COSWORTH - Everything You Need to Know | Up to Speed

(car engine revving) (car backfires) - It's the tuning team

know

n for rally racing, extravagant wings, and the sickest Escort ever made. But did you

know

that they also made the most successful F1 engine of all time? (car engine roar) This is the Up to Speed ​​episode where I want more cars than any other Up to Speed ​​episode. (car engine roar) Here's

everything

you

need

to know to get up to

speed

at Cosworth. (upbeat music) It all started in the 1950s with a couple of guys from Northampton, England. Mike Costin and Keith Duckworth were engineers at Lotus, but they felt a little limited in what they could and couldn't do.

So they came up with a plan to start a company that would build racing engines to their own specifications. But like any small startup, they ran into a problem. That's when they turned to their boss at Lotus, big dog Colin Chapman. And they said, "Mr. Chapman, we'd like to start designing racing engines for racing cars. "But guys, that's what you're doing here. "Don't you like my engines?" Quack, quack, quack, quack. "Yes, like Duckworth said, we love Lotus. "We just want to do our thing. "But gentlemen, why do you

need

me?" Quack, quack. "Oh, what you're after is money. "I love you guys. "Here are all the kilos you need. "But I have some conditions." So Costin and Duckworth started Cosworth, a portmanteau of their last names that makes you think we'd be talking about them now if they called their business "Tinduck." In 1958, Cosworth Engineering Limited set up shop in a rat-infested former garage in Northampton.

Colin Chapman agreed to finance the new company but with some conditions. Duckworth was free to leave Lotus, but Mike Costin, who had just signed a new contract, had to stay on as engineer. And Lotus had priority over any of the Cosworth engines. Now Costin would leave his job at Lotus and use his free time to work in engineering at Cosworth. He did it for the first four years of the company. It's like when I leave Donut and then I go to work on my own YouTube channel, Babies Reacting to Surgery. Click that bell so you don't miss any babies who react to any surgery.

He soon began development of his first racing engine. Duckworth had his eye on a new type of racing called Formula Junior. This was an entry level class of open wheel racing limited to 1000cc engines using basically stock engines. It was intended as a gateway to F1 and would be the perfect testing ground for the boys. Mike Costin and old Ducky Boy, as I like to call him, already had a working relationship with Ford through Lotus. So the gentlemen were able to get their hands on two Ford engines that were developed for the 1959 Ford Anglia. These babies were small.

I'm talking about a small liter. They only made 39 suede ponies, but the guys modified the cylinder heads and tried new camshaft designs. They got the second engine, the Mark 2, up to 75 slim but powerful Bronies, which is nothing to write home about. They then sold that engine to Lotus, who put it in their Super 7. It was already a stellar car, but with the new Ford Cosworth engine inside it, it simply failed on the track. Lotus Super 7 began to dominate the competitions. The Mark 3 engine was an even more powerful version of the Ford Inline 4, now producing 95 mid-century horsepower.

I'm talking about Eames ponies. I'm talking about Frank Lloyd Wright Clydesdale. This was the first engine Cosworth made that was not sold exclusively to Lotus. Other racing teams said, "Hey, what the hell? We want one of those wrecked engines, too." And Cosworth said, "All right, rock and roll." The success of the new engines meant that Cosworth was no longer dependent. financially from Lotus. Oh no, they were free. I make my own money. I do what I want, Dad. It was clear that the Cosworth engineers knew it. , Colin Chapman played matchmaker and convinced Ford to invest in Cosworth.

They signed a $100,000 contract that included the development of two different engines, the four-cylinder FVA or four-valve type A engine was based on a block of. Ford crossflow engine. Features dual overhead cams, 16 valves, stinking Lucas fuel injection and Duckworth's own custom cylinder head. This inline four could produce 225 horsepower at 9000 rpm. It would dominate Formula Two. until 1971. It is an amazing engine. But it was just the beginning of what was to come. You see, the FVA was just a proof of concept for the next project, Cosworth's noisy three-litre V8 called DFV, which I assumed stood for damn fast vehicle, lightning bolt.

