collaboration betweenthe two companies. The first phase saw theintroduction of the all-aluminium 1.4 litre unitsin 2001; the third phase will be a 2.7 litre V6for larger vehicles, due in 2004.

The newly-announced 1.6 litre unitsare developments of therecent 1.4. Available in90 and 110horsepowerversions, they have second-generation Boschcommon-rail fuelling, capable of delivering upto six injections per cycle at up to 1600 barinjection pressure. The engines weigh just120kg and will power more than 37 differentFord and PSA vehicle derivatives; certainversions will carry the PSA particulate filtersystem to achieve Euro IV emissions.

The larger 2.0 litre diesel is based on theexisting iron block, aluminium-head PSA HDi,and uses Siemens 1600-bar injection and six-hole nozzles, again capable of six injections

per cycle. The second of these injections helpsreduce combustion chamber temperatures andhence NOx emissions. With the emphasis ondriveability and torque rather than peak power,the 2.0 litre nevertheless produces 136horsepower – 25 per cent more than itspredecessor. This engine will be available fromlaunch with the particulate filter.

Both units will be produced at the PSATremery plant in eastern France.

Faster than expected progressin the development of its solidoxide fuel cells (SOFCs) hasprompted Delphi CEO JTBattenberg III to predict thatauxiliary power systemsrunning on this principle will bein general service within thenext few years.

Delphi's SOFC auxiliarypower unit (APU) will begenerating electricity formilitary applications,passenger cars, heavy-dutytrucks and homes sometimeduring the second half of thisdecade, said Battenberg.

"One of the key reasonswhy we've made great inroadsin developing this technology isbecause we have a strong,collaborative partnership withthe US government," headded. "We've greatlyaccelerated the developmentof a solid oxide fuel cellauxiliary power unit that's both

powerful and affordable. It's myhope that the auto industry, theBush administration andCongress are committed tokeep working together so wecan realise President Bush'svision sooner rather than later.”

In Europe, Delphi is co-operating with Renault andBMW to develop smallerSOFC units to supplement orreplace conventional vehiclebatteries. The second-generation SOFC auxiliarypower unit develops 5kW,weighs 70 kilograms andoccupies 44 litres. "Our newtechnology represents a 75 per

Delphi bullishon fuel cellAPUs

General Motors and Ford have confirmed detailsof their joint venture to develop and build high-volume six-speed automatic transmissions inNorth America. The new transmissions areexpected to offer fuel consumption savings of 4per cent over today’s four-speed automatics.

The agreement calls for the common design,development and testing of the new transmission,as well as the joint co-operation with suppliers todevelop and purchase components. Each

automaker will assemble transmissions at itsrespective manufacturing plants. The newtransmission will be available “mid to late decade”on front wheel drive and sport utility vehicles, sayFord and GM.

“This world-class six-speed transmission has asimple but elegant design that offers thecustomer enhanced performance at a verycompetitive cost,” said GM Powertrain group vicepresident Tom Stephens.

GM and Ford finalise transmission joint venture

New 1.6 PSA/Ford diesel has option of particulate filter to meet Euro IV

Spring 2003 INDUSTRY NEWS 5Ricardo Quarterly Review

The Japanese automotive industryrepresents around one third of the world’scapacity for design and development aswell as production. It is also a market inwhich we believe the demand forautomotive technology and engineeringservices is evolving rapidly. Recognisingthe need to serve our customers in amanner which is most convenient forthem, as well as sympathetic to theirlanguage and cultural identity, we havealready provided local representation and engineering activity in many parts of the world.It is timely, therefore, that we now turn ourattention to Japan and I was pleased tobe able to announce in January of thisyear the co-operation agreement thatRicardo has signed with HORIBA. This isa significant step forward in the servicethat we are able to provide and in thisissue of RQ we focus upon the strategyof both Ricardo and HORIBA, and thebenefits that the co-operation agreementwill provide to customers.

A message fromthe ChiefExecutive

cent reduction in mass andvolume over Delphi's first-generation unit, which makescommercial applications moreeconomically viable," saidRodney O'Neal, president,Delphi Dynamics, Propulsionand Thermal sector.

"The potential of thistechnology is enormous,"commented Guy C. Hachey,president, Delphi Energy andChassis Systems. "Onpassenger vehicles, it canpower a vehicle's heating,ventilation and air conditioningsystem, as well as otheraccessories, so a smaller

combustion engine can beused to propel it. For themilitary, the technology can beused to help power combatand security vehicles. On semi-trucks, it can be used to powerair conditioning, heater, TV,radio, computer and otherelectronic devices during thedrivers' rest periods to reducethe burning of diesel fuel,which will cut emissions.”

Developments in the field offuel cell engines as vehiclepropulsion systems paint amore mixed picture. FollowingPresident Bush’s pledge of$1.7 billion to boost fuel cell

and hydrogen research, agroup of US senators istabling proposals forsubstantial tax-breaks forbuyers of fuel cell vehicles. Anindustry consortium taking inDaimlerChrysler, Ford, Nissan,PSA Peugeot Citroën, Toyotaand several suppliers aredeveloping tanks capable ofstoring hydrogen at pressuresof up to 10,000 psi (700 bar).However, the cost of thedrivetrains is still likely to beover ten times that of agasoline equivalent, with$2000-worth of electronicsand $2300 in platinum.

“Fuel cells are far from beingan affordable alternative to theinternal combustion engine,noted Richard Okine, technicaldirector for DuPontFluoroproducts. He saidresearchers must improve fuelcell reliability and durability,increase power output, reducecomponent costs and developfactories to produce them.

Perhaps in response tothese pressures, PSA PeugeotCitroën is reported inAutomotive News Europe aslooking for a fuel celldevelopment partner, havingreduced its in-house work.

Ford is rethinking its North Americanproduct development processes in orderto speed up model lead times and reducethe number of platforms by a quarter.

Under the new organisation, Fordhopes to improve productivity by 10 percent and trim product development timesby 25 per cent. “By moving to moreflexible, common platforms, we will beable to introduce new, derivative productsat lower cost in the future – includingseveral all-new Ford, Lincoln and Mercuryproducts not yet announced,” thecompany said.

As a result of the moves Ford expectsto be able to step up the pace of newproduct introductions as well as improving

quality and saving on costs. The groupplans to launch 65 new Ford, Lincoln andMercury models in North America in thenext five years.

The reorganisation abandons the oldmarque-by-marque structure for productdevelopment. Instead, the process will besplit across four platform groups: smallFWD/RWD models, medium-largeFWD/AWD models, SUVs and body-on-frame models and, lastly, pickups andcommercial vehicles.

The new product development systemwill also build on the major investments inflexible manufacturing. The new DearbornTruck Plant will be able to produce ninemodels off three platforms, Ford said.

Ford reorganises to speeddevelopment times

Mustang concept could be one of theprogrammes to benefit from Ford’sdevelopment process realignment

6 ATSUSHI HORIBA Spring 2003Ricardo Quarterly Review

On the cover of your annual report and onyour website are subjects such as thewelfare of the planet, better society,exploring the future... Are these the mostimportant missions of HORIBA?This kind of mission is important in the way weoperate and manage our company. The reasonis that we are not only looking at making aprofit – we also need certain targets for societyand for our lives. Our business is very muchrelated to the environment.

Could you give us an idea of the sizes ofyour four main business divisions and theircontribution to group revenue?Our analytical instruments and systems divisionis about a third of our turnover, enginemeasurement systems just over a quarter and,in 2002, the semiconductor andmedical/diagnostic instrument businesses eachaccounted for just under 20 per cent of our totalsales.

Last year was a difficult one for thesemiconductor industry. Is this just acyclical downturn, or will there have to berestructuring? How is HORIBA dealing withthe situation?The silicon cycle is a consequence of the dot-com crash. So we expect that in 2003 we maysee some recovery. The automotive businessworks in a similar way: the policy of ourcompany is to lead by investing – our R&Dinvestment does not depend on the businesscycle. In the semiconductor industry, cycles areexacerbated by the lack of investment indownturn. We can emerge stronger than thecompetition by maintaining investment throughthe downturn.

Which of your four businesses has thegreatest long-term potential?All of them! Honestly speaking, we feelautomotive has such a high market share of theemissions business that it’s almost hitting theceiling. But because of the co-operation withRicardo and Schenck, we can break throughthat ceiling.

Which markets – both geographically and interms of products – will become important?Asia holds the key. China and India have veryhigh potential. In terms of size it’s still the US

and Europe that are the most significantmarkets for us – but growth comes from theemerging markets. Emerging nations are keento develop key markets and technologies –these offer good potential for the type ofproducts produced by HORIBA. In automotive,emissions and the environmental area have ahigh potential. Medical and semiconductorproducts do too – and in any emergingeconomy these are key industries.

Most Japanese companies consider itimportant to have their headquarters inTokyo. Why are you based in Kyoto?I like this question very much. Kyoto becamethe capital of Japan 1200 years ago. It is thecentre of Japanese culture; Tokyo is the centreof economics. Kyoto has several universities: itis a centre of academic excellence – 10 percent of Kyoto’s population are students. So wecan hire good, young potential engineers. TheKyoto spirit is that we care about quality morethan quantity. In Tokyo culture is just aboutnumbers and size. Other innovative, globalisedcompanies such as Nintendo, Kyocera andMurata have also chosen Kyoto as their HQ.

