(engine revving) - Cosworth, the company
behind many kick-ass cars like the Ford Sierra Cosworth, the Audi RS4 and too many Formula One wins to count. They're engine builders that have a knack for taking fun cars and turning them into insane performance beasts. They have a brand that thrives off of making unusual engines work and have been playing
the game for many years. The name of that game, innovation. A while back, Aston Martin
announced a new hypercar, the Valkyrie, this ultra car uses a 6.5
liter 12 cylinder engine built by Cosworth. The naturally aspirated
V12 has 1000 horsepower and hits a maximum of 11,000 RPM, making it the most powerful
naturally aspirated engine ever. The car has some absurd numbers for sure but the craziest part, while
designing the Valkyrie's V12, Cosworth accidentally made the best three cylinder engine ever, using ideas that came from the 60s. (engine revving) How was Cosworth able to
build such a crazy engine? How do they use old school
ideas on new technology? How do they accidentally build the most reliable three-cylinder ever? Well, I'll tell you. (upbeat music) Big thanks to Manscaped for
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shipping at manscaped.com. Join the Manscaped movement today and help take care of your pair. Now let's get back to 'Wheelhouse'. Cosworth is fascinating to me because of their unique methodology when it comes to engine building. And to get a clear picture of what I mean, we need to look at Cosworth's
most important invention. Their double four valve or DFV engine. We did a whole up to speed on Cosworth which explained how
the company was started and touched on this engine. But here's the short version. Back in the late 1950s when everything was
still in black and white Keith Duckworth was a young guy who got a job working for
race car builder, Lotus. At the time, Lotus was building cars specifically to enter into Formula One. With Duckworth as the newest employee, he was assigned to the hardest job, fixing one of Lotus's notoriously
unreliable transmissions. The issue was that like every job that requires you to
think outside the box, every single solution
Duckworth offered to his boss was deemed either too expensive
or not worth the resources but Duckworth still tried his best. Duckworth became buddies
with one Mike Costin, a coworker at Lotus, and the two eventually left to form their own engine
building company Cosworth. Get it? Costin, Duckworth, Cosworth. It's a bit better than Worthcos,
that would've been weird. It was a match made in race car heaven. And lucky for them, Lotus
actually hired Cosworth to tune their engines almost instantly. It's like if you dropped out of school because you're a failing math and then your school hired
you to teach math for them. The Cosworth-Lotus relationship eventually culminated in the
greatest Formula One engine of all time, the DFV. Lotus convinced Ford to give them £100,000 to fund the Cosworth-Lotus production of a four cylinder engine for Formula Two and a V8 for Formula One. Cosworth devoted all of its resources over an 18 month period
to build these engines. Early on, Cosworth realized
they could kill two birds with one stone. When you think about it, a V8 is basically two inline four engines with a common crank. So instead of building
two separate engines, they first built a
really solid inline four and then turned it into a bigger V8. Keep in mind, engine production
involves a lot of tweaking and working to make sure
the block combusts the fuel perfectly. By using the same base for both engines they could test the larger V8
using the smaller inline four. (upbeat music) Cosworth engines became the
gold standard in Formula One, Formula Two, Indycar and many
other types of motor sport and made Cosworth a well-known company. This company started in a freaking barn and a few years later they
were dominating racing. Talk about an underdog story. They were competing against
companies like Ferrari, Maserati and Honda. The way they were able to come out on top of their competition was
their focus on high revving, efficient engine design.
(engine revving) The DFV and subsequent engines had set a high watermark for Cosworth. They knew this kind of design process was the key to success. Instead of designing engines
entirely from the ground up it is usually easier and cheaper to take existing modular
technology and modify it. Cosworth's expedited workflow meant they can produce performance engines for large OEMs with ease. For example, in the early 1970s, Chevrolet had a car called the Vega. The Vega is like the peak
boring Malaise era compact car. The decision to give the
Vega a performance model came from a man by the
name of John DeLorean. Long before he was
producing stainless steel Goldwing dreamboats in Ireland, DeLorean was General
Motors' general manager and