Engines & Enterprise

By John Reynolds ISBN 0-7509-1712-1

Published by Sutton Publishing, £20.00

Here we have the full account of the life and work of the celebrated engineer Sir Harry Ricardo, who has long deserved a more detailed book than his own Memories and Machines, written when he was 83 and published in 1968. This longer book about Sir Harry’s variable career is most welcome.

The motoring aspect is well to the fore, Ricardo having researched so many important projects, apart from his association with the Dolphin car and the racing Triumph-Ricardo motorcydes, and his design of the 1922 TT Vauxhall cars with advanced twincam engines. This new book about Ricardo’s early life, war-time undertakings and the formation of the still active company, Ricardo Consulting Engineers, is as important a contribution to the bookshelf as was Sir Harry’s own The High Speed Internal Combustion Engine, in 1922.

Ricardo’s fuel research before the Vickers Vimy’s first non-stop Atlantic flight, his design work on the first diesel engine for Citroen and his role in the evolution of the Alfa Romeo 158 are just some of it. Many more successes blend with his off-duty moments, supported by good and some ‘new’ pictures. WB