How can Japan solve its problem ofeconomic stagnation? How do HORIBA’spolicies differ from those of other majorJapanese companies?At the moment Japanese economy is not soactive. The reason is not our technology, northe people working in the companies – it’s thelack of leadership. Large companies’ topmanagement capabilities are not globalised.Leadership is key – the capabilities of thepeople are still very strong.

Does initiative need to come fromcompanies or from government ? Both. We have many good, young politicians –and even the Japanese banks are beginning to

change – the younger generation ofmanagement is slowly moving that way.

You have committed HORIBA to becoming a¥100 billion company by 2005. You havebusiness bases in 18 countries. What doyou regard as the most important means ofextending business globally? For the past few years our policy has been totry to improve the infrastructure of the company.We have made acquisitions to give us accessto new technologies, so we can now provideany kind of sensor/analyser technologyourselves for any application – semiconductor,automotive, medical. We are seeking to createthe infrastructure of a global company in termsof information systems and the training of keymanagers and personnel. Now the question ishow can we now use this infrastructure to reallycatch up in the market. We have now got rid ofour domestic sales trading company and dealdirectly with the customers ourselves. It’salready showing good results. In short, we areready to reach the ¥100 billion in sales.

Are you looking to move into other marketsby buying other companies?I might be interested in looking for anothercompany that offered a good sales network as Ithink that we already have a sufficiently capabletechnology base – and therefore I am lookinginto even stronger co-operation among thecurrent HORIBA Group companies. Ourautomotive sales network is good, but we couldimprove the medical network in the USA andthe scientific network in Europe.

Is HORIBA the world technology leader inall its four divisions? That’s a good question. We’re quite strong in allof them, and in sensor technology we areprobably number one. However, applicationsand sales is an area that we need tostrengthen. We can still make someimprovements in our marketing/sales capability.When we achieve this, we can be a realnumber one.

Turning now to the automotive sector, whicharea of your activities is receiving greatestinterest from your customers?It’s generally related to legislation in automotive.Currently, it’s fuel cell, NOx reduction techniques,

Man on a missionAs CEO of leading test instrumentation maker HORIBA, Atsushi Horiba believespassionately in the environment and society, as well as in technology and profits. TonyLewin asks what drives him, his company and the ground-breaking alliance with Ricardo

‘We expect more powertrainwork in the business, and weexpect a lot more interest indifferent types of fuels. Thenext ten years will be key as far as fuels are concerned’

Spring 2003 ATSUSHI HORIBA 7Ricardo Quarterly Review

particulate matter filtering, and hybrid cars –automakers are looking for new technologysolutions to meet these requirements. We areproviding instrumentation and sensor technologyin these new research areas.

Does the arrival of new legislation lead to anupsurge in orders?Generally speaking it may happen – but well inadvance of the legislation. Our customers needto invest ahead, so our business is influencedfour to five years in advance of new legislation.

Do you plan to enter other areas, forinstance crash testing sensors?The safety market is quite big, and we are quiteinterested. Although currently we do not haveour own direct expertise in these areas, we maybe able to provide new solutions in relatedapplication sectors such as our infrared sensors.

You have shown a system for on-boardvehicle emissions measurement duringrunning. Do you think there will be a trendtowards measuring real-life in-serviceemissions rather than just laboratorymeasurements?Yes, I think so. The market has wanted this typeof technology for perhaps 20-30 years – tomeasure emissions under actual conditions.Size and cost have limited this process to thechassis dyno in the past, but there is potential[for mobile systems].

Could you envisage a time when themotorist may be subject to police roadsidechecks of his environmental monitoringequipment?[Laughs] I think some high-emitting vehiclesshould be screened. But, seriously, screening isnot directly our business – we are just providersof the basic measurement technology.

How does HORIBA anticipate the advancedresearch needs of companies in fields suchas fuel-cell development? Are you able tobuild special equipment for particularclients?Yes. For fuel cells we have already developedsome instruments.

Do the extremely low emissions limits beingplanned in California and Europe pose

problems for measuring equipment?Yes – it’s when the levels in the ambient air arehigher than those in the emission gas. Youneed special equipment to measure this. Wealready have a state-of-the-art product, which isa super low emission analyser system. So wecan provide not only the instrumentation butalso the conditions for them [automakers] toresearch the new requirements for theirengines.

Will partnerships between companiesincrease in importance? What kinds ofcompanies would HORIBA considerpartnering with?With partnerships it is important that a goodalliance is achieved. Ricardo and HORIBA is agood case. Ricardo has good technology inengine analysis and development, and we arequite strong in emissions analysis – so it’s acombination that provides new fields for bothcompanies.

What is the outlook for the global autoindustry for the next decade?We expect more powertrain work in thebusiness, and we expect a lot more interest indifferent types of fuels. The next ten years willbe key as far as fuels are concerned.

What is your vision of HORIBA’s role withinthat industry?The basis of our role will be the same, but our approach to the markets must be different.For the past ten or twenty years we have been very technically oriented – we have been providing very technically advancedproducts. But now we want to become thecompany which really provides the solution to the customer. The alliances that we havebuilt up with Ricardo and Schenck are veryimportant to our global strategy, because these expanded relationships enable us to work closer with the customers in our expanded market. ■

‘We are not only looking atmaking a profit – we also need

certain targets for society and forour lives. Our business is very

much related to the environment’– Atsushi Horiba

8 RICARDO IN JAPAN Spring 2003Ricardo Quarterly Review

The effects of a decade’s economicstagnation on the Japanese auto industryhave been more profound than anyone

could have predicted. Domestic sales may befrustratingly static, but technological innovationhas never slowed down. One in three carsproduced worldwide still carries a Japanesebadge, and those brands are, if anything, evenmore prominent in the showrooms of the majorcar-buying nations.

Instead, it’s what is behind the brands thathas changed: the dramatic shift towardsoffshore manufacture and, more fundamentallystill, all but two of the major automakers comingunder the control or influence of big westernproducers. And Renault’s turnaround of Nissanhas triggered a top-to-bottom upheaval in theway OEMs deal with their suppliers.

This attitude shift is perhaps the mostsignificant of all, for it marks a public opening-upof a big Japanese player to the full competitivemight of the world’s automotive supply network.

That means that not only componentsproducers such as Delphi, TRW and Valeo, butalso companies like Ricardo, whose business isexpertise and intellectual property, also stand tobenefit from Japan’s growing openness towardsexternal suppliers.

Of course, notes Ricardo CEO Rodney

Westhead, Japanese automakers have neverbeen completely self-sufficient – and Ricardohas been doing business with them since the1960s. “However,” says Westhead, “it has neverbeen a significant part of our business. In verysimple terms Japan represents a third of theworld’s car capacity, for design and developmentas well as for manufacture. At Ricardo we’reprimarily interested in where cars are designedand developed — where they are manufacturedis less often a concern to us. Yes, we’ve done alittle bit of work with the Japanese for a longwhile, but they could be a third of our totalworkload.”

Given that Ricardo has been very successfulin winning business with carmakers in bothEurope and the US, is it simply a question ofJapanese industry being difficult to penetrate? Inwhich case, could the existing goodrelationships which Ricardo enjoys with GM,DaimlerChrysler, Ford and Renault offer a handyback-door entrée to the Japanese companiesthey are linked with?

In answer to the first point, Westhead iscandid in admitting that Ricardo has never beenable to put the same amount of effort intopushing into Japan as it has done with Europeand the United States.

“It is absolutely logical that Europe should

have been first and the US second,” he says.“But looking into the future, ten years out, Japanshould be a very serious part of our business..”

“Have we got any entrées via our Westerncustomers?,” he asks rhetorically. “Mazdathrough Ford? – not really, not yet. Nissan? – wehave been introduced to Nissan through Renaultand we may make some progress there.Mitsubishi with its relationship withDaimlerChrysler? – we have made our ownrelationships. Subaru via GM? – no, we madeour own relationships there, too.”

“It is interesting that while we have contactwith all of these companies in the UK andEurope, and we have done very small bits ofwork for them commissioned by their UK andEuropean businesses, any work of anysignificance has always been commissioneddirectly from Japan,” continues the RicardoCEO. “The companies do not have big budgetsto spend in Europe on original development.They have some budget to spend on sorting avehicle for European use but essentially all thedevelopment work takes place in Japan, all thebudgets are controlled in Japan and we have togo and sell directly in Japan.”

