Greatest Cosworth Powered Road Cars

For just over 60 years now, British engine specialists Cosworth has been powering road and race cars. The company has 176 Formula One wins under its belt but has been entrenched in all sorts of racing since being founded in 1958 by Mike Costin and Keith Duckworth. The name Cosworth comes from is a portmanteau of their names and both were formerly with Lotus. Cosworth maintained a close relationship with Colin Chapman at Lotus for a while and initially only built engines for the British road and race carmakers.

• 2023 Gordon Murray Automotive T.50

  Base Trim Engine

  4.0L V12 Gas

  Base Trim Drivetrain

  Rear-Wheel Drive

  Base Trim Transmission

  6-speed Manual

  Base Trim Horsepower

  656 hp

  Base Trim Torque

  344 lb-ft@9,000 rpm

• 

  Aston Martin Valkyrie

  Base Trim Engine

  6.5L V12 Hybrid

  Base Trim Drivetrain

  Rear-Wheel Drive

  Base Trim Transmission

  7-speed Sequential

  Base Trim Horsepower

  1,160 hp

  Base Trim Torque

  663 lb-ft @ 6000 rpm

After that, Cosworth was best known for its relationship with Ford but has been involved in some of the most beloved car-enthusiast icons to hit the road, including cars from Mercedes, Audi, Opel/Vauxhall, and even Chevrolet. While based in the UK for access to Europe, Cosworth also has a strong presence in the US with facilities in North Carolina, Indianapolis, and Michigan. Cosworth has also had success in Indycar racing and provided the spec engine for the Champ Car World Series in 2003. Today, Cosworth is as revered as ever, and it’s its expertise in the combustion engine that makes cars such as the GMA T.50 and Aston Martin Valkyrie so special.

1

Aston Martin Valkyrie

Cosworth RA Engine

Aston Martin and Red Bull got together in a close partnership to build a lunatic level track car that could also cruise on a road. It’s still in testing at the time of writing, but we got a glimpse with its public debut at the 2019 British Grand Prix race at Silverstone. The highlight of the Valkyrie is its screamer of a V12 engine tailored by Cosworth to produce 1,000 hp even without the hybrid assistance added, which ups it further to 1,160 hp.

2

Audi RS4 B5

2.7L V6 ASJ and AZR Engines

The RS is Audi’s highest trim level and stands for RennSport, which literally translates from German as Racing Sport. The original B5 version used a twin-turbo 2.7-liter V6 developed and built by Cosworth in the UK rather than the famous turbocharged inline-five design of Audi’s other high-performance vehicles. It featured Audi’s quattro system and was a riot to drive and full of character. Part of that character was in how low-key it was until the boost came on tap. Factory cars now have a low boost threshold and little turbo lag, which is a bit of a shame as it added to the fun factor, even though it’s not ideal for performance.

3

Bizzarrini Giotto

Cosworth 6.2L V12 Engine

One of the greatest achievements of Giotto Bizzarrini’s career was the creation of the Lamborghini V12, variations of which powered every V12 model from the brand from 1964 until 2010. The engine was iconic, thus the supercar named after the famed engineer needs to have an iconic V12 powerplant to match, and Cosworth is ready for the challenge. It will have a capacity of 6,626 cc as a tribute to Giotto’s birth date of the 6th of June 1926. It will feature an ultra-light, bespoke design, and development was on track for final testing last year and a release in 2025 if all goes well.

4

Bugatti Tourbillon

Cosworth V16 Engine

The Tourbillon is set to be the greatest vehicle the company has ever unveiled, and this is all thanks to the hybridized naturally aspirated V16 powertrain that was championed by Rimac. Mate Rimac, the CEO of Bugatti Rimac, realized combustion was an asset rather than a drawback, but any engine involved needed to have that incomparable quality that all Bugatti’s possess. Thus, Cosworth was employed to create something wholly unique: the first production V16 engine in 84 years. Forced induction was out of the question; the engine had to be naturally aspirated, and the result is a 1,000-horsepower powerplant that pays homage to automotive history while simultaneously creating it. The electric assistance adds another 775 hp.

5

Ford Escort Cosworth

YBP and YBT Engines

The follow-up to the Sierra Cosworth was the more marketing-friendly Escort Cosworth. It wasn’t actually based on the Ford Escort chassis though, but rather on a shortened version of the Sierra Cosworth’s chassis. The Escort Cosworth became even more notorious on the streets of the UK, although its success in World Rally Championship was modest. We can still find its DNA through Ford hot hatches all the way up to the Ford Focus RS.