If there's one thing you need to know about Cosworth, it's this engine, okay. The DFV was the first engine completely designed by Cosworth and there was one more thing I wanted to mention about it. Oh yes, it was the most successful F1 engine of all time. (Car engine roars) Think about those boys and girls. It's like I love saxophone music, which I love, and I loved it so much that I decided to make my own saxophone from scratch. Then that saxophone became the greatest saxophone ever made and Bill Clinton would play my saxophone at the Hollywood Bowl.

And everyone would applaud and no one would laugh. The twin four-valve engine, as the name implies, was basically two of the four-cylinder FVA engines taped together. Cosworth produced the fully custom cylinder blocks and crankcase in-house. The three-liter V8 generated 410 HRSPRS. At the time, one of its biggest competitors, the Ferrari 312, generated the same power, but used four more cylinders. The first time the engine was used was at the 1967 Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix. Colin Chapman launched it in his Lotus 49 and driver Jim Clark took first place. Not bad. That's the first time they've used it. So Formula 1 is very strict about who can use its footage, but we were granted rare access to a film of the Dutch Grand Prix.

Please. (presenter imitating race cars) And on the straight they come. I will win. (presenter imitating race cars) And Cosworth has done it. They have crossed the finish line and (mumbles) the checkered flag. First time and they win it. They win

everything

. Oh, this footage is so authentic. What an incredible race. What authentic footage. Here they are on the podium. That feeling of authenticity seems so real. And watch them spray the stuff. He is kissing his girlfriend. This is Cindy Crawford. I can't believe this is real material. Oh, she jumps on those crocodiles like crazy. Ah, there are the pirates.

Oh no, the pirates have shown up. The pirates have appeared and are doing cloak and dagger. Colin Chapman swings on a rope like a Robin Hood and cuts off everyone's heads. Not only a great engineer, but also a great swordsman and a great statesman and fantastic footage, authentic and not at all fake. (men and women laughing behind the scenes) Cosworth actually made a complete F1 car on his own one year, but he never raced it. He was way ahead of his time. It had a four-wheel drive system of Duckworth's own design, a magnesium-block DFV engine, and was constructed of a lightweight wood-aluminum composite.

He was supposed to compete in the 1969 British Grand Prix. But he was quietly withdrawn because he was too good. We will never know. Duckster's lab continued to develop racing engines, but on the business side - that's what we can buy - another project was starting to take shape. Ford of Europe was working on a replacement for the highly successful small family car, the Anglia. Cosworth had a lot of experience tinkering with Anglia engines, so they were the natural choice to build an improved version for its successor, the Escort. The BDA or Type A belt drive engine was a 1600cc inline four with dual overhead cams and 16 valves.

It was developed for homologation purposes for a little thing called rally racing. Maybe you've heard of him. We talked a little about it. (Car engine roar) The first car to use the BDA engine was the Ford Escort RS1600. This racked up tons of rally victories. It had 120 horsepower, unheard of for a small car at the time. In 1969, Ford and Cosworth were basically best friends. They ran at each other. They did business together. They picked each other up at the airport, because that's what Nolan's friends do. Ford would never make Cosworth take an Uber at the airport because he has a weird rash.

The more athletic brother of the RS1600, the RS2000. I bought it in 1973. It was a little more powerful and refined than the RS1600, with a 0-60 time of nine seconds and a top

speed

of 110. (car engine roaring). This car also racked up a ton of rally victories. If you want to know more about all these damn Escorts, you can watch the episode Up to Speed ​​on, you guessed it, Escort. (car engine roar) We could go on and on about Cosworth's victories, but that would be a very long video. And I have to poop. So I'm going to speed things up.

My apologies. In 1975, Cosworth took their already successful DFV engine and put a damn turbo in it. (Car engine roar) It now produced 840 muscular but intelligent horses. The DFX quickly became the standard Indy car engine, dethroning the dominant Offenhauser, also known as the Offy engine. Now, success was not always guaranteed for Cosworth. In 1975, Chevrolet produced 5,000 units of the Cosworth Vegas edition. But GM's general manager at the time, a little guy named John Delorean, also known as Doc from Back to the Future, wanted to improve the Vega's performance after emissions standards came along. So he sent an engine designer to England to investigate Cosworth in the hopes that they would design a cylinder head for Chevy.

