DEARBORN, Mich.- Long considered one of the premier engine buildersand a proven winner in racing series worldwide, Ford Motor Company-ownedCosworth Racing is on the verge of scoring its 200th victory following aquarter century of Champ Car racing. Cosworth's record of achievement inover 25 years in Champ Cars is unparalleled: 197 race victories, 11 drivers'championships, 12 Indianapolis 500 victories and two manufacturers'championships. In conjunction with its long-time partner and now owner, Fordand Cosworth have combined for 331 Champ Car victories in more than 40years.
Founded in 1958 by Mike Costin and Kevin Duckworth in Northampton,England, Cosworth has worked tirelessly through the years to remaincompetitive in North America's premier open-wheel racing series. Butaccording to Ian Bisco, vice-president of Cosworth's North Americanoperations who has been involved with the company's Champ Car program formore than 20 years, while much has changed, many things still remain thesame.
"It's funny to see that many of the same issues that we faced 20years ago are still haunting us today," Bisco remembers. "Critics back then,as many of them do now, said 'racing's too expensive, too powerful and toofast to be safe.' Back in those days a Champ Car engine cost $27,000, thepower generated was around 700 horsepower and alcohol fuel injection wasaccomplished using a crude and complicated system of jets, springs andshims. One small step the wrong way meant that you would be watching yourengine go by with a long trail of blue smoke behind it because a pistonburnt through.
"Today's modern electronics and sensors have eliminated many ofthings that could go wrong through human error, and reliability hasincreased tremendously. For example, live telemetry has given us the abilityto know when an engine is going bad, usually giving us time to warn thedriver and reduce the amount of damage that could be done. Telemetry hasalso made the drivers honest. We know if he or she entered a corner at fullthrottle or whether or not they over-revved the engine before it blew up,regardless of what they might say."
Today's Champ Car engines are technological marvels, specificallydesigned to endure the stress of revving at approximately 16,000 rpm whilegenerating close to 900 horsepower. Ironically, Cosworth Racing, alreadyhaving designed the highly successful DFV Formula One engine during themid-1960's, made its initial foray into Champ Cars 10 years later using amodified version of that Formula One engine - the DFV.
Introduced in 1976, the 2.65-liter DFX was a modified, turbochargedversion of the Cosworth's DFV Formula One engine. Producing more than 700horsepower, the DFX would eventually become the standard-setting Champ Carengine for the next decade. Al Unser gave the DFX its first victory on June27, 1976, at Pocono before winning twice more at Milwaukee and Phoenix.Altogether, the DFX would win 149 races - including 12 Indy 500's - and 10drivers' championships between 1976 and 1991, making it one of thewinningest engines ever developed by Cosworth.
"The DFX established our participation in North America's premieropen-wheel racing series," according to Bisco. "We used to develop the baseengine specification in England before selling engine kits and theirreplacement parts to engine rebuild houses or teams that had their ownengine shops. We supplied engines to about 95 percent of the cars on thegrid in those days - a totally different scenario from what we have today."
The 1992 season saw Ford Motor Company return to open-wheel racingin the United States for the first time in 21 years, partnering withCosworth Racing to design and produce the Ford-Cosworth XB. Revolutionaryfor its time, the XB was a totally new V-8 engine with a re-designedcylinder block, head and other major castings and forgings. Unlike the DFX,the XB was a "clean sheet of paper design" specifically for Champ Car racingand was significantly smaller and lighter than its competitors, while stillproducing close to 14,000 rpm and between 750 and 800 horsepower.
Although its win total doesn't match that of the DFX, the successthe XB enjoyed in just four years of competition is impressive nonetheless.From 1992 to 1995, the XB won 25 races, including the 1995 Indianapolis 500,drivers' championships in 1993 and 1995, and a manufacturers' title in 1995despite competing against other successful engine manufacturers such asChevrolet, Mercedes-Benz and Honda.
"The XB was truly a great engine because it was so radical and itestablished the baseline for today's engines regardless of manufacturer,"comments Bisco. "Its size and shape established a datum by which CART wouldestablish its future chassis rules that we continue to work with today.
"I also think that the engine set a trend whereby it was the firstengine to be designed as part of a chassis with installation, aerodynamicsand serviceability access all influencing the initial size, weight and shapeof the engine. In my mind it is still the most compact and cleanest-lookingengine we've ever designed because it didn't benefit as much from therapidly increasing electronic 'gadgets' that today's engines utilize."
Although the XB was a highly successful engine, theultra-competitive world of Champ Car racing dictated that Ford and Cosworthintroduce the XD in 1996. Compared with the XB, the XD was smaller, lighterand had a lower center of gravity while still producing close to 15,000 rpmand between 800 and 850 horsepower. Despite the fact that it was often themost powerful engine on the track, the XD was plagued by early reliabilityproblems. The XD still managed to win 16 races over three years, includingfive during both the 1996 and 1999 seasons, but failed to achieve thesuccess enjoyed by either the DFX or XB.
"The XD was introduced in a much more competitive environment thanour previous engines had been," Bisco says. "We had a much stronger level ofcompetition from the other engine manufacturers competing in the series atthe time and this diluted the number of teams that were running the XD.Although its achievements were diminished in regard to wins, the level ofsuccess we achieved with the XD was still very good and the top end power ofthis engine was always the envy of our rivals."
The 2000 season saw Ford and Cosworth introduce the XF, anothercompletely new engine designed specifically for Champ Cars. The thirdgeneration in Cosworth's "X" series, the XF is the smallest, lightest andhighest-revving Champ Car engine ever designed and manufactured by CosworthRacing. Two inches shorter and 18-percent lighter than the XD, the XFproduces nearly 16,000 rpm and more than 800 horsepower. The XF enjoyed ahighly successful inaugural campaign in 2000, winning seven races -including its debut race - and Ford-Cosworth's first manufacturers'championship since 1995.
Following such an impressive debut season for a new engine, hopesare high heading into the 2001 season. Eager to defend its manufacturers'championship while also capturing a drivers' championship, Cosworth Racingalso needs just three wins to capture its 200th victory in 25 years of ChampCar racing.
"The 2001 season should be very exiting in the CART series with newvenues, driver changes and several teams switching engine manufacturers,"Bisco says. "We spent a great deal of our time last year manufacturing newengines and sorting out problems assorted with introducing a new engine, andnot a lot of time was spent developing the performance of the engine.However, we made a specific effort during the offseason to improve the XF'sperformance and it should take on a new dimension in 2001.
"I think when we tested the XF during Spring Training at Homesteadlast season we held a large advantage over the competition in terms ofperformance. But as the season went on, I think the opposition slowly caughtup to us so that by the end most of the manufacturers were pretty evenlymatched.
"This year we're hoping that our extensive winter developmentprogram will help us to regain the performance advantage we enjoyed at thebeginning of the 2000 season, although we won't know for sure until thefirst race of the season in Mexico. However, unlike last year, we plan oncontinuing our performance development of the XF indefinitely throughout theyear because not only do we want to retain the coveted CART manufacturers'trophy, we'd also like to win a drivers' championship and capture CosworthRacing's 200th Champ Car victory."
-FRT
