Ricardo100 Global Challenge concludes with ceremonial drive

Having crossed Europe, India, China, Japan and the United States since setting off in May, the Ricardo100 around-the-world charity rally finished on July 29 back in the UK, with Sir Harry Ricardo’s daughter, Dr Camilla Bosanquet, completing the final short section of the tour in a Le Zebre sedan designed by Ricardo in 1923.

One of the highlights of the Ricardo centenary year celebrations, the Ricardo100 Global Challenge has involved teams of Ricardo staff from its many global sites. The charity relay event commenced on 14 May, leaving the Ricardo Shoreham Technical Centre on an eastward route around the world. Each team has driven a vehicle of particular significance to Ricardo’s first century, ranging from vintage vehicles, modern electric and hybrid cars, performance motorcycles and a McLaren 12C sports car.

The final section of the Ricardo100 Global Challenge to the doors of the new Ricardo Vehicle Emissions Research Centre (VERC), which was also formally opened – was completed by Dr Camilla Bosanquet, daughter of the company’s founder, Sir Harry Ricardo.  

Before its ceremonial completion, the relay had visited many of Ricardo plc’s global network of offices and technical centres, as well as other places of significance to the company. These included the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, where the Flying Spray took the world diesel land speed record in 1936, powered by a Ricardo single sleeve-valve compression-ignition development of the Rolls-Royce Kestrel aero engine – and where, 70 years later in 2006, the JCB Dieselmax took the same record with a speed of 350.092 miles per hour – fitted with two JCB off-highway engines designed in collaboration with Ricardo and upgraded by the company for the purpose.

The Ricardo100 Global Challenge teams have raised money for regional, national and international charitable organisations including UNICEF, Aktion Familie, Engineers without Borders, Cancer Research UK, the Automotive Women’s Alliance Foundation, Teach for India, and many more notable worthy causes from each country through which the relay route passed.

On formally accepting the Ricardo100 baton, Ricardo plc Chief Operating Officer Mark Garrett, said: “I am extremely grateful to Dr Camilla Bosanquet for completing the final ceremonial leg of the Ricardo100 Global Challenge. This around-the-world relay has been one of the true highlights of the centenary celebrations of Ricardo plc. The Challenge has been a remarkable and very appropriate celebration of the achievements of the first century of Ricardo. It has done great credit to the innovative engineering skills, hard work and dedication of the company’s employees, from Sir Harry himself to the most recent of our apprentice and graduate engineering recruits. I would like to thank the participating teams for their generous commitment, and their dedication to giving something back to the communities in which they work through charity fundraising. I am sure that Sir Harry would be very proud of the achievements of the company he formed one hundred years ago, and of the spirit of enthusiasm, scientific inquiry and engineering innovation that lives on in its employees today.”