On Thursday 31st March we said goodbye to one of Riversimple’s dearest friends, Andre Bird RVM.

We have such a lot to thank Andre for. He was a key member of the Riversimple team from 2014 – 2019 and was instrumental in the building and launch of the first road legal car, now known as the Alpha version of the Rasa. In fact, its first real outing was on his birthday in 2016, a freezing -7 degrees Celsius on a January morning – a very big milestone.

Andre then led a roadshow round the UK with the car, so proud of what we were doing and happy to pass on his passion to members of the public. His twinkly eyes would invite even the most timid person to ask questions and he would charm any policeman or traffic warden into allowing us to park the Rasa in impossible places.

As a team we would particularly enjoy the long journeys with the Rasa in a trailer – down to Goodwood for the Festival of Speed, to Cheshire and Hampshire for CarFests North and South, and Derbyshire for a RHS Flower Show at Chatsworth, among many others.

Andre would regale us all the way with stories of his adventures both in F1 and as a crew member on the Queen’s Flight, in which he spent 16 years. There is no question that Andre’s was a life much lived and we very much enjoyed the time that he spent with us. Riversimple is the richer for it.

May he rest in peace.