Cosworth agreed. We spent the next five years fixing engine problems, going back and forth with the EPA, and, worst of all, taking away horsepower to meet emissions standards. When the Cosworth Vega rolled off the production line, it was a 100% failure. It was originally intended to have 170 HRSPRS, but the final product only produced around 110 and was almost double the price of a base Vega model. They only sold about 3,500 of the expected 5,000 hand-built Cosworth Vegas. And the rest was scraped. I think it looks pretty sick. And they made a 290 HRSPR version for the track, but it wasn't enough to sell any street cars.

This was the first time Cosworth had its name on a production vehicle. And unfortunately, it was a monumental stinker. Their production models would have to be better in the future or their reputation would suffer. But while the Vega was struggling, Cosworth-powered cars were sweeping rally races around the world. (car engine roar) The new RS1800 debuted with a second generation Escort in 1975. That's when we started seeing features on their rally cars that are now classic Cosworth style. And I mean the big old Fitman wheel arches and signature high beams at the front for night rallies. The RS1800 had an updated version of a twin cam engine design for the RS1600.

The new engine rules meant they could drill it and get... This is getting ridiculous. I have to do something. I must find it. (somber music) (siren blaring) Where are you? (man crying) Let's see if I get any calls. The updated inline-four produced 245 herstey pigs and was now converted to a straight-cut ZF five-speed gearbox. With the RS1800, the Cosworth rally team was basically unstoppable. (Car engine roars) But do you think Cosworth relaxed and got comfortable? If you said yes, you're wrong, because they didn't. They constantly strived to make their engines better, more powerful and more dominant than the competition.

With production of a third-generation Escort ramping up in 1980 and rally racing gaining steam, Cosworth found itself on the brink of something great. This decade would produce some of the most iconic Cosworth-powered cars in history. Ford had won the World Rally Championship in 1979 with a Cosworth-powered RS1800. But the FIA ​​was about to launch a new rally category. They had much fewer restrictions than Group A or as they call it Baby Group. Enter Group B. (Car Engine Roar) Group B's rules were very relaxed when it came to engine size, car weight, and technology limitations. Ford made one of those big, oh no, we're going to need to upgrade our cars.

So the guys at Cosworth took a variant of their twin-cam inline-four and slapped a big turbo on it. (announcer shouts) A 1.8-liter BDT engine produced just over 200 horsepower for the street version. But the racial version, the racial version, could generate up to 450 buff mother-fathers. Ford installed a 300-horsepower version of the BDT in its new third-generation Escort. And the result was the RS1700T. (Car engine roar) The development of this car turned out to be a big headache, because the EscortThe third generation was built on a front-wheel drive platform that would not be the best for rally driving.

Then the damn Audi came out of nowhere with the Quattro all-wheel drive system and started killing off the competition. Just kick them right in the tuberoses. Ford tried to fight to make the 1700T with all-wheel drive, but ended up scrapping the entire project out of frustration before it could officially compete. They decided that the only way to compete with all-wheel drive Audis and Peugeots was to build an all-wheel drive car from scratch. Ford built the chassis. Ghia designed the body. And Reliant built the shell. It was like a group project and everyone did their part. And guess what?

They all got an A. The result was the RS200. (car engine roar) Mounted in the middle of this impressive little car was the Cosworth BDT engine, the turbocharged four was now tuned to deliver 250 HRSPR on the street with racing versions up to 444 horsepower at 8,000 rpm. and 360 woods tweeerk. This is one of the coolest Cosworth cars ever made. Kent Block has one. He won't shut up about it. Every time we have a fucking potluck with some online car guy, he says, "Hey guys, have you seen my Cosworth?" They were like. -"Ken, yes, we have seen it." - And he says: "Do you like it?" They were like. - "Yes Ken, we like it." -Although he is great, he is cooler than me.

But he didn't do very well in competition. He was too heavy to compete with Italian and French cars. And he one time he went off the road and killed three people. Group B is crazy. And if you want to learn more about this, watch Up to Speed. For now, Colby shows them how crazy Group B is. (car engine roar) Cosworth, as a company, was never out of demand. They were constantly approached to work with other manufacturers to develop high performance homologated engines. Mercedes saw the value in its tuning skills and commissioned the company to produce some homologated versions of its entry-level sedan.

