DIFFLOCKEDTHE REGISTRY
Engineering, Design house, Defence contractor, Motorsport · Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex, United Kingdom · from 1915

Ricardo plc

The engineering consultancy Harry Ricardo founded in 1915, whose Shoreham-by-Sea laboratories have shaped internal-combustion practice for a century. Its Special Vehicles division turned the Cobra weapons-mount concept into the British Army's WMIK — the open, roll-caged, ring-mounted Wolf Defender 110 — and it helped develop the composite armour of the Snatch.

History

Harry Ricardo set up Engine Patents Limited in February 1915, initially in London, to exploit his combustion research; the engine he designed there powered the first successful British tank, the Mark V. By 1919 the firm had established a laboratory at Shoreham-by-Sea in West Sussex, which remains its technical centre, and the business traded successively as Ricardo and Co. and Ricardo Consulting Engineers before becoming Ricardo plc. (Accounts differ on when the consulting name was adopted, some giving 1927 and others 1970.) Ricardo's reputation was built on combustion-chamber design, fuel research and the standard of its test facilities: by 1990 Shoreham ran in excess of ninety test beds including rolling roads and environmental chambers.

The firm has always worked for other people's badges rather than its own. Its engineers designed and developed engines and transmissions across the motor industry — the engines for McLaren's supercars among them — contributed to Rutan's Voyager, the aircraft that first flew non-stop around the world, and engineered the combustion system of the JCB Dieselmax that set a 350 mph diesel land-speed record in 2006. Later acquisitions took it far beyond engines: AEA Technology in 2012 brought environmental consultancy, Lloyd's Register Rail in 2015 brought rail expertise, and Ricardo came to describe itself as a strategic, environmental and engineering consultancy serving automotive, clean energy, defence, rail and marine clients.

Defence vehicle engineering is where Land Rover enters. Working with Land Rover and under contract to the Ministry of Defence, Ricardo's Vehicle Engineering / Special Vehicles division — at the time based at Shoreham Airport — developed its 'Cobra' weapons-mount concept into an installable, removable kit for the strengthened Wolf Defender 110 TUM HS chassis. The result was the WMIK, or Weapons Mount Installation Kit: roof and doors deleted, a full roll cage added, a rear ring mount for a 12.7 mm heavy machine gun, 40 mm grenade machine gun or GPMG, and a pintle mount ahead of the front passenger. First vehicles reached the British Army in the late 1990s, with Ricardo producing the first WMIK variant of the 110 in 1999, and the type served in Macedonia, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Iraq, evolving through the Enhanced E-WMIK of 2006 and the rebuilt R-WMIK and R-WMIK+ of 2008 and 2010. Ricardo also produced WMIK Land Rovers for Italy's Carabinieri and Lithuania's special operations forces, and assisted NP Aerospace in developing the CAV 100 composite armour used on the Snatch Land Rover.

Ricardo remained listed on the London Stock Exchange until 2025. Shareholders approved a takeover by the Canadian consultancy WSP Global, the court sanctioned the scheme on 7 October 2025, and the acquisition completed on 9 October 2025; Ricardo, with about 2,600 employees in more than twenty countries, now trades as part of WSP.

Imagery

A WMIK of The Queen's Royal Lancers on patrol in Maysan Province, Iraq — the weapons-mount kit Ricardo developed with Land Rover for the Wolf Defender 110.
A WMIK of The Queen's Royal Lancers on patrol in Maysan Province, Iraq — the weapons-mount kit Ricardo developed with Land Rover for the Wolf Defender 110. Cpl Ian Forsyth RLC / UK MOD Defence Imagery, via Wikimedia Commons · OGL v1.0 ↗
A Royal Irish Regiment WMIK with 40 mm grenade machine gun on exercise Allied Spirit II, Hohenfels, Germany, August 2015 — a later, re-lifed generation of the same Ricardo-engineered kit.
A Royal Irish Regiment WMIK with 40 mm grenade machine gun on exercise Allied Spirit II, Hohenfels, Germany, August 2015 — a later, re-lifed generation of the same Ricardo-engineered kit. Sgt Alexandra Hulett, US Army, via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain (US Army) ↗

Vehicles in this registry (1)

Sources & citations

Maker record updated 2026-09-10T04:48:16.008Z · status: researched