F1-Blog

Keith Duckworth the designer of possibly the most famous F1 engine of all time the Cosworth DFV!

The 3.0ltr V8 engine won everything going in F1 for years (154 victories over the various generations of the engine) and some would say the 'new' V8's in F1 for next year owe a lot to it's existence.

Keith was an engineering student at The Imperial College of London and then joined Lotus as a transmission engineer under the tutelage of Colin Chapman no less; at Lotus he famously joined forces with Mike Costin and Cosworth was born. 

The company started to make a name for itself when Ford asked them to build two race engines, these where the now famous 1.6ltr FVA (F2) and the 3ltr V8 DFV. The DFV was not however used solely by Ford as teams you now know all used it to make there names, these include Williams, Brabham and McLaren (The engine was also used up until the 80's in IndyCar to great success). Ford also asked them to build the Cosworth BDA for use in F2, however this engine actually came to fame in the Ford world rally cars of the era.

The Cosworth business was sold in 1988 and is now in the hands of Audi and Kevin Kalkhoven and Gerald Forsythe, Audi owning the road car section and Kevin and Gerald bought the race engine section from Ford.

Cosworth have brought many of the great British engineers up through the ranks (Mario Illien and Paul Morgan, the founders of Ilmor) and as such should be commended on the work they have done over the nearly 50 years the company has been in existence.

With a little luck the might of the DFV can be brought back into F1 next year as Williams will again be powered by the Cosworth V8.

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