The answer: set up in JapanTo Westhead and his fellow board members the

How it will work● Based in Kyoto, Japan● Initial team of 10-12, mainly

Japanese, targetted to expand to critical mass of 50-100

● Hand-in-glove operation with the customer

● Using HORIBA test facilities in Kyoto● Covers engineering and development

programmes and technical service agreements

● Does not cover software sales or support

● Ricardo corporate presence in sales office within Tokyo HORIBA sales operation

● Advantage of ready-made HORIBA contacts infrastructure

Thanks to a groundbreaking co-operation agreement with leading testequipment maker HORIBA, Ricardo will soon have a significant presencein Japan. Tony Lewin asks Ricardo CEO Rodney Westhead about thebackground to the accord – and about the challenges of doing business inthe country responsible for one in three cars worldwide

Welcome to Japan

Spring 2003 RICARDO IN JAPAN 9Ricardo Quarterly Review

answer was abundantly clear. For Ricardo togrow its Japanese business significantly therewas no alternative but to bite the bullet, set up ahigh level presence in Japan and pitch directlyinto the principal automakers not as a foreignagency but as a proper Japanese organisation,staffed by Japanese engineers, familiar withJapanese business practices and able to relateon the appropriate level to all tiers of managersin the Japanese corporations.

“There is definitely a language issue,”explains Westhead. “You need Japanese.There’s a cultural issue, too, and you really doneed to be part of it.”

For any company it would be a daunting taskto set up a Japanese subsidiary from scratch,but fortunately, thanks to a link in an establishedUK-based joint venture, Ricardo had an idealpartner in the shape of Kyoto-headquarteredHORIBA, the world renowned manufacturer ofscientific, medical and industrial test equipment.HORIBA would offer expert knowledge of the

Japanese market and high-level access to keypersonnel in the top companies, while Ricardowould be able to expand HORIBA’s network ofcontacts outside Japan and assist the Japanesefirm in expanding into the field of technicalconsultancy.

Accordingly, the two companies announcedearlier this year that they had signed anexclusive agreement of co-operation, to worktogether but to maintain their independence andoperate under conditions of completeconfidentiality in all business matters withJapanese customers.

“The agreement we have at the momentcovers co-operation,” says Westhead. “Lookingto the future, we wish to extend our businessmore fully into Japan and HORIBA wishes toexamine the potential for extending its businessbeyond the test equipment market – andHORIBA is also interested in providing aconsultancy service. So we can help HORIBAlearn about consulting and HORIBA can help uslearn about Japan. They provide the Japaneseelement and we provide the consultingelement.”

There can be no doubting, either, that thehighly respected name of HORIBA does helpopen doors within Japanese industry. “HORIBAis as well known for its test equipment as we arefor our automotive consultancy,” says Westhead.“We lack a Japanese dimension, but the carcompanies in Japan all know HORIBA as athrough-and-through professional Japanesecompany.”

However, given that the top Japanesecarmakers pride themselves on beinginnovative, independent and self-sufficient, willeven a high-level recommendation fromHORIBA be enough to persuade engineers andplanners to change the habits of a lifetime andwelcome in partners from the outside? Andgiven that Japanese companies are technologyleaders in so many disciplines, particularly thosecentred around engine design, what do theyhave to gain by bringing in an externalconsultancy?

Top technology on offer“Take Toyota,” suggests Westhead. “They haveabsolutely every one of the tools needed todesign some of the world’s finest cars. But weas outsiders can bring fresh eyes to it; we canbring additional resource at a time when there ismore and more demand. The thing that sellscars is new models, so the whole world isstriving to bring out new models and there is abig pressure on resource. And one of the thingsthat the Japanese do lack is the same level ofdiesel capability as they’ve got in gasoline.Europe, after all, is fast approaching 50/50diesel/gasoline.”

So is diesel the prime pick from the Ricardotoolbox of technologies? Is it the weapon withwhich Ricardo will make its inroads into – andindeed, some would say, even create – theJapanese market for engineering consultancy?

“As far as Toyota and Honda are concerned,my view is that we should offer them the verybest of our best technology,” says Westhead.“They have some absolutely superb technologythemselves, but we can still generate and offerthem nuggets of capability that they value andare willing to buy.

“As for diesel, we are offering it and it is beingpurchased – but we are also offering and sellinggasoline skills. We sell a lot of software intoJapan and I think that the appetite for oursoftware, together with the appetite for ourtechnical service agreements, are the twobiggest areas – and again they are buying sheercapability. We have software that is better thananybody else’s – they buy it. Our technicalservice agreements expose them to the verybest of our technical capability – they buy it.”

A particularly big Ricardo research push hasbeen mild hybrids, culminating in thepresentation of the i-MoGen concept lastautumn. i-MoGen was immensely well receivedin Japan, according to Westhead. “Honda,Toyota and Isuzu absolutely laid out the redcarpet for us so that they could see the car,drive the car and really appreciated us taking itthere and were extremely interested in what wehad got to offer.

“Some of the controls and the electronics thatwe deployed in i-MoGen are ahead of anythingelse in the market — they were absolutelyinterested in that.” Already, there are signs ofinterest from top Japanese engineers. Yes, themove towards outsourcing development to

outside partners represents a big cultural shift –but it has been an even bigger cultural movethat has seen Mitsubishi, Mazda, Subaru et altaking Western partners and Nissan turning itsentire operation inside out. On a more historicallevel, Japanese industry is well accustomed tochanging gear – as it did when it began settingup transplant manufacturing operations abroadin the 1980s and 1990s. The door to co-operation is clearly ajar, if not yet wide open –and in such a globally competitive time no carcompany can afford not to respect the state-of-the-art technical thinking that engineeringconsultancies can offer.

“The Japanese are superb engineers,”observes Westhead, “and as long as we candemonstrate to them that we have some superbengineering qualities, too, we can gain theirengineering respect. But we have to be as goodas them to earn that respect.” ■

Principal opportunities● Control and electronics● Mild hybrids● Supervisor control● Simulation and modelling● Light duty diesel● Transmissions, especially AMTs● Motorsports● Vehicle engineering● Programme management

Software● Not covered under co-operation

agreement● Sales, distribution and support continue to

be handled by Sumisho Electronics Co Ltd

‘Japanese companies havesome absolutely superbtechnology, but we can stillgenerate and offer themnuggets of capability that theyvalue and are willing to buy’

The HEMI®. Mere mention of the word issufficient to launch certain Americanmuscle car enthusiasts into lengthy and

ecstatic diatribes on the virtues of thisparticular engine configuration, as well as thevariety of legendary cars of the Fifties andSixties that were HEMI® powered.

The HEMI® started life back in 1951. Therewere three HEMI® engines being produced inthe Fifties that were all unique – built atdifferent plants for different vehicle lines, onlyto disappear around 1958. Then in 1964 camethe 426 – which dominated the NASCAR racecircuit. In 1966, a version of this engine wasoffered to the public in Dodge Challengers andother Chrysler muscle cars. That HEMI®

engine mystique was born in the burnt rubberof such beloved cars as the Barracuda, theCharger and the Challenger.

But the old HEMI® died out with the musclecars of the Sixties. That is until the ChryslerGroup revived this particular enginearchitecture in a new V8 designed to power itsDodge Ram pickup trucks. A team fromRicardo was heavily involved in theprogramme from the early stages indevelopment through to production, and iscontinuing to provide ongoing support as theprogramme fully ramps up and moves on toother applications.

The 5.7-litre HEMI® Magnum V8 wasunveiled at the 2002 Chicago Auto Show to anenthusiastic response, and not just from thosesuffering from acute Sixties muscle car

nostalgia. Chrysler Group presented acontemporary engine packed with technologythat was designed and manufactured usingthe best available engineering resources, whiledoing justice to the legendary status of itsforebears. The 5.7-litre V8 HEMI® is the mostpowerful engine offered on a mass-producedlight-duty pickup truck, offering 345hp and 375lb-ft (508Nm) torque. The engine is 10 percent more fuel-efficient and 27kg lighter inweight than its 5.9-litre predecessor.

Bringing this engine programme to fruitionrequired a new approach – one that had toovercome numerous management andengineering challenges. Bob Lee, Director ofRear Wheel Drive Engine Engineering at theChrysler Group, was the programme leaderand remembers how the decision was made to

go with the HEMI® architecture: “We set aboutdoing some studies looking into how best toreplace the 5.9-litre. After benchmarking alarge number of engines for air-flow dynamics,we ended up homing in on the HEMI®

architecture for its excellent air-flow, power andeconomy.

The requirement for more power in thetrucks was growing and so was theperformance market. Also, the need foremissions reductions was very much on thehorizon – so we tried to balance all of thosefactors, including building in flexibility for futureproducts and cost control. The HEMI® is whatemerged as the best balance of all thosefactors.” Bob also reflected that thearchitecture of the engine was chosen forthese technical reasons – the concept to

A legendreborn

10 HEMI® V8 Spring 2003Ricardo Quarterly Review

No engine enjoys greater iconic status among US autoenthusiasts than the Chrysler HEMI®, its reputation forged in theburnt rubber of ’60s muscle cars such as the Charger andChallenger. So when Chrysler Group decided to revive the conceptfor today’s buyers, it turned to Ricardo to develop a new HEMI®

generation with the same mystique but more power and loweremissions. The result, as Jeremy Burne reports, is a skilfulreinterpretation of the legend that has already won rave reviews and a place in Ward’s Top Ten

‘It became obvious to methat hiring someone likeRicardo to be our partner isreally good for both of us.And getting those folks onsite and getting themintegrated into the team, thatreally gave us a combinedresource approach.’– Bob Lee, Chrysler Group

market it as the return of the HEMI® didn’tdevelop until much after the engineprogramme was under way.

