Engines

Cosworth Engineering

The engine company founded in 1959 by Mike Costin (COS) and Keith Duckworth (WORTH) was backed by the Ford Motor Company from the very beginning and built a remarkable reputation for building competition engines in the course of the 1960s.The most famous engine of all was the 3-liter DFV which won its debut race in Holland in June 1967 and went on to win another 154 victories in Grand Prix racing. The engine was still competing in F1 in 1982 and its derivatives - such as the DFX and the DFY - were also very successful around the world.In addition Cosworth built the highly successful BDA in 1968 which is still being used in club competition.Cosworth then went on to build a turbocharged Ford V6 Formula 1 engine at its St. James Mills Road headquarters in Northampton.In the late 1980s Cosworth became part of UEI and in 1980 was acquired by Carlton Communications as part of the takeover of UEI. In March 1990 the organization was sold to Vickers PLC.The Vickers era was not initially successful but a more dynamic management under Chris Woodwark in 1993 pushed along a more aggressive policy and the result was World Championship success in 1994 with Michael Schumacher and Benetton. Benetton then switched to Renault power and Ford went through an unhappy period with Sauber as its factory team. At the end of 1996 a relationship was struck with the new Stewart Grand Prix and a new V10 engine was built.The Stewart-Ford program was not a great success and with Vickers looking to alter its emphasis the Cosworth company was put up for sale. In 1998 it was bought by Volkswagen subsidiary Audi AG, as part of its purchase of Vickers's other subsidiary Rolls Royce Motor Cars. At the end of the year the German firm sold Cosworth Racing to the Ford Motor Company. The company has since operated as part of the Premier Performance Division of the company, supplying engines to Jaguar Racing and customer teams.