 His involvement in the land speed record-breaking attempt came about through a chance meeting with Richard Noble in the offices of Ken Norris, the designer behind Donald Campbell's record-breaking Bluebird CN7.Through a combination of rocket sled testing at Pendine Sands and extensive computational fluid dynamics testing, Ayers was able to develop and refine a shape which would eventually go on to break the sound barrier.Ayers was responsible for the design of the JCB Dieselmax which smashed the World Speed Record for diesel cars on 23 August 2006, clocking 350 mph.