Creating the HEMI® teamOnce the concept was agreed, the realchallenges emerged. The engineering teamsat Chrysler Group were already very busy withtwo other brand new engine programmes. Thismeant that there was not a lot of spareresource within the company to dedicate to theHEMI®’s development. Bob Lee: “The very firstthing that hit us was that we were alreadyworking on two other new engineprogrammes, and to add a third before we hadfinished the other two was quite a challenge interms of resources and skill sets. And that’swhere Ricardo came in. It became obvious tome that hiring someone like Ricardo to be ourpartner was really good for both of us. Andgetting those folks on site and getting themintegrated into the team really gave us acombined resource approach.”

Bob Lee was confident Ricardo coulddeliver the necessary expertise – he hadalready had personal experience with thecompany. “I had worked with Ricardo in theearly ‘90s on a 3.5-litre four-valve engine. Atthe time we didn’t have a lot of experiencewith four valves and so we went out to Ricardoand spent a good deal of time with themworking on flow characteristics, ports andchambers, really trying to make sure we hadthe right combustion elements in place.

Ricardo wasn’t an unknown factor and wasgenerally known around here as a capablecompany that we could do things with.”

Chris Talwar, director of BusinessDevelopment at Ricardo, Inc., recalls receivingthe initial remit: “The concept for theprogramme was (for the Chrysler Group) toidentify an engineering partner to provideknowledgeable engineering personnel for theduration of the programme through to the

product launch. The professionals were toinclude product engineers, designers and CAEengineers. Given that their newly proposedlong-range product plan for the V8s imposed avery substantial increase in workload for theengineering group – and that they had anumber of other significant programmes going– they were looking for a complementaryresource. They wanted to establish an off-sitefacility close by that would link people into theirsystems while leveraging a company whosetools and techniques they could learn from.They needed product engineers with high-levelskills in critical areas to tackle the very

challenging valvetrain. At the same time therewas a business case and profitability issuethat needed to be resolved.” Ultimately,Ricardo ended up providing a multi-skilledteam of product engineers, CAE engineersand engine designers.

Co-locating the teamPart of the programme’s ultimate success wasattributable to the co-location of all the teammembers in a dedicated facility in RochesterHills, Michigan. Bringing together people fromthe Chrysler Group, Ricardo and varioussuppliers into a dedicated facility was partlythe result of lack of available space at theChrysler Group’s engineering centres toaccommodate the 50 or so people for theprogramme. But it was also Bob Lee’s desireto reap the benefits of having the differentengineering disciplines under one roof: “I amso thankful that we had an off-site locationbecause of the synergy between product andprocess. The manufacturing guy is sitting nextto you and you are talking about something,maybe over lunch, and it was very natural tosay ‘tell me about that process again’ – so Ithink that the synergy was just exceptional.”

There was also an interesting cultural blend,not just nationalities but corporate cultures thatneeded to work together. At any one time therewere 15 or 20 people from Mexico in thebuilding, prompting some team members tolearn some Spanish. Bob Lee and the Ricardoteam leaders put a lot of effort into selecting

Engine geometry

● Configuration: Internally balanced 90o

V8● Displacement: 5654cc● Bore: 99.5mm● Stroke: 90.9mm● Compression ratio: 9.6:1● Bore spacing: 113.3mm● Bank offset: 22.4mm● Block length: 532.0mm● Block deck height: 235.0mm● Connecting rod length: 158.5mm● Piston compression height: 31.0mm● Rod length/crank radius: 3.49● Intake valve diameter: 50.8mm● Exhaust valve diameter: 39.4mm● Included valve angle: 34.5o

● Combustion chamber volume: 84.9cc● Intake valve lift: 12.0mm● Exhaust valve lift: 11.7mm● Mass: 242Kg

Spring 2003 HEMI® V8 11Ricardo Quarterly Review

Functional specification

● Maximum power: 345hp● Maximum torque: 508Nm● Torque @ 1200rev/min: 412Nm● Firing order: 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2● Maximum speed: 5800 rev/min● Minimum idle speed: 500 rev/min● Oil type: 5W30● 95th percentile demonstrated life: 241,395km

Design features

● Block: Cast iron (deep skirt)● Cylinder heads: Aluminium● Valves per cylinder: 2● Spark plugs per cylinder: 2● Combustion system type: HEMI®

● Valvetrain: Pushrod (OHV)

The 5.7-litre V8 HEMI® is themost powerful engineoffered on a mass-producedlight-duty pickup truck,developing 345 horsepower

12 HEMI® V8 Spring 2003Ricardo Quarterly Review

people with complementary skill sets andmaking sure the pieces fitted together. TheRicardo CAE team even included an engineerfrom AVL, one of Ricardo’s competitors, whoworked effectively as part of the group. BobLee had some misgivings about this – “I justthought that people would be insular andprotective and maybe it started that way butafter a month or two that broke down and Idon’t think anybody knew, or cared, whoanybody was – you just knew what they didand it worked out really well.”

Chris Talwar also liked the arrangement:“This was the first programme we reallyworked like this. The Ricardo culture was to dothis with teams in Europe, but this was the firsttime we put a big programme team out on sitein North America. I think the industry hasrecognized that co-locating the keystakeholders and integrating different culturesallows you to have a ‘go-fast’ team. The wholeteam is focused on the engineeringprogramme – the product, the timescales, thetechnical achievement.”

Mick Winship, Ricardo, Inc’s manager ofSimulation and Analysis, was the Ricardoteam leader: “You get down to some of thebasics of how teams work – everybody’s inthe same facility, they understand what theobjectives are. People attend the weeklyreview meetings so communication is good –and it’s a lot easier to walk over to the guy inan office ten feet away and work through aproblem rather than emailing to somebodytwenty-five miles down the road.”

Chris Talwar knew that simply having good

engineers on theteam was not enough: “Thekey thing for the team was to operate on agroup information and decision making basis.We had two meetings a week including aboard review where all the subsystems cametogether, and all the important stakeholderswere co-located, right from the outset — theservice guy, the assembly guy, themanufacturing guy, the valvetrain guy and theperformance guy were all in the room. If

anything changed they could jump up and say“wait: that’s going to affect my system” or justask “how does this affect my system?” Oneimportant thing was that the people we wereputting onto the team had to have very stronginterpersonal skills. There was a joint interviewprocess for establishing that.”

Mick Winship also felt there was value in aco-located team, particularly in terms ofmarrying product and process: “We hadsystems engineering meetings where you hadproduct and processes being thought out atthe same time. Then you’ve got advancedquality planning meetings where you dosimilar things, integrating the suppliers into themeetings to make sure you are covering all thebases together. The fact that this was not onlya new engine but also a new manufacturingfacility meant that more than ever you had tohave good integration between the productand the process.

Tackling the HEMI®’s technical challengesThere are two aspects that make a HEMI®

unique: the valves are located on a line that’sperpendicular to firstly, the crankshaft centreline so they are diametrically opposed to eachother – and, in conjunction with the secondhallmark, the hemispherical chamber, is whatmost people think of as a HEMI®. The HEMI®

layout gravitated to a high-located camshaft inthe center of the V – and that represented adesign challenge. Chris Talwar: “For stiffness,the pushrods were very short and fairly

‘You get down to some of the basics ofhow teams work – everybody’s in thesame facility, they understand what theobjectives are.’– Mick Winship, Ricardo

Dodge Ram pickuptruck: first to receive

new HEMI® power

‘It was wonderful having aconsultancy like Ricardo onboard – we obviously hadthe benefit of having somevery skilled people’- Bob Lee, Chrysler Group

Spring 2003 HEMI® V8 13Ricardo Quarterly Review

horizontal – they splayed out to each bank andthen you had the rocker system where youneeded to cross over the engine to operatethe valves on the other side. We put a lot ofwork into getting them right – minimum mass,maximum stiffness – so that you could openthe valves as quickly as possible withoutcausing instabilities. Thermal systems wereanother key area that they needed people for.We had somebody do the front cover, thewaterpump, the thermostat and the coolingsystem interface.”

There were also specific issues with cambore distortion and challenges with NVH thataffected how the team solved problems whiletrying to meet the targets. Extensive simulationand analysis helped. Mick Winship: “With oursimulation hat on we made some bigcontributions to how the head clamped to theblock – there was a significant amount ofpredictive engineering work to try and solveNVH problems on the front end accessorydrive. The objective was to try and have thisthing directly mounted so it was an integratedsystem without brackets and stiffening ribs.”

Valvetrain dynamics were also a key issue –the need for high engine speeds was a

technical challenge for the engineering team.They needed to get performance through highrunning speeds, good breathing and good idlequality. That meant optimisation over the fulloperating range. The Chrysler Group teamwanted to emphasise that this was an all-new,high tech engine, not a throwback design.

Chris Talwar noted: “We didn’t want the designto look agricultural, so we also had to putsome styling into the valvetrain’s appearance.We used optimisation techniques tostrategically lighten and stiffen the rockerelements so now when people look at thevalvetrain they think ‘well I know it’s a two-valve pushrod engine but wow! It looks sexy!’– and it works at high speed.”