Enter the Mercedes Benz 190E 2.3, 16 Cosworth. Add it to the list. The rally versions were incredibly powerful. And the street versions are literally one of my favorite cars of all time. Cosworth also worked with Opel helping to design a long-stroke crankshaft diesel engine for a rally version of the Opel Manta and Ascona, as well as a two-litre 16-valve engine for the Astra and Calibra. Later, Cosworth tuned a 2.7-liter turbocharged V6 for the B5 Audi RS4 that made 381 HRSPRS and had a 0-60 time of less than 5 damn seconds. If I could have a B5 RS4 I would probably do anything.

In the early 1980s, Ford teamed up with Cosworth to work on a new Group A project. This time it was for the rear-wheel drive Ford Sierra. They needed 5,000 engines to meet the homologation minimum and asked if Cosworth could increase the power up to 180 HRSPRS for the street version. Cosworth agreed, but under two conditions. Number one, the street engines had to be at least 200 horsepower and Ford didn't have to make it before five, but they had to buy 15,000 of them. And in 1986 the Sierra RS Cosworth debuted. Add it to the list. (car engine roar) It had a two-liter turbocharged YBB engine derived from the Pinto with custom Cosworth cylinder heads, a Borg Warner T5 gearbox and a huge, swallowtail whale tail.

Let me know in the comments what you call this wing. This is the first car that people started calling Cossie. The YBB engine generated 240 horsepower for the street version and more than double that for the track version. A selection of 500 Sierra coupes were sent to the Aston Martin plant in Tickford for special treatment. What do I mean by special treatment? Boy, I'm glad you asked. These Sierras have a bigger turbocharger, a better fuel system, and a damn shaft kit. They lowered the suspension. And most importantly, they got discreet stickers that said RS500. So if you look closely, you will notice it.

While the street version can produce 224 horsepower, the track version produces five hunna. (car engine roar) The RS500s dominated touring car racing from 1987 to 1992, winning championship after championship after championship after championship after championship around the world. And towards the end of their career, track versions of the two-liter engines generated up to 680 horsepower. The only thing that could challenge the RS500 was the R32 Skyline. And that's fucking Skyline. The Sierra Cosworths were doing very well in Group A rally racing. But the platform was about to become a front-wheel drive car and the engineers at Ford of Europe had a little idea.

Let's take the YBB engine and put it in a smaller all-wheel drive car. YBB? Rather, why not BB? Enter the Ford Escort RS Cosworth, one of the coolest hatchbacks ever made. Add it to the list. (Car engine roar) This Cossie had a body designed by Karmann in Germany. It had a wing like that of the Sierra and important aerodynamic improvements to the rest of the body. The adjustable front splitter made the Escort RS the first production car that could produce downforce at the rear and front. It had a big old turbo with a big, violent intake that kicked in around 3,500 rpm. (Car engine roar) Like a Group B car.

But the most important thing is that the four-line engine sent 224 horses and 224 tuerks to all four wheels, making it a perfect horse port. (horn sounds) Guys, we did it. (Man applauds) Today, Cosworth is still based in Northampton. And they are still discrete upgrade engines. You can get a Cosworth tune for your AE86 that increases the horsepower up to 280. Add it to the list. They even made a limited run of the Subaru Impreza Cosworth. Add it to the list. The new Honda NSX has an engine partially designed by Cosworth. This one is not added to the list.

They did it totally wrong. Its inspiration was like a luxury muscle car. You don't design. They have a rich and crazy history. They have made some of the coolest cars in the world. And they are still innovating. They have made great strides in hybridization, connectivity and the future of propulsion. And they are still collaborating. One of the most intense race car-looking road cars of all time, the Aston Martin Valkyrie has a 6.5-liter naturally aspirated Cosworth V12 engine under the hood. With 1,130 upgraded Cossie horses available, it's clear that Cosworth won't be slowing down anytime soon. Where are you? (somber music) (man crying) I love you.