Ricardo Transmissions help BP-Ford to Victory

With a completely new design of transmission for the 2006 WRC season, developed and manufactured by Ricardo in collaboration with M Sport, the BP-Ford team secured the 2006 WRC manufacturer’s championship with victory at the Propecia Rally New Zealand and completed the season with an outright win at the Wales Rally GB.

This success further extended M Sport and Ford’s unique record of scoring manufacturer’s points in each of the last 76 WRC events, a particularly impressive achievement given the introduction of a completely new car and transmission for the 2006 season

The Ricardo transmissions used by the Focus RS World Rally Cars of the BP-Ford team were designed and developed in partnership with M Sport and were based on a clean-sheet design intended to conform both to 2006 and 2007 regulations. Key objectives set for the design of the new transmission included that it should be lightweight, reliable and durable; the latter being a particular consideration for the 2007 season when regulations dictate that transmissions must be capable of use in two complete events without service.

The initial competition debut of the transmission occurred at the Rally Australia at the tail end of the 2005 season, following extensive prototype development on dynamometers at Ricardo as well as in-vehicle testing by M Sport. “We were particularly pleased at the way this transmission has performed from first installation through to completion of the season at the Wales Rally GB”, commented Mark Barge, Ricardo director of high performance transmissions systems. “We have worked throughout the season with our M Sport colleagues to ensure that this level of performance and reliability was maintained at all times.”

With the BP-Ford team having secured the 2006 manufacturer’s championship and achieved outright wins in 8 of the 16 events of the 2006 season without a single transmission failure, all eyes at Ricardo and M Sport are now on the 2007 season. “Having completed the first full season of competition with this new unit we are extremely pleased with the robustness and performance of this design,” explains Barge. “But in competition transmissions there is always some room for further optimisation and we will be working with the M Sport team through the coming weeks to gain further performance advantage for the 2007 season. The closeness of our working relationship with M Sport is the key to on-going success.”