Starting from 1963, Cosworth ran a long and distinguished career in Formula 1. In 2006, two Formula 1 teams were supplied with Cosworth engines: the Williams team using Cosworth V8 engines, transmissions and associated electronics, and the Scuderia Toro Rosso team using rev-limited Cosworth V10s based on 2005 spec engines. The end of the 2006 F1 season marked the end of Cosworth's remarkable 43 year association with the series, as no team opted to use Cosworth for 2007. Cosworth left the sport as the second most successful engine manufacturer ever to race in F1, only behind Ferrari in grand prix victories.

Initially Cosworth was an independent company, then part of UEI and subsequently Vickers. Despite its long association with Ford, it was a subsidiary of Ford for only a very short time. The company was split into Technology and Racing divisions; the Racing division that retains the Cosworth name is now owned by Gerald Forsythe and Kevin Kalkhoven. The Technology division was briefly owned by Volkswagen and is now part of Mahle GmbH.

Since 2006 Cosworth has committed itself to engineering consultancy and component manufacture for an increasingly diverse customer base, including OEM automotive, aerospace, defence and aftermarket sectors. The company is AS9100 and ISO9001 accredited, therefore enabling it to operate in the most demanding and safety critical environments. Current publicised projects range from an 80cc diesel engine for unmanned aerial vehicles, through to an engineering partnership on one of the world's most powerful normally aspirated road car engines. Participation in world class competition continues, with hardware and consultancy support being applied to 2009 entrants in World Touring Car Championship, Formula 1 and a variety of GT and sportscar series.

A mainstay of the company's aftermarket product line is its Ford inline-4 Duratec program. Cosworth has broadened this range to supply complete high performance Subaru EJ25 engines and components for Subaru Impreza, as well as components for Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution and Nissan vehicles with the VQ35 engine. The company is also a specialist piston supplier, designing and manufacturing forged pistons for road and race vehicles from vintage and classic era's right through to leading edge designs for Superbike, World Touring Car and Formula 1.

Corporate history

The original company was founded as a British racing engine maker in 1958 by Mike Costin and Keith Duckworth (1933-2005 ) (COStin and duckWORTH). Despite being an independent company, Cosworth was supported by Ford for many years, and most of the Cosworth engines were branded Ford.

The company has been through a number of changes of ownership. After Keith Duckworth decided he didn't want to be involved with the day-to-day business of running a growing company, he sold out to United Engineering Industries (UEI) in 1980, retaining his life presidency and day-to-day technical involvement with Cosworth, and becoming a UEI board director; UEI was a group of small to medium-sized technology companies which was taken over by Carlton Communications in 1988 - Carlton was primarily interested in some of the audio-visual companies in the UEI portfolio and Cosworth was a poor fit with these; a new buyer for the company in the engineering/automotive sector was sought and the traditional engineering company Vickers plc bought Cosworth in 1990.