6

Ford Sierra RS Cosworth

Cosworth YBB and YBD I4 Engines

The Sierra RS Cosworth was both the model that made it possible to own a cool Ford Sierra and made the name Cosworth a household name through three generations. It was born of Ford Motorsport in Europe who wanted something that would dominate Group A racing throughout the world. Cosworth was contracted to build and tune the Ford base engine to power it and the result was an all-wheel-drive beast with a 204-horsepower 2.0-liter inline-four engine complete with a Garrett turbocharger and Weber-Marelli fuel injection system under the hood.

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It wasn’t just rallying and touring car racing where the Sierra Cosworth made its name though. On the road, it became a working-class hero for being loud, brash, and very, very, fast. Then it got stolen a lot, and the cost of insurance eventually forced a lot off the road. The Sierra RS Cosworth’s influence still ripples through fast versions of cars today, from the oversized spoiler on the first generation to Cosworth’s spicily turbocharged four-cylinder engine. Later, the RS500 Cosworth followed with even more power, peaking at 224 hp – the version that would appear in the Escort Cosworth.

7

GMA T.50 and T.33

Cosworth GMA V12 Engine

When you say you’re creating the modern-day interpretation of the McLaren F1, you need an engine that’s as uncompromising as your cutting-edge design. Whereas BMW provided the V12 30 years ago, the company left the V12 game with the death of the M760Li xDrive, so Gordan Murray Automotive decided to turn to Cosworth to create a worthy successor. The result is the lightest, highest-revving, most power-dense naturally-aspirated V12 ever fitted to a road car, producing up to 775 horsepower and revving to an unbelievable 12,100 rpm. It’s a 4.0-liter work of art, created with the sole focus of delivering the purest driving experience possible, and if you’ve ever seen it in action, we think the result was a resounding success.

8

Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.3-16

WAA Engine

In the mid-1980s, Mercedes wanted to go rallying and the 4-door 190E was the most likely candidate due to its sophisticated multi-link rear suspension and aerodynamic body shape. Mercedes entrusted Cosworth with tuning the engine and the company built a whole new cylinder head for the Mercedes engine that used two camshafts and four valves per cylinder.

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However, it was ready just as the world was watching Audi dominate the World Rally Championship with the Quattro. Mercedes did some quick thinking and came to the conclusion that, perhaps, the Cosworth-powered 190E might be better suited to touring car racing. It subsequently went on to challenge BMW’s E30 M3 into the 1990s and won the German touring car series in 1991 and 1992. The 2.3-16 went on to notch up several world endurance records at Nardo in Italy and was soon enlarged to 2.5L for the Evo versions – and while Cosworth assisted with their development too, the 2.5L engines were built in-house by Mercedes.

9

Subaru Cosworth Impreza CS400

EJ257 Engine

Unlike the other cars so far, the Subaru Impreza WRX STI by Cosworth was limited to just 75 units. It was also only sold in the UK. It was almost double the cost of a standard STI and, for their money, those customers got 395 hp and 400 lb-ft of torque from the Cosworth-tuned Subaru 2.5-liter flat-four engine. The initial response wasn’t so great, with complaints of it being laggy and power not coming on until 3,500 rpm. But, after the rev needle hit that mark, things got exciting quickly and showed off how important the all-wheel-drive system was. For those with the skill to keep it in the rev-range, the Cosworth Impreza had a habit of spitting itself out of corners at a remarkable velocity.

10

Honorable Mention: Chevrolet Cosworth Vega

2.0L Cosworth I4

The Cosworth-powered Chevrolet Vega could have been a wonderful car. It had John Delorean’s hand in it and styling that echoed the 1970 Camaro. It launched with high praise from the automotive media until it became known for some large faults that included a propensity to rust, reliability issues, safety issues and durability problems with the engine. So, Chevy did the logical thing and had Cosworth build 5,000 performance versions of the 90-horsepower engine in 1975 so it could go racing. The engine with its new cylinder head made 290 horsepower and revved out at 9,000 rpm.

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Unfortunately for the road cars, emissions throttling brought output down to 120 horsepower, just ten more than the optional high-powered 2.3L Iron Duke engine. The extra 10 hp cost almost double the price of a base model. That didn’t stop Road and Track saying that it “goes like the proverbial bat out of Carlsberg Caverns” and praising its handling, as well as Car and Driver choosing it as one of its “10 Best Collectible Cars” for its 4th annual “10 best” issue.

Sources: Bizzarrini, Bugatti, Cosworth, GMA, Aston Martin, Slashgear, Hot Cars.