Cosworth DFV
DFVs were widely available from the late 1960s to the mid 1980s and were used by every specialist team in F1 during this period with the exception of Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Renault, BRM and Matra, who all designed, produced and ran their own engines.Chapman then approached Ford of Britain's public relations chief, former journalist Walter Hayes, with whom he had developed a close working relationship from the early 1960s.[2] Hayes and Copp developed a business plan, which was backed by Ford UK's new chairman Stanley Gillen, and approved by Ford's Detroit head office as a two-part plan: The project was revealed by Hayes in a PR launch in Detroit at the end of 1965, but the engine was not ready until the third race of the 1967 season, on the 4 June at Zandvoort.Graham Hill, who was in the team at the specific request of Ford and Hayes,[2] put his DFV-powered Lotus 49 on pole position by half a second and led for the first 10 laps but was then sidelined by a broken gear in the camshaft drive.[4] Only Brabham's Repco V8 engine provided a usable combination of power, lightness and reliability, but its age and design left little room for further improvement.Hayes concluded that Ford's name could become tarnished if the Lotus were to continue winning against only lesser opposition, and that they should agree to use the unit in other teams, and hence potentially dominate Formula One.At the end of 1967, Copp and Hayes gently explained to Chapman that he would no longer have monopoly use of the DFV and in August 1967 it was announced that the power unit would be available for sale, via Cosworth Engineering, to racing teams throughout the world.What followed was a golden age, where teams big or small could buy an engine which was competitive, light, compact, easy to work with and relatively cheap (£7,500 at 1967 prices[6] or about £90,000 in 2005 money[7]).Lotus, McLaren, Matra, Brabham, March, Surtees, Tyrrell, Hesketh, Lola, Williams, Penske, Wolf and Ligier are just some of the teams to have used the DFV.Previously, teams running Ferrari and Alfa-Romeo flat-12 engines had enjoyed a handling advantage due to the low centre of gravity in such a configuration.However, in the early days of turbo F1 cars (1979–1982) the Renault, Ferrari and Toleman were unable to offer consistent opposition to the Cosworth DFV British teams.The early turbo Renault, though powerful (particularly so on high altitude tracks such as Interlagos, Kyalami, Jarama, Dijon-Prenois and the Österreichring) were much heavier, cumbersome, complicated and significantly, much more unreliable than the British Cosworth DFV teams.Also, the light and agile British cars exploited ground-effect technology so well that even on fast tracks such as Buenos Aires, Silverstone, Hockenheim the DFV engine was able to win.Eric Broadley's Lola, having previously focused on the 2-litre smaller class, designed their T280 model fitted with a Cosworth engine, which was very fast though it often failed to finish.The best result for DFV-powered vehicles at Le Mans was in 1975, when fuel consumption rules had the field using low power tuning and slower engine speeds, which slowed the race pace and mitigated the DFV's vibration problem.1976 saw a slightly faster pace for the Mirage and the DFV-powered De Cadenet Lola, but they were eclipsed by the new turbocharged Porsche 936, driven by Ickx and Gijs van Lennep, in first place.Jean Rondeau and Jean-Pierre Jaussaud nursed a two lap lead over the Jacky Ickx / Reinhold Joest Porsche 908/80 charging back from earlier mechanical setbacks.In 1981 Rondeau slightly improved on the pace of the previous year but, as in 1976, DFV-powered vehicles were again outclassed by a Porsche 936, driven this time by the old Mirage winning team of Ickx and Bell.That year, the 3.3 litre variant powered the new Rondeau M382 to three podium finishes with a win in the 1000 km Monza event and a strong second place standing behind Porsche in season points.In an attempt to recover some of the performance deficit Cosworth designer Mario Illien reconfigured the cylinder aspect ratio to allow the engine to rev more freely, and combined this with a narrow-angle valve set-up and Nikasil Aluminium liners.The changes upped power output to ~520 bhp,[11] and between 11000-12000 RPM but this was not sufficient to keep pace with the turbo cars at most tracks, and it was only through a modicum of luck that Michele Alboreto was able to take what would prove to be the DFV-family's final F1 victory, at the 1983 Detroit Grand Prix.Jonathan Palmer of Tyrrell eventually won the drivers' Jim Clark Cup, and his team took the constructors' laurels in the Colin Chapman Trophy.The DFR struggled on until the 1991 season finally being eclipsed by the higher revving abilities of new pneumatic valve gear engines such as the HB, and was last used in that year's Australian Grand Prix by the Footwork, Fondmetal, Larrousse and Coloni teams, nearly a quarter of a century after the DFV's first race.By the time of its demise, continued improvement had pushed the DFR power output to nearly 630 bhp (470 kW; 639 PS),[11] 60% higher than the original 1967 DFV.[15][16][17][18][19] A 2.65 L turbocharged version of the DFV was developed privately by the Vels Parnelli Jones team for the 1976 USAC IndyCar season, in the face of opposition from Duckworth.The 3.3 L version powered Rondeau to the second points standing in the World Sportscar Championship season of 1982, but it was insufficiently reliable to be competitive in the longer events.The new fuel-restricted C Junior (C2) class in 1983 opened a niche for successful use of the 3.3 L version, where low power tuning brought its reliability to a level where it could succeed.
CosworthManufacturerKeith DuckworthMike CostinConfigurationnaturally-aspiratedDisplacementcu inCylinder borePiston strokeCylinder blockAluminiumCylinder headValvetrainGasolineOil systemDry sumpPower outputTorque outputlb⋅ftFord-Cosworth HBinternal combustion engineFormula Onemotor racingColin ChapmanTeam LotusFord EuropeFormula 3000sports car racingFédération Internationale de l'AutomobileCoventry ClimaxFord Motor CompanyDavid BrownAston MartinWalter HayesLotus CortinaHarley CoppNASCARStanley GillenFormula TwoV8 engineZandvoortGraham HillLotus 49pole positionJim ClarkDenny Hulme9 Days in SummerFerrariMaseratiDan GurneyWeslakeRepco V8Ken TyrrellJackie StewartHewlandTyrrell 008McLarenBrabhamSurteesTyrrellHeskethWilliamsPenskeLigierground effectVenturi tunnelsAlfa-Romeoflat-12Keke RosbergInterlagosKyalamiJaramaDijon-PrenoisÖsterreichringBuenos AiresSilverstoneHockenheimMichele AlboretoDetroit Grand PrixMartin BrundleAustrian Grand Prixsportscar racingSports Prototype classFord P68Ligier JS3Le MansLe Mans 24 HoursJacky IckxDerek BellPorsche 936Gijs van Lennep1980 raceJean RondeauJean-Pierre JaussaudReinhold JoestKaditchaGroup A Sports CarAustralian Sports Car Championships1983 ASCC1984 championshipRomano WE84World Endurance ChampionshipRondeau M3821000 km MonzaC1 classC2 classPedro LamyAustraliaNew ZealandTasman SeriesstrokePiers CourageJochen RindtBrabham BT261970 New Zealand Grand PrixChris AmonMarch 701Formula 5000Tasman FormulaMario IllienNikasil1983 Detroit Grand PrixJim Clark CupColin Chapman Trophynaturally aspirated