Cosworth Engineering, Ltd. is a British high-performance automotive engineering company founded in London in 1958, specialising in high-performance internal combustion engines, powertrain, and electronics for automobile racing (motorsport) and mainstream automotive industries. Cosworth is based in Northampton, England, with facilities in Cottenham, England, Silverstone, England, and Indianapolis, IN, US.
Cosworth has collected 176 wins in Formula One (F1) as an engine supplier, ranking in third place with most wins, behind Ferrari and Mercedes.
Corporate history
The company was founded as a London-based racing internal combustion engine maker in 1958 by Mike Costin and Keith Duckworth. Its company name, "Cosworth", was derived as a portmanteau of the surnames of its two founders (Costin and Duckworth).
Both of the co-founders were former employees of Lotus Engineering Ltd., and Cosworth initially maintained a strong relationship with Lotus's Colin Chapman; initial revenues of the company came almost exclusively from Lotus. When the company was founded in 1958, Duckworth left Lotus, leaving Costin (who had signed a term-employment contract with Chapman) at the company. Until 1962, Costin worked on Cosworth projects in his private time, while being active as a key Lotus engineer on the development of Lotus 15 through 26 (Elan), as well as leading the Team Lotus contingent at foreign races, as evidenced by the 1962 Le Mans Lotus scandal.
Initial series production engines (Mk.II, Mk.V, Mk.VIII, and Mk.XIV) were sold to Lotus exclusively, and many of the other racing engines up to Mk.XII were delivered to Team Lotus. The success of Formula Junior engines (Mk.III, IV, XI, and XVII) started bringing in non-Lotus revenues, and the establishment of Formula B by the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) allowed the financial foundation of Cosworth to be secured by the increased sales of Mk.XIII, a pure racing engine based on Lotus TwinCam, through its domination of the class. This newly found security enabled the company to distance itself from the Lotus Mk.VII and Elan optional road engine assembly business, and allowed its resources to be concentrated on racing engine development.
The first Cosworth-designed cylinder head was for SCA series; with a single overhead camshaft (SOHC) reverse-flow configuration, similar to the Coventry Climax FWE engine. A real success was achieved with the next gear-driven double overhead camshaft (DOHC) four-valve FVA in 1966, when Cosworth, with a help from Chapman, convinced Ford to purchase the rights to the design, and sign a development contract, including an eight-cylinder version. This resulted in the DFV, which dominated Formula One for many years.
From this time on, Cosworth was supported by Ford for many years, and many of the Cosworth designs were owned by Ford and named as Ford engines under similar contracts but Wayne Merry reserved the rights to a number of specifications to which Ford could not use in the race engine and some of the road version engines. Cosworth then went through a number of ownership changes. After Duckworth decided he did not want to be involved with the day-to-day business of running a growing company, he sold his stake to United Engineering Industries (UEI) in 1980, retaining his life presidency and day-to-day technical involvement with Cosworth, and becoming a UEI board director; UEI was a group of small- to medium-sized technology companies, which was taken over by Carlton Communications in 1988. Carlton was primarily interested in some of the audio-visual companies in the UEI portfolio, and Cosworth was a poor fit with these; a new buyer for the company in the engineering/automotive sector was sought, and the traditional engineering company Vickers plc bought Cosworth in 1990.
In September 1998, Vickers sold Cosworth to Audi. The German carmaker kept the engineering, manufacturing and casting unit, which it called Cosworth Technology under the new CEO Wayne Merry, and sold the race engine division, Cosworth Racing, and its electronics division, Pi Research, to Ford. In December 2004, Audi announced that it had sold Cosworth Technology to Mahle GmbH; the company was renamed as MAHLE Powertrain on 1 July 2005.
On 15 November 2004 Ford sold Cosworth Racing to Champ Car World Series owners Gerald Forsythe and Kevin Kalkhoven. In December 2004, Ford also sold Pi Research to Kalkhoven and Forsythe, creating the Cosworth Group.
Since 2006, Cosworth has diversified to provide engineering consultancy, high performance electronics, and component manufacture services outside of its classic motorsport customer base. On 25 February 2008, Cosworth was awarded a $5.4 million contract by the United States Navy to develop a heavy fuel engine for their RQ-21A Blackjack unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Award Date 25 February 2008; Potential Completion Date 15 November 2011.
Cosworth supplied its last premier class racing engines to one F1 team in 2013, the Marussia F1 Team.
