Ricardo congratulates JCB on DieselMax Award

The Royal Automobile Club has announced that it has awarded the prestigious Dewar Trophy to JCB. The award was made for the team led by JCB in the development of the JCB DIESELMAX vehicle which successfully challenged for the international land speed record for diesel vehicles in August 2006. As partner on the development of the JCB444-LSR engines which powered the JCB DIESELMAX into the record books with a speed of 350.092 mph, Ricardo is proud to have been a part of this team and congratulates JCB on its award.

The Dewar Trophy is awarded for outstanding British technical achievement in the automotive world. The Royal Automobile Club has presented the trophy on just 38 previous occasions since 1906 when the achievements have met the stringent standards required by the Dewar Trophy Committee. Previous winners include Rolls-Royce, Dunlop, Lucas and Jaguar. Ricardo was itself awarded the Trophy in 2002 for its work on the i-MoGen diesel hybrid demonstrator and again in 2005 for its work on the development of the advanced 7-speed Dual Clutch Transmission of the Bugatti Veyron.

Ricardo was selected by JCB as the engine development partner for the JCB DIESELMAX team. In addition to its advanced diesel engineering expertise, Ricardo applied its state-of-the-art powertrain computer aided engineering software to the development of the advanced JCB444-LSR engines which power the JCB DIESELMAX. Ricardo was also able to draw upon extensive knowledge and experience of the engine architecture which forms the basis of the JCB444-LSR engines as a result of its previous role as concept engineering partner on the JCB production engine – itself now branded ‘Dieselmax’ in recognition of its world-record breaking association – from which the land speed record engines were developed and with which they share many components.

In developing the JCB444-LSR engines Ricardo was able to bring forward many next-generation diesel technologies which are likely to form the basis of the high performance, low-emissions diesel engines of future automotive as well as construction equipment products. With each of the two engines of the JCB DIESELMAX able to deliver peak power of 750hp and torque of 1500Nm, they are over five times the power of the production version and at 150hp/litre, they exceed even motorsports applications as the world’s highest specific power automotive diesels. At the same time the JCB DIESELMAX engines retain excellent fuel efficiency and very low emissions.

Ricardo Director of Diesel Engineering, Ian Penny, said: “Ricardo congratulates JCB on the award of the Dewar Trophy. We are extremely proud to have played a supporting role in the successful JCB DIESELMAX team which comprised a range of industrial partners in addition to Ricardo and JCB’s own in-house engineers. It is an endeavour which has demonstrated the ultimate in diesel performance as well as the very best of British engineering skills and innovation”.