Ricardo fires up three-cylinder engine

A new prototype engine has been fired-up for the first time at a ceremony held at Ricardo’s Shoreham Technical Centre, UK.

The new 3-cylinder 1-litre turbocharged direct injection gasoline engine prototype is the culmination of 11 months of work by Ricardo engineers at the company’s facilities in Shanghai, the Czech Republic, Germany and the UK, as well as a team of Changhe resident engineers who have been based at Shoreham.

“Ricardo and Changhe engineers have worked together to design and develop this family of engines with extremely competitive power, torque and fuel consumption values,” commented Ricardo Asia president Gary Tan.

“We were particularly pleased to be able to host the senior visitors from the BAIC Group and Changhe at the ‘first fire’ event, which took place less than a year from the project start and within days of the final crucial component – the cylinder block – being delivered.  We look forward to working with our colleagues at Changhe through to the start of production which is currently scheduled for the spring of next year.”