Internal combustion engines
Early types The following is the list of initial products, with cylinder heads modified, but not originally designed by Cosworth, on Ford Kent engine cylinder blocks. The exceptions were Mk.XVII and MAE, which had intake port sleeves for a downdraft carburettor brazed into the stock cast iron cylinder head, in place of the normal side draft ports, thus could be considered Cosworth designs. designationyearblockdisplacementclaimed powerdescriptionintended for Mk.I 1959 105/107E 997 cc – Experimental one-off to test cam designs Development of A2 and A3 camshaft Mk.II 1960 105/107E 997 cc 75 bhp First series production engine, A2 cam Formula Junior Mk.III 1960 105/107E 997 cc 85–90 bhp A3 cam, optional dry sump Formula Junior Mk.IV 1961 105/107E 1,098 cc 90–95 bhp Mk.III with larger bore. Formula Junior Mk.V 1962 109E 1,340 cc 80 bhp Series production road engine Lotus Seven Mk.VI 1962 109E 1,340 cc 105 bhp Racing version of Mk.V Lotus Seven Mk.VII 1962 109E 1,475 cc 120 bhp Mk.VI with larger bore 1.5 litre class Mk.VIII 1963 116E 1,498 cc 90 bhp Improved Mk.V on 5 main bearing 116E Lotus Seven Mk.IX 1963 116E 1,498 cc 120–125 bhp Racing version of Mk.VIII 1.5 litre class Mk.X 1962 116E 1,498 cc – Experimental Lotus TwinCam. For Lotus 23 Development of Mk.XII and XIII Mk.XI 1963 109E 1,098 cc 100–110 bhp Improved Mk.IV, dry sump Formula Junior Mk.XII 1963 116E 1,594 cc 140 bhp Racing Lotus TwinCam, stock crank and rods, dry sump Lotus 20B, 22, 23 Mk.XIII 1963 116E 1,594 cc 140–150 bhp Improved Mk.XII with steel crank and rods, dry sump Formula B, Lotus 22, 23B, 23C Mk.XIV 1963 116E 1,498 cc 100 bhp Improved Mk.VIII Lotus Seven Mk.XV 1963 116E 1,594 cc 135–145 bhp Racing Lotus TwinCam, steel crank and rods, wet sump Lotus 26R, Lotus Cortina Mk.XVI 1963 116E 1,498 cc 140–150 bhp Mk.XIII for 1.5L class NoteMk.XVI was used by Bob Gerard Racing on Cooper T71/73 for John Taylor at 1964 British Grand Prix, but was entered as "Ford 109E engine" for reasons unknown Mk.XVII 1964 109E 1,098 cc 120 bhp Improved Mk.XI, downdraft intake ports, dry sump Formula Junior In addition to the above, Cosworth designed and provided the assembly work for Lotus Elan Special Equipment optional road engines with special camshafts and high compression pistons.
The MAE The final model of the above initial series was the 997 cc MAE (modified Anglia engine) in 1965, when new rules were introduced in Formula 3 allowing up to engines with 36 mm intake restrictor plate. MAE used one barrel of a two-barrel Weber IDA downdraft carburettor with the other barrel blanked off. This dry sump engine was an improvement of Mk.III with brazed-in downdraft intake ports, and produced about 100 to 110 bhp on Ford 109E block. The domination of this engine in Formula 3 was absolute as long as these regulations lasted until 1968. There were some specially cast iron heads with similar dimensions to these brazed heads with titanium alloy valve spring retainers, called the "screamer head" for MAE in later years.
As Cosworth had a serious difficulty meeting the demand, the MAE was mainly sold as a kit. This experience led to the later FVA/DFV contract to be drawn where the responsibility of development rested with Cosworth, and the manufacturing right and responsibility rested with Ford.
The SCA series A year before the introduction of the MAE, the single overhead cam two valve SCA was introduced. It was a 997 cc engine based on Ford Cortina 116E block that was designed for Formula 2, and featured the first totally Cosworth-designed head, Laystall forged crankshaft, steel main bearing caps and pistons with only one compression ring and one oil scraper ring each. Cylinder head to block sealing was by a head gasket incorporating Cooper Rings. The basic configuration was quite similar to Coventry Climax FWE on Lotus Elite including its SOHC reverse-flow design, except for a series of seven spur gears (one on the crank, two intermediary gears on two fixed shafts mounted on the front cover back plate, one on the 116E camshaft used as a jackshaft, two on a common fixed shaft in the head, and one on the camshaft) driving a five-bearing camshaft and the Ford five main bearing iron block. The intake ports and the oil scavenge pickup for dry sump lubrication were canted 25 degrees, so they faced straight up and down, respectively, when the engine was mounted 25 degrees from vertical to the right for a lower centre of gravity.
The SCA initially had two 40DCM2 Weber twin-choke downdraft sand-cast carburettors mounted on top to produce 115 hp, which was replaced by Lucas fuel injection in 1966, eventually reaching 140 hp. The SCA won the first race of the new 1L Formula 2 rules, 1964 Pau Grand Prix, in the hands of Jim Clark on 5 April 1964. This race was also the inaugural race of FFSA Trophées de France championship, in which SCA drove the series champions in 1964, 1965 and 1967.
The longer stroke SCB was built to compare against the 1,498 cc Mk.XVI, and upon proving its superior power against the Mundy-designed two-valve crossflow DOHC head, it acted as the benchmark for the development of FVA to measure the benefits and shortcomings of a four valve crossflow DOHC design. It was the results of this four valve development work that formed the basis for many of the Cosworth engines that followed.
A larger 85 mm bore SCC with the same short-stroke five-bearing crankshaft as the SCA was built and sold for SCCA 1.1 litre sports car class. Type Year Block Displacement Claimed Description Mainly For SCA 1964 116E 997 cc 115–140 bhp Gear-driven SOHC, reverse-flow Formula Two SCB 1964 116E 1,498 cc 175 bhp Experimental Development of FVA SCC 1965 116E 1,098 cc 135 bhp SCA with larger bore North American sports car racing
The FVA series The Cortina Crossflow block was also the basis for the FVA (four valve Type A), an F2 engine introduced in 1966, and developed under the same contract as the DFV, for the new 1.6-litre engine rules. This engine featured 16 valves operated by twin overhead camshafts driven by a train of 9 gears. The metering unit for the Lucas mechanical fuel injection was rotated by a toothed belt from the gear-driven inlet cam, while the exhaust cam directly drove an alternator on the rear of the head. It produced at 9000 rpm. This engine dominated the category until 1971, and was also used in sports car racing in 1.8 Litre form as the "FVC".
The cylinder head on the FVA pioneered many of Duckworth's ideas that would be used on the DFV and a mule for the eight-cylinder engine development, FVB, was built. However, the distance between the two camshafts and the valve inclination angle were larger than on DFV for the series.