Customer SatisfactionNow that the HEMI® programme is

rolling, Bob Lee can look back at theaccomplishment. The positive reviews of theengine validate the success of his team’sapproach. “First of all it was just wonderfulhaving a consultancy like Ricardo on board –we obviously had the benefit of having somevery skilled people. There was this hiddencapacity that we had: when you wanted toask a question that went beyond the walls ofour site you could call up Ricardo inShoreham and get input from another 18 or20 people in just a matter of a few hours or afew days at most. So there was thiswonderful capacity to ask some questionsthat we probably wouldn’t have askedpreviously because we couldn’t haveanswered them – [with Ricardo] we couldhave those discussions and get a credibleanswer and have confidence in it. The CAEfolks were very skilled – the designengineers, some of whom are still here,were all well acquainted with engines andhad worked on many in the past – not justour engines but many others as well. We had a cross-pollination synergy going thatwas almost like a continuous benchmarking process.”

With the engine’s built-in design flexibility,RQ readers can expect to see this engineappear in a variety of future Chrysler Groupproducts, especially those that requiresignificant horsepower and express thatlegendary “Detroit muscle.” ■

Simply having goodengineers on the teamwasn’t enough: the keything for the team was tooperate on a groupdecision-making basis

‘This was the first time we put a big programmeteam out on site in North America. Theindustry has recognized that integrating

different cultures allows you to have a go-fast team.

– Chris Talwar, Ricardo

14 DAKAR RALLY Spring 2003Ricardo Quarterly Review

Desert dominator

The Dakar Rally is one of the mostgruelling tests of automotive enduranceyet devised. This year’s event covered

8,576km of roads, rocks and desert fromMarseilles to Sharm el Sheikh, passingthrough France, Spain, Tunisia, Libya andfinally, Egypt. Seventeen separate legs in total,during many of which the teams compete andwork in the most basic conditions, withtemperatures soaring during the day and,throughout the North African nights, fallingalmost to zero.

To win for the eighth time with one of twoPajero (Montero in some markets) Evolutioncars entered in the event was therefore aparticular triumph for the ENEOS MitsubishiRalliart team and its crew, Hiroshi Masuokaand Andreas Schulz. Even better, in secondposition were team members Jean-PierreFontenay and Gilles Picard in their classicPajero. The second, ATS-sponsored, PajeroEvolution driven by Stéphane Peterhansel andJean-Paul Cottret finished in third place, whilethe fourth works car, the classic Pajero of MikiBiasion and Tiziano Siviero, finished in 15thplace.

A great result for Mitsubishi, then, but theevent also signified a moment of triumph forone of the Mitsubishi team’s latest technologypartners, Ricardo, called in to develop a new,six-speed sequential transmission for the twoPajero Evolutions.

Audi’s Le Mans hat trick in 2000, 2001 and2002 with the formidable R8R ‘roadsters’ wasalso enjoyed in equal measure by Ricardo,which supplied the robust transmissions.Ricardo’s achievement clearly did not escapethe watchful eye of Mitsubishi, whose successin the field of off-road motorsports depends toa large extent on successful manipulation ofultra-reliable technologies.

Although the demands of the 24 hours ofLe Mans and 19 days of the Dakar Rally are,on the face of it, quite different, the physicaldemands on a transmission are not thatdissimilar. The Le Mans transmission, with adesign capacity of 750Nm, would be subjectedto a similar duty cycle to that of the DakarRally transmission, which is called upon totransmit far less power.

The Ricardo design team, headed by chieftransmission designer, Tim Gee, who alsopenned the Audi R8R transmission, turned thePajero’s six-speed transmission around inrecord time. Work began in March 2002 butgearboxes were installed and undergoingtesting soon afterwards in August. Mitsubishiand Ricardo engineers communicated easilyfrom the start, the factory team supplyingRicardo with CAD models showing the positionand details of the interfaces between drivetrainand gearbox, and also the packaging space.Given those basic parameters, the new andcomplex gearbox was designed and built fromscratch in just five months.

Even by Le Mans standards, however, thePajero Evolution required something quite outof the ordinary, and the Ricardo engineersfound themselves incorporating some unusualfeatures. One such was the power take-off topower a compressor. Dakar teams areconstantly adjusting tyre pressures to copewith the wild surface conditions which theyencounter. Hard, rocky surfaces and higherpressures at one moment give way to softsand and ultra-low pressures at the next. Thebetter equipped Dakar cars have integratedtyre pressure control systems fed bycompressed air tanks. But tanks run out -hence the idea of installing the compressor.The transmission PTO drives the compressorwhile the Pajero is flying over sand dunes, or ifa high volume of air is needed quickly, whilethe vehicle is stationary with the enginerunning at higher revs in neutral. Either way,the result is an endless supply of air whateverthe circumstances.

Eric Leclerc is a fairly recent recruit atRicardo, having joined in July 2002. A veteranof WRC transmissions working for both theFord and Peugeot WRC teams in the past,Eric was to provide invaluable support to thePajero teams in the event, looking after andmaintaining the new six-speed gearboxesin the most arduous conditions. Ericremembers how well the compressorserved the winning car on oneoccasion, following a severe puncture.By keeping the compressor engagedthroughout the stage, the crew was

able to keep the damaged tyre inflatedsufficiently to remain competitive long after theauxiliary air tank had run out.

The transmission also has a high/low rangeselect, explains project manager, RichardGregory. “It’s an interesting thing to add intothe gearbox, although the regulations don’tallow it to be used during the event because itwould effectively give you 12 gears. It does,however, mean you can effectively evaluatetwo different sets of ratios during testing,without changing the gearbox. In addition tothat, the transmission has a differential lock soif you get stuck in a dune you can lock thecentre differential.”

Flawless performanceAnother crucial feature of the Ricardotransmission, says Gregory, is a torque limitingdevice to protect the driveline in the mostpunishing circumstances, like for example,during landings from the myriad of airbornemoments the Pajero encounters during theevent. Details are understandably secret, butthe role of the device is to absorb the hugeinertia carried in the spinning drivetrain duringsudden deceleration caused by large rocks orsoft sand. The team believes this to be the firsttime such a device has been used: almostcertainly, it played a part in the transmission’sflawless performance throughout the event.

Also playing a major part in thatperformance was Leclerc. It is not the Ricardostyle to deliver a component to thecustomer and then step back,according to business

Mitsubishi’s rally team went straight to Ricardo whenit needed a transmission for the gruelling Dakar rally.The reward, as Jesse Crosse reports, was amemorable victory for Pajero Evolution drivers HiroshiMasuoka and Andreas Schultz

Spring 2003 DAKAR RALLY 15Ricardo Quarterly Review

manager Rob Simmons. “It’s essential to dothe best possible job we can and that’s whyEric’s services were offered to the team.”

The approach was one of preventativemaintenance throughout the 19 days,reflecting the policy of the Mitsubishi team andensuring the trouble-free service delivered bythe transmission during the event. It was farfrom an easy ride for Eric. Because of thelimited space available, he was required towork on all aspects of the vehicle when notinspecting the six-speed gearboxes - so therewas little chance to rest.

Most of the work was done at night and Ericsoon discovered that the rudimentary working

conditions were in stark contrast to

the clinical cleanliness of one of Ricardo’sassembly shops. Of course, as a veteran ofthe World Rally Championship he is nostranger to difficult conditions, and it was awhole lot colder servicing a gearbox in Finlandthan it was in the desert where thetemperature at night at least managed toremain above zero.

No, Eric’s biggest enemy was dust, thedense cloying kind - more like cement.Working on a transmission on the back of apickup proved impossible so Eric took toworking inside a tent erected inside anothertent to keep the dust away. His only cleaningapparatus was brake cleaning spray andendless rolls of paper towelling. “I have neverexperienced such extreme working conditions,”said Eric who had found the ‘warm-up’ event inDubai almost luxurious by comparison – atleast there were some toilet facilities at resthalts where team members could clean up. Onthe Dakar there is nothing and the discomfort

is acute.

Lack of sleep did not help. “The only realopportunity for sleep was between 2am and5.30am because the bike teams worked verylate and left early,” recalls Eric. Backup teamstravelled for six or seven hours between stopsand there was some chance of rest en-route.But being crammed into the back of a servicevehicle clad in helmet and overalls, with a rollcage for a bedfellow, is not particularlyconducive to rest. The longest leg was 800km and in some cases the rally car wouldbe waiting at the other end; in others, the team would await its arrival, ready to start work immediately.

However, the end result was a resoundingsuccess as we now know, and Mitsubishi SportDirector Dominique Serieys was delighted. “Iam really very happy,” he told RQ, “and thetransmission was everything I expected it tobe.” Serieys was particularly impressedbecause, although it is a six-speed sequential,the transmission is quite different to moreconventional race or rally gearboxes. “There isno electronic control, but the drivers had noproblem in getting used to the shift mechanism.We will continue to use this transmission onfuture events,” he said. The main job of theSports Director, added Serieys, is to ensureeverything remains under control, so beingable to rely on a technology partner for suchan important aspect of the vehicle is crucial.

