In March, 1960, however, Jim Clark won at Goodwood. It was the first win for Clark in a works Lotus, or in any single seater, the first win for the Lotus 18 and the first win for Cosworth. Cosworth was contracted to Lotus in 1960 and by the end of the year Lotus, assisted by Cooper BMC, had dealt a death blow to the embryo racing car industries all over Europe. That one season of Formula Junior established the British motor racing industry as pre-eminent, a position it has held ever since. At the heart of all Lotus FJ cars was a Ford engine modified by Cosworth.
In 1964, Cosworth moved from North London to Northampton because it was on the M1 motorway halfway between London and Birmingham. The first distinct Cosworth engine, the SCA, was designed that year, primarily for use in the up coming one litre Formula Two. Two years later, Cosworth signed a contract with Ford. Ford paid £100,000 (about the cost of a production model's annual face lift) and received two engines, the four cylinder FVA and the V8 DFV.
Keith designed both at home while keeping in touch with Mike Costin, Dick Scammell and Benny Rood at the factory. The DFV went on to win 155 World Championship F1 races (okay, 154, the short stroke DFY also won a Grand Prix) plus Le Mans (twice), plus any number of other events. It was modified for Indycar, as the turbocharged DFX, and ruled supreme for years, at one point taking 81 successive wins.
A DFV was even used for powerboats, but was so dominant first time out that it was banned. When Cosworth entered Indycar with the DFX, the engine was competitive, but no more. That became policy. It was also very profitable because teams paid for the extra 20 bhp or so that Cosworth would release each year.
The FVA engine used a Ford block and became a mainstay of Formula Two and the popular 2 lire sports car category. From it came the Ford BDA engine, which was available in an RS version of the Escort, a car with which Ford enjoyed huge success in rallies.
It was Cosworth which was largely responsible for reviving the four valves per cylinder design which had received little attention postwar, apart from a handful of engines built by Borgward and Coventry Climax.
One of the ingredients of Cosworth's success was the use of computer controlled machinery. The early machines, from the mid 1960s, used programs written on punch cards, but a high level of interchange of components was achieved and that probably for the first time with engines made for racing. By contrast, Ford also commissioned a V12 F1 engine from Harry Weslake, but everything was hand made so while it was promising (Dan Gurney won the 1967 Belgian GP in an Eagle Weslake two weeks after Clark gave the DFV a debut win in the Dutch GP) the Weslake engine was never so practical a proposition.
The Cosworth DFV gave any number of teams a chance to go motor racing as did the later 3.5 litre DFZ. The engine was powerful and reliable, it was a sort of noisy spacer keeping apart the monocoque and the transmission. It was not the first engine to be designed as a stressed member (Lancia and BRM were ahead) but it was the engine which proved the concept.
Cosworth began to undertake work for road car makers. The Ford Sierra Cosworth was a noted example, but mainly because Ford paid to use the name. There was a splendid engine for General Motors (Vauxhall/Opel) and 16 valve heads for Saab and Mercedes Benz among others. Cosworth even invented a new method of casting aluminium and work was carried out on a closed cycle engine, ideal for use under water or in mines.
Keith took up flying and learned to pilot a helicopter. Then, in 1988, he suffered severe heart problems and underwent multiple bypass surgery. That brought an end to his flying (and his smoking) and he retired from Cosworth at the age of 55. This did not mean that he stopped thinking, it merely meant that he no longer had a large company to run.
A success story is the revival of Triumph motorcycles and Keith had one in his garage. "I gave them a bit of help," he explained. Then there were the microlight aircraft, he and the late Frank Costin (Mike's older brother) worked on aviation projects. The Mainair and Pegasus microlight brands are both owned by the Duckworth family and between them they have built thousands of machines.
Keith Duckworth was the most delightful company provided you accepted that, at any moment, he was likely to go off at a tangent and into politics, philosophy and religion. I always found that invigorating. If you went to interview him on a motor racing subject, it was one hour of racing and three hours of something else.
Although he came across as this blunt, confident, no nonsense Lancastrian, he was actually very modest about his achievements and he was always prepared to give credit to others where it was due. Though it is nearly twenty years since he had a role to play at Cosworth, the company still likes to boast that it is guided by his inspiration.
It can be argued that Keith Duckworth was the greatest engine designer there has ever been. Even if you disagree, you have to take him into consideration. I am only sorry that never again will I hear him putting the world to rights.
Mike Lawrence
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