Mike Costin is someone you've probably never heard of. His name sounds like one of those terms used for a hypothetical run-of-the-mill person, like Average Joe.
Keith Duckworth stands out a bit more, but chances are you haven't heard of this bloke either. But you really should have.
See, the two founded and headed up a company, a corporation, which today has expertise and authority in the fields of marine technology, aerospace, electronics, defence, and sport to name just a few.
Starting to make sense? Costin, Duckworth… Is it rolling off your tongue yet? Yes, we're talking about Cosworth, of course.
Mike's path to the foundation of Cosworth started by following his big brother Frank into the aviation industry, and the aerodynamics necessary allowed the older sibling to forge a strong understanding of streamlining racing cars. He designed various successful cars, including the Lotus 16, and his involvement in motorsport dragged Mike into the fold. When he visited a lowly local club race, he was hooked. Racing in Britain in those days meant you'd sooner or later run into the genius Lotus founder Colin Chapman, and a relationship between him and Mike began with the youngster tweaking cams.
During Mike's eventual Lotus years, he decided to form a tiny engineering operation with fellow Lotus employee Keith. Cosworth was born.
Cosworth made do with defunct tools and machinery, which required extensive modifications and tinkering. The beginnings were purely a hobbyist's affair, but Lotus deals soon started coming in. Focusing on the Ford Anglia 105E engine, Mike and Keith started seeing specific power numbers rising above the magic 100bhp mark, and engines built by Cosworth soon garnered a winning reputation.
Soon afterwards the rule changes in the top tier of world racing meant that Formula 1 cars would leave the 1.5-litre engines in favour of 3.0-litre engines, and that left Lotus in a kerfuffle. Chapman needed a strong engine to beat the competition, and Cosworth got to work designing a pretty much clean-sheet racing engine. With Ford money, today we know the legendary outcome as the Ford 3.0-litre V8 DFV, but really it was all Cosworth, all along. Basically it was two inline fours on a common crank, and the DFV (double four valve) ended up powering more than half the F1 grid. Cosworth grew into a household name, as the DFV racked up win after win on its way to becoming the most successful racing engine in history. Road cars followed, as car giants across the globe turned to Cosworth when a need for hot engines arose: Ford, Mercedes, Opel, GM, Audi, Subaru…
Many of Cosworth's innovations never even got the acclaim they deserved. We all think Colin Chapman came up with using the engine as a stressed member of a chassis, but this was actually Keith's idea. The brilliant engineer had countless innovations to his name, but his proudest moment was simply the off-the-shelf DFV. As for Mike, he was just far-sighted and fortunate enough to make it through "40 years at the University of Duckworth."