Achieving major tasks in dauntingly shorttimescales is part and parcel of any worldclass motorsport project, and the MitsubishiSports Director says he never doubtedRicardo would deliver the right result on time.Now the team is looking forward to the nexttime and hopes for a ninth win – with a littlehelp from Ricardo of course. ■

Jesse Crosse is editor of AutomotivePowertrain Analyst

The winning Mitsubishi drivers Matsuoka and Schultz (above); conditions were arduous, with engineer Leclerc (right) having toservice transmissions in a tent within another tent to keep sandstorms out

16 DIESEL RACE ENGINES Spring 2003Ricardo Quarterly Review

Diesel takes to the track

Ricardo is no stranger to motorsport – using Ricardotransmissions, Audi has dominated both the Le Mans24 Hour race and the associated American Le Mans

Series for the last three years, while Mitsubishi PajeroEvolutions equipped with Ricardo transmissions came first andthird in this year’s gruelling Dakar rally. Ricardo software isused in Formula One and the company has providedengineering support to teams and suppliers in the three USseries CART, IRL and NASCAR. However, it is now embarkingon a new venture that could turn out to be truly trailblazing.

While diesel engine technology – due in large part toRicardo – has leapt forward in recent years to the extent thatthe diesel share of new car sales is growing exponentially inEurope each year, there are still pockets of resistance inaccepting it. To counter this, and to promote energy efficientinitiatives, different bodies and organisations have put forwardvarious schemes to try and promote alternative powertrainstrategies. The Motorsport Industry Association (MIA), forexample, is responsible for a UK government-funded study, inwhich Ricardo is an active participant, to establish if there is arole for motorsport in the development of energy-efficientautomotive technology and whether energy-efficientmotorsport could be entertaining for the public.

“Our objective with EEMS (energy-efficient motorsport) is to demonstrate to a wider audience that there is theexperience in the motorsport industry to develop energy-efficient solutions and that it has a platform to promote it,”says Chris Aylett, the MIA’s chief executive. “It’s important,though, that it is driven by customer – OEM – demand on a given budget and timescale.”

This initiative has been given a major boost by theAutomobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO), the organising body of the

Le Mans 24 Hour race, which has issued new regulations thatcome into effect next year allowing diesel-engined cars tocompete. This has led Ricardo to investigate the viability ofproducing just such an engine.

While such a concept almost sounds a contradiction interms, it is not new. Between 1949 and 1951, for example,Jean and Jacques Delettrez competed in the French 24-hourrace in their Delettrez Diesel Special. Unfortunately, they failedto finish on each occasion, either through running out of fuelor engine problems. However, in more recent times a BMW320d won the Nürburgring 24 Hours in 1998, the first diesel-powered touring car to win an event of this kind, whileVolkswagen developed a diesel-engined car for motorsport.Golf TDIs have been competing in various European ralliessince 1999, achieving success that year by winning theinaugural Diesel Cup in the British Rally Championship.

Under the watchful eyes of Dave Morrison, businessmanager motorsport, Matt Beasley, chief engineer dieselproduct group, and Steve Sapsford, technical manager forracing engines, the Ricardo racing diesel programme hascome into being with a view to possibly competing at Le Mans,perhaps even as early as next year.

“The idea evolved out of the MIA’s energy-efficient initiativeand the ACO’s decision to allow diesel engines to compete inthe 24 Hours of Le Mans as from 2004,” says Morrison, “notin a special diesel category, but in the LMP900 class fromwhich the winners usually emerge. This is because the ACO istargeting the top level of endurance racing from the start.” Theimportant thing, though, has been to get the balance rightbecause the last thing the Club wants is for the diesel-enginedcars to be either struggling at the back of the field ordisappearing off into the horizon.

Benchmark: the winning AudiThe obvious benchmark for power output and maximum torquewas Audi’s twin-turbo FSI engine that powered the Le Mans-winning Audi R8 in 2001 and 2002. In answer to its 610 bhp and700 Nm of torque, Ricardo’s development 5.0 litre V10 dieselconcept engine is expected to produce around 600 bhp and amassive 1,400 Nm of torque. “It will be a substantial structure,”says Sapsford, “that brings with it weight and transmissionchallenges due to the high torque available at engine speeds

New regulations will soon allow differentfuels in Le Mans racing – and Ricardo isdeveloping a remarkable 600bhp, 1400NmV10 diesel to prove the point. An intriguedWilliam Kimberley speaks to the menbehind the racing diesel programme andlooks at the sophisticated techniques thatcould push gasoline off the winner’s rostrum

● All-aluminium V10● 5.5 litres● 600 bhp @ 5000 rev/min● 1400 Nm torque @ 2000 rev/min● Common rail fuel injection● Design maximum cylinder pressure

200 bar● Advanced two-stage boosting

system ● Engine concept design completed● Computer-modelled performance

predictions completed

● Application – LMP900 Le Mans and ALMS

● Transmission options being evaluated

● Chassis options under discussion with key manufacturers

● Ricardo in discussion with international race teams and potential sponsors interested in collaboration with this unique project

Ricardo V10 Prototype Diesel for LMP900

Spring 2003 DIESEL RACE ENGINES 17Ricardo Quarterly Review

of around 2000 rpm.”The fundamental advantage of diesels is their fuel economy,

and it is this that Ricardo wishes to exploit. “When Audiintroduced its FSI engine in 2001,” says Morrison, “itimmediately gained an extra lap between refuelling stops, givingit a tremendous advantage over the rest of the field. This iswhat we need to do with a diesel-engined car.”

“There are two routes to go in designing an engine to meet theregulations”, says Sapsford. “There is either the advancedconventional route, which means refining existing engines bydecreasing the weight whilst maintaining a typical diesel enginespeed range, or the alternative of designing an engine with the aimof reducing the maximum in-cylinder pressure (Pmax) by runningat higher speeds that are more akin to a gasoline engine.”

The weight is a function of the engine architecture, describedby Sapsford as principally being a pressure containment vessel.“We can increase power by spinning the crankshaft faster, whichthen gives us potential for reducing pressure in the cylinder,” hesays. “This means we can have a more lightweight structure.However, we can never reduce the weight to gasoline levels asthe pistons, which need a bowl in them, have to be moresubstantial in a diesel.”

While the durability aspects for a racing engine – even onedestined to race for 24 hours at full stretch – are less of anissue, that of smoke is highly significant. “Whatever happens,the engine must not smoke,” says Beasley. “Using our advancedcontrol systems to monitor the fuel/air ratio closely at all times,we can calibrate the engine to ensure that this problem doesn’thappen.”

“The development of this engine will be possible because wenow have the tools in hand to do it,” says Beasley. “It certainlywould have been more difficult a few years ago, but the recentadvances in key technologies such as fuel and boost systemshave been great enablers.”

While Ricardo is concentrating on this novel engine, itsacknowledged expertise in transmissions and chassis systemsmeans that it could also deliver a fully integrated package.“While we have the capability to design a racing car fromscratch,” says Sapsford, “and lever the integration accordingly,

we do have a strong relationship with a couple ofchassis manufacturers with this project. This meansthat if we were to go ahead we would be able to concentrateour full resources on making the engine as competitive aspossible.”

Three possible alternative strategies suggest themselves.The costliest solution, without a doubt, would be to develop andbuild this ambitious concept engine. Alternatively, the Ricardodiesel know-how gained in the programme so far could beapplied either to an existing large diesel engine to turn it into aracer, or devoted to converting an existing high-performancegasoline unit to diesel operation. One way or another, however,Ricardo has active options and partners in all three endeavours-- but is keeping its cards understandably close to its corporatechest until key decisions have been made.

Ricardo knows what it takes to be a winner at Le Mans andso is taking nothing for granted, But, equally, there’s no denyingthat it will be a historic moment indeed when a modern diesel-fuelled racer lines up alongside the old-fashioned gasolinerunners on the grid at the Sarthe circuit. ■

William Kimberley is editor of Automotive Engineer

Photo: Automobile Club de l’Ouest

Predicted power and torque for the Ricardo V10 diesel racing engine

18 VOLKER BARTH Spring 2003Ricardo Quarterly Review

How do you view the region for which youare newly responsible? Delphi’s main challenges in Europe arecontinued innovation in technology and themany other ways we add value for ourcustomers such as logistics expertise andaftermarket support. Europe is a great placefor demonstrating Delphi’s expertise in hightechnologies and quality manufacturingbecause Europe’s vehicle manufacturersbelieve strongly in the benefits they bring. Thedevelopment partnerships we enjoy in Europeprove Delphi’s capabilities in these areas,particularly our ability to be extremelyinnovative and to turn that into a competitiveadvantage for our customers.

Technologies proving very successful inEurope include electric power steering,common-rail diesel and electric-electronicarchitecture, and we have many more. We alsohave exciting advanced programmes withcustomers, such as the solid oxide fuel cellauxiliary power unit we are developing withBMW and Renault. We are also finding newways to work with customers such as theinnovation plan we have with PSA PeugeotCitroën. Innovations have allowed our businessin Europe to grow quickly to 5.3 billionconsolidated sales (5.62 total sales) with48,000 employees. Our revenue with worldwidecustomers other than GM in Europe is now 75per cent of our total business, which showshow well our strategies are working.

