In 1958, a small engine preparation workshop was founded in London. Its founders were two young engineers, Mike Costin and Keith Duckworth, who combined their two surnames to name the workshop Cosworth. Nobody thought, including them, that their engines would achieve more F1 victories than anyone else: 176. A record. Although Ford and Colin Chapman had a lot to do with it. #cars #formula1 #motorsports #cosworth Become a member of this channel to enjoy the benefits: / hermetic garage This is one of those videos that I really enjoy making, because they are an interesting story, one of those that show that reality surpasses fiction. And it is also a video with a good ending, as we have a luxury guest, Jaime Sánchez from “Seat en Rodaje” who helps us in our classic clinic. Don’t miss it! But let’s go back to Mike and Keith or Keith and Mike. This workshop was specialized in racing engines and they were not doing badly. In fact, just 6 years later they moved to Northampton, where they are still based. And 10 years later they founded a “branch” in Torrance, California, in the USA. Although they have not worked only for Ford, the history of Cosworth is closely linked to the American brand. In fact, at the beginning they manufactured engines for the junior formula, very popular in the United Kingdom, based on the Ford Kent 1,000 cm3 engine. They also worked on a legendary car, still today, for which I have a soft spot: the Ford Cortina Lotus. From the Junior Formula they jumped to Formula B and then to F2 where they had overwhelming success. But F1 was not yet part of their plans. Colin Chapman only liked one thing more than cars: winning. But in F1 he had a terrible rival, which was Ferrari, which not only made good cars, but above all good engines… which only they used. To beat Ferrari they needed a new engine, if not as powerful or more powerful, then lighter, more compact, more fuel efficient and with a key feature for their cars: It had to be rigid enough to be part of the chassis. Keith Duckworth was working on such an engine, but he lacked money. And it was Chapman who convinced Ford to finance the Ford Cosworth engine project. Ford gave 100,000 dollars in 1966, which was a lot of money and from then on the Ford Cosworth DFV engine began to take shape. Cosworth had a magnificent F2 engine that had a displacement of 1.8 liters. At that time the F1 regulations were called for 3 liters, 3-liter naturally aspirated engines or 1.5-liter supercharged engines... that was not even contemplated... until Renault came along. So Keith reduced the displacement of his 4 cylinders to 1.5 liters and joined them at a 90-degree angle. In those years F1 was not like it is today. Most of the teams were small, highly skilled and specialised workshops, but they were artisanal. Lotus was one of the most important, but it was still like that: They used “Hewland” gearboxes, “ZF” differentials, “Koni” shock absorbers, “AP or Lockeed” brakes… and from that moment on, Cosworth engines. The Cosworth engine made its debut at the 1967 Dutch GP, in the Lotus 49 driven by Jim Clark. What nobody imagined at that time was that with practically the same engine Michele Alboreto on board a Tyrrel would win the Detroit GP in 1983, 16 years later. The DFV engine evolved into the DFZ engine, which was a DFV adapted to the 3.5-litre regulations, and the DFR used by a few F1 teams until 1991. A fact: Jean Alesi with Tyrrell scored points with the Cosworth engine in 1990, in this case 23 years after its debut… I told you at the beginning that I like those stories in which you can say that reality surpasses fiction… an F1 engine that lasted more than 20 years! Incredible. The Cosworth DFV engine was a success in F1. The fame, justly fame, of Cosworth caused very well-known brands to resort to its services for road cars. Here are some examples. For me, one of the most interesting is the Mercedes 190 E 2.3 16 and 2.5 16, engines whose cylinder heads had been designed by Cosworth engineers and which were very successful in sales, but also in competition and in particular in the DTM. I cannot forget the Audi RS4 from 1999, a “family” car with a 2.7-litre multi-valve turbocharged V6 engine that produced 300 hp… a car that I also tested at the time and that was a blast, especially on the motorway… it was what it was designed for. Subaru also turned to Cosworth for its 2010 Imprezza CS400, a car with all the good things about the brand’s chassis, including all-wheel drive, but with an engine reworked by Cosworth that produced 400 hp. And last but not least, the Aston Martin Valkyrie, with a V12 engine of no less than 1,000 hp of power… thanks to Cosworth.