Ricardo helps PK prepare for Le Mans.

Ricardo is helping British team PK Sport to prepare the only UK-based GT3 Porsche 911 RS entry for this year's Le Mans 24 Hour race.

Following PK Sport's successful entry of its Porsche 911 GT3-RS for Le Mans, Ricardo engineers have been busy working to improve the torsional rigidity of the car's main body structure and to develop a modular nose cone and cooling system for the race to be held on 16-17 June.

Commenting on the challenge to fine tune the car's body characteristics with only minimal weight increase whilst adhering to stringent regulations, Clive Hickman, managing director Ricardo Vehicle Engineering revealed that a lot of work had gone into improving the car.

"We have carried out sophisticated structural analysis work to determine where improvements can be made and have produced an improved shell for the PK Sport team," he said, "In addition, we have developed a modular nose cone and cooling system that allows for rapid replacement, which could save valuable time during the race."

The work has provided the team with a much stronger car - something that PK Sport driver Mike Youles, a class winner at Le Mans in 1990, says can only help its cause.

"Thanks to Ricardo's engineering expertise, the Porsche 911 GT3-RS is in fantastic form," he admitted, "The strengthened body shell will improve the handling of the car and we are confident of a good class result at Le Mans this year."

"As a UK based team, we're delighted to be flying the flag for Britain in the LMGT class at Le Mans this year," added Mike Pickup, managing director of PK Sport,"Supported by homegrown engineering expertise in the shape of Ricardo, and with our driver line-up of Mike Youles, David Warnock and Stephen Day, we aspire to a successful outcome on behalf of the UK's motorsport industry."

Ricardo will further improve the GT3-RS following Le Mans as PK Sport continue to race in the remaining three European Le Mans Series [ELMS] meetings. The Ricardo-supported PK Sport team was the top privateer at Donington Park's opening round in April, taking third in class behind the two factory-supported Alex Job Porsches. This form was repeated at Jarama in the latest round of the combined European and American Le Mans Series on 20 May, with the PK Sport Porsche fourth in class behind the BMW and Porsche factory cars until driveshaft failure on the last lap prevented a good finish.

Ricardo's involvement at Le Mans this year is not limited to the PK Sport team, however. The company is also the technical partner for the Infineon-sponsored Audi team and has been responsible for designing and producing the race-winning transmission for the race-favourite Audi R8. Faultless reliability from the Ricardo transmission has helped the Audi team secure twelve consecutive wins - including an impressive 1-2-3 result at Le Mans last year and overall victory in the ALMS championship in 2000.

In addition, all four DaimlerChrysler Viper GTS-R cars entered for Le Mans will utilise Ricardo specialist transmission components and VC differentials. Vipers have won the GTS category at Le Mans for the past three years, on each occasion relying on Ricardo's transmission expertise.