So Delphi’s GM provenance is nohindrance?Our GM heritage gives us one big benefit. Weare car and truck people (not component

people). Many of us have worked as vehicleengineers and in OEM assembly plants, so weknow how to develop and build vehicles. Thisgives us a substantial edge in understandingour customers’ requirements. We also have adeep understanding of many specialisedtechnologies, helping us to develop integratedsystems that interface well with the vehicle andwith systems from other suppliers.

As far as purchasing and competing isconcerned, GM is treating us like any othersupplier, while independence has brought usaccess to those customers outside GM whowere concerned about working with a supplierowned by a competitor. That prevented us inthe past from developing opportunitiesprovided by our broad portfolio. Now we havegood growth in new business relationships.

Will Delphi be part of the European drifteastwards?The requirements of engineering for emergingmarkets could lead to more technicaldevelopment activities in these markets. Delphi,with its exceptional footprint in engineering andmanufacturing, is prepared for thosedevelopments and our European organisationwill have the lead. We must continue to expandmanufacturing to support our customers as theydevelop into new markets.

The Tier 1 is increasingly a technologysupplier, but where is this leading?The trend has clearly been for OEMs to rely onTier 1s to take responsibility for sophisticatedengineering, specifying performanceparameters instead of developing their owndesigns. With increasing complexity this will

continue, which is good for Delphi with itsbreadth of technological competence andmanufacturing.

But because of this trend, Tier 1relationships with lower tiers have to improve.OEMs are right-sizing the number of directsuppliers to a fraction of what it was, so Tier 1swill have more responsibility for the supplychain. Five years ago the typical western OEMhad more than 1000 direct suppliers. Today thetrend is fewer than 200, which requires Tier 1sto introduce new logistics, training, validationand scheduling with a larger supplier base, andto achieve this globally and transparently.

Tier 1s definitely need to upgrade theircompetencies in many fields, and partnershipswith lower tiers is one such area. Ideally weneed to create partnerships that maximisesynergies and drive costs down, whileenhancing technology, speed to market andcustomer value. We also have to addresssocial and political requirements based on newglobal trade pacts and the specific situations inemerging countries.

The reality is less strategic, however. Over-capacity and competition have focused manycurrent actions on the short term. I hope thiswill change as I believe in value chainoptimisation by design and in the benefits oftrusting relationships.

Could big Tier 1 suppliers become aspowerful as – or more powerful than – theOEMs and set the terms for theirrelationship?I hope not. If OEMs feel they are beingmanipulated or dominated by their suppliersthey will revert to the old system, and thatwould eliminate the many benefits they areincreasingly experiencing. Some OEMs havealready started to redevelop some specialistcompetencies in areas where they feel supplierdominance, and this could slow down thecreation of extra value and cost savings.

It would not be strategically right for Tier 1swhich focus on excellence in technology tohave the objective of being as important orpowerful as their OEM customers. We willnever compete with our customers. Ourpurpose is to support the OEM by providingthe technologies that will distinguish the brand,provide marketing advantage, and make apositive difference for the final customer. Therewill never be a Delphi-badged vehicle.

Systems integrationVolker Barth took over on January 1 as president of Delphi Europe, Middle East and Africa,following the departure to Detroit of Jose Maria Alapont. Ian Morton spoke to him about thetechnical and commercial challenges facing top Tier 1 suppliers

The auto industry’s move eastwards is exemplified by Delphi’s Krakow,Poland plant

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Spring 2003 VOLKER BARTH 19Ricardo Quarterly Review

What direct competitive challenges doesDelphi face?There are many highly competent Tier 1suppliers and it’s both a challenge and apleasure to compete with them, as this is thebasis for our technological advances and theincreasing customer value we provide. As alarge company with considerable depth andbreadth of technical expertise we face one ortwo formidable competitors in each area,mostly companies focused on one specialisedfield. We respect them for their talents andinnovations, although we also believe that thebreadth of our competencies and thesynergies we derive from them help usdevelop better vehicle-level solutions.

How do you view collaboration with othersuppliers?Our guiding principle is that the vehiclemanufacturer is in charge, so any arrangementhas to add value for his business. This couldinvolve a range of relationships to suit eachcustomer’s preferences in different areas. AnOEM might have a strong relationship with aTier 1 competitor, while Delphi has thespecialised technology competence. In a caselike this, we are not opposed to a customer-desired and championed co-operation with ourrival. The opposite is also true, where we areselected as the system integrator and thecustomer wants selected product sourced froman incumbent component or sub-systemsupplier. The customer-desired co-operationwill define the tier relationship.

Capital expenditure and over-capacities areother issues, but the final goal is to maximise

customer benefit, so value for money and costoptimisation, utilisation of existing capacities,proven concepts and carry-over utilisation ofexisting components will increase in the futureand drive some of the co-operation decisions.

How do you seek advantage in thissituation?Whether you get an advantage with anyvehicle manufacturer depends on arelationship built on performance and trust,just as with any other customer. However, itmay be that companies with in-housesuppliers are also looking forward todiscovering what new suppliers can provide.The key is our competence in technology,quality, service and competitive pricing – whichdetermines our win rate with any customer, beit the former mother corporation, somebodyelse’s former parent, or a more recentcustomer partner. Delphi is growing itsbusiness with the new customer base atdouble digit growth rate since our IPO. Toachieve that in such a short time means wemust be offering some very attractivetechnologies with great support and pricing.

How do you see supply trends developing?Over the last five years Tier 1 suppliers havetaken over more system and moduleresponsibilities, and Delphi has a lot ofexpertise in managing logistics to add valuefor its customers. But we must not confusewhat are really two sets of benefits – thedesign and build of highly integrated modules,and efficient supply chain logistics.A strategy to use modules cannot be basedonly on logistics considerations or shared

investment risk, as this is to miss the largestbenefit of all. When the argument for modulesis based on the lower labour and overheadcosts to suppliers, plus the simplified logisticsfor modules compared with complex logisticsfor components, this advantage will rapidlywear out.

Benefits should be driven by good, highlyintegrated designs where modules are not justan integration of components, so thatsynergies between the elements comprisingthe module can be developed. This requires asupplier with a broad competence and productportfolio, like Delphi.

It is important that the cost should bedesigned out of a module by having a holisticlook at the individual parts and theirinteractions, eliminating redundant elementsand utilising existing structures from others tomaximise cross-component integration. If it isnot, then modularisation doesn’t provide theexpected benefits.

However, the development needs to betransparent to the customer. In case a Tier 1supplier wants to utilise his competence onlyto his advantage and not to the customer’sbenefit, it will deteriorate relationships andtrust. Recently some customers haveexperienced this and started to prefer again todefine and source individual components. Thisis counter-productive to the synergistic intentof properly managed modular design andsupply, and a step back in the delivery ofoptimised value. ■■

Ian Morton is a contributor to AutomotiveNews Europe

Volker BarthAge: 55Born: Darmstadt, GermanyLanguages: German, English, Portuguese,Portuniol (conversational Spanish).Has lived in Germany, Japan, US, Brazil:now based in Paris.Previous jobs: 1974 experimental engineer,Opel; 1975 assistant departmental head oftest facility planning; 1980 head of carevaluation, fuel economy and field test; 1984head of Opel liaison office Tokyo; 1986head of operational planning GM Europe;1986/7 executive for metallic products, GMEurope; 1989 executive for advancepurchasing and global sourcing GM Europeand director of Opel purchasing; 1991purchasing and materials director GM doBrasil; 1992 materials director; 1993worldwide executive director purchasingmetallic products GM Corp; 1994 executivedirector worldwide purchasing ACG (laterDelphi); 1996 Delphi president SouthAmerica (corporate vice president Delphifrom 1999). 2003 president, DelphiEurope/Middle East and Africa

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20 RICARDO NEWS Spring 2003 Ricardo Quarterly Review

On February 12 Ricardo hostedTransmission Technologies and Trends,the latest in its highly successful series oftechnical seminars. The event opened with areview of the megatrends and technologydrivers facing transmission engineering,provided by Lee Sykes, Ricardo DTStechnical director.

The presentation started with an analysisof the global trends in the three principalclusters of environmental concerns; Sykesthen moved on to vehicle systems integrationand issues related to commercial and marketneeds. He continued by demonstrating thecritical nature of transmission engineering inaddressing these megatrends. The results ofan OEM analysis were presented, showingthat the fuel economy benefit of near-markettransmission innovations offer around twice

the value for money of similarly near marketinnovations in engine technology. Moves toincrease occupant and pedestrian safety arealso of influence, acting to restrict thepackage envelope available to thetransmission and so encouragingtechnologies which are able to deliver spaceefficiency. With regard to business trends,Sykes presented interesting data regardingthe developing relationship between theOEM and Tier 1 manufacturing sectors.

Shifting gears

Ricardo Software (RS) has beenworking with ATI Technologies Incto test the new high end Fire GLX1 graphics card. The card wastested by RS under both Linuxand Windows based systemsusing the company’s softwareproducts. “We were interested inthis technology as it appeared tooffer a cost-competitive approachto using our more graphically

intensive applications such asVECTIS,” said RS president, DrRichard Johns. “There are clearlymany factors to be weighed whenconsidering hardware selection,but the results of our testsindicate that this may be anattractive solution for userswishing to use PC platforms asan alternative to more expensive,high-end workstations.”

On February 5 it wasannounced that the controland electronics capability ofRicardo would be enhancedwith the acquisition of TarragonEmbedded Technology Ltd.,of Cambridge, UK. Foundedin 1996, Tarragon, which willhenceforth operate as Ricardo-Tarragon, has grown rapidly andcurrently employs 52 people andhas an annual turnover in excessof £3m ($4.5m). Its primarybusiness is developingembedded control software andtools for the automotive sectorand it serves a client baseincluding many of the leadingOEMs and Tier 1 suppliers. Thecompany brings a new softwarecapability to Ricardo,complementing its existingsystems engineering, controlstrategy and electronic hardwaredesign, testing and developmentexpertise.

Tarragon will add the followingcapabilities to Ricardo:● Embedded software which, for

example, controls enginemanagement and other real timesystems on the vehicle.● Telematics, which includesonboard GPS location andmultimedia based systems.● Software development tools

Ricardo works with ATI on software

Tarragon acquisi

Formula 1 car at 350km/h, showing the effects of the aeropacket accelerating air up to 450km/h

Spring 2003 RICARDO NEWS 21Ricardo Quarterly Review

While the manufacturing split is predicted toremain stable at current levels in the mediumterm, the recent marked growth in theproportion of transmission patents registeredwithin the Tier 1 base indicates anincreasingly technology-led agenda.

Following the trends and technologydrivers presentation, the main part of theseminar was dedicated to a series ofdetailed technical presentations comparingdevelopments in each of the majortransmission types: manual, first, secondand third generation automated manualtransmission, automatic fixed-ratio, first andsecond generation CVTs, IVTs and hybridtransmission systems. Lee Sykes wasassisted in these presentations by TonyO’Neill and Rine Pelders, respectively controland electronics manager and transmissionengineering manager at DTS. For eachtransmission type the current state-of-the-artwas described and views expressedregarding the technical and market potentialfor further development.

The final part of the seminar was givenover to a market analysis of transmissiontechnologies and the prediction of the likelyposition and trends prevailing towards theend of the current decade, presented bySteve Clarke, DTS director of business

development. Looking at the three largestmarkets of North America, Europe andJapan, Clarke outlined the current mix ofproducts in the market and the manner inwhich this is predicted to develop. In Europethe picture presented was of a sharp declinein the current dominance of manualtransmissions to a position where theyrepresent just under half of the market at theend of the decade. The remainder of themarket was predicted as including asignificant increase of first generation AMTsystems across all segments, peaking ataround 2007.

Beyond this, second generation AMT(dual clutch) systems gain market share,particularly in the C-D segments. In parallelwith the above, growth was also predictedin CVT and other systems for smallervehicles, as well as marginal improvementof the market share of fixed-ratioautomatics. Overall, Clarke predicted thatthe market in the three geographical areaswould be dominated by consideration ofinstalled manufacturing capacity and marketacceptance of existing technologies. Assuch, the European market of 2010 wouldshow particular growth in new technologies,seen as a development of manualtransmissions, such as first and second

generation AMTs. Conversely the Japaneseand North American markets were seen asbeing more likely to favour developmentrespectively of new versions of CVT andconventional fixed-ratio automatictransmissions.

Delegate response to the presentation wasextremely favourable, according to SteveClarke. “We knew that this was a highly topicalsubject for our customers and we wereencouraged by the attendance and feedbackgenerated. We plan to host a follow-up eventtowards the middle of this year focusing uponthe North American market and held at ourDetroit facility,” he said.

and consultancy, for exampleTarragon’s control system modelchecker, Mint.● Safety critical redundancysystems, for example ‘drive bywire’ vehicle control concepts.

All of these are areas of

expertise that Tarragon hasdeveloped over the seven years ithas been in business.

The acquisition represents asignificant increase in thecontrols and electronics activity ofRicardo, to the extent that this

discipline now accounts forapproximately 10 per cent ofgroup head count. Commentingon the purchase of Tarragon,Ricardo CEO Rodney Westheadsaid: “The acquisition of Tarragonis in line with our strategy to grow

significantly our electronicsystems capability. This is animportant area of future growthfor Ricardo and this acquisitionsignificantly expands our serviceoffering for our automotive clientsaround the world.”

tion boosts Ricardo electronicsAssistance inDevelopment of the FordFocus RS

Tarragon EmbeddedTechnology was part of theteam that developed the FordFocus RS. In particular,Tarragon was involved withthe new turbo boost control,which is performed by theElectronic Engine Controller(EEC).Tarragon’s expertise relatesto the software in the EECwhich can monitor and controlthe turbo boost pressure over100 times per second.

The next Ricardo seminar is entitledGasoline Engine Technologies for LowCO2 and will cover aspects such asengine downsizing, VVA systems andHCCI combustion. The charge for theseminar, which takes place atShoreham on May 8, 2003, will be£500 (+VAT). For further details andinformation or to pre-register for theevent, please contact Dave Read:e-mail DJRead@ricardo.comTel. +44 (0)1273 794167

The integration of complexcomponents and systems intolarger, multi-functional modules

has long been a focus of automotiveengineering activity as OEMs havesought to improve functionality andperformance at the same time asreducing manufacturing cost andstreamlining the supply chain.

There are numerous examples ofsuccessfully modularised vehiclesystems now in current production,but relatively few of these apply toengines. For Roger Stone, vicepresident of engine systemstechnology at Gates, this representsa challenge. “I have spent mostof my career in theautomotive industry and ithas been interesting to seethe modularisation trenddevelop. So far, mostprogress has been made in thevehicle area where I suppose thepower unit itself could be regarded as the original module.

“The front end and timing drive hadtypically been regarded as too ‘messy’to be captured in a pre-assembledunit,” continues Stone, “but the morewe thought about it, the moreattractive the idea became.

“There were some references tochain cassettes in the literature butnothing for a complete timing andauxiliary drive module. We thought wehad some good ideas as to how to doit and we wanted to demonstrate tothe auto industry that there aresignificant production as well asperformance and functionality benefitsto be had from a modular front endsystem.”

To demonstrate the feasibility of hisconcept, which was named the Gates

Engine Module Type10 or GEM10, Stone needed anengineering partner to develop andprototype the design. “We chose towork with Ricardo as we knew that ithas a highly flexible approach toengineering new and innovativesystems and would welcome achallenge of this nature”.

Brian Knight, principal designengineer for Ricardo, takes up thestory. “When we first saw the conceptour initial reaction was that it was aninteresting and very promisingconcept, but one which wouldrepresent a completely different rangeof design challenges to a conventionalfront end.” The first step was to carryout an intensive eight-week feasibilitystudy based upon an existing engineto give a realistic focus to the work.The Ricardo-Gates team divided themodule up into sub-systems in such away as to facilitate problem resolutionwhile maintaining sight of theunderlying vision of the concept.

Manufacturing savings“We needed to answer somefundamental questions – could theconcept be made to work technically,did it make economic sense, and what

benefits would it provide in terms ofmanufacturing? We could only answerthese questions by starting at a fairly

basic level, brainstorming andsketching alternative ideas whichcould be developed into detailedlayouts,” says Knight.

Having proven that theconcept was feasible, Gates

decided that it wanted to take theGEM10 forward in the form of a

hardware demonstrator that itcould show to its OEMcustomers. The Ricardo-Gates team continued towork together over the next

four months of intenseengineering activity, supportedby 3D CAD modelling, finite

element analysis, rigorousmanufacturing costing, and prototypemanufacture.

The results were impressive, to saythe least. “We managed todemonstrate that the GEM10 could befitted to the engine as a singleproduction line operation in just twominutes, representing a potentiallyvery significant manufacturing saving,”says Stone. “For an OEM it representsa reduction in part numbers ofbetween 50 and 60 to one, and wewere able to show that the enginefitted with the prototype GEM10 waslighter than the original design.”

Carmakers are interestedGates has been demonstrating theGEM10 concept to its OEM customersfor some months now and hasattracted some very serious interest.Stone measures the programmecarried out with Ricardo to prove outthe GEM10 concept as a real success.“We were extremely happy with theflexible and open approach thatRicardo took with us on thisprogramme. We set out to answerwhether this concept works and theanswer to that question is a very clear‘Yes!’ from all standpoints – functional,manufacturing, logistical andcommercial.” ■■

22 RICARDO NEWS Spring 2003Ricardo Quarterly Review

A module of integrationWhen Gates wanted to prove the viability of its cleverengine auxiliary drive package, it turned to Ricardo todevelop and prototype the design. Now, one componentdoes the job of 50 or 60

Front-end module applies cam drive andancillaries to engine in a single operation

SAFE SORRY

Check One.

We’ve chosen to focus on a driver’s safety whenever they get behind the wheel. As a global leader in integrated active

and passive safety systems, TRW Automotive is constantly looking out for their well-being. Which is why we’ll

continue to pioneer work in areas like vehicle stability control, electric steering, smart restraints and driver-assist

systems. Because we know that, given the choice, safe is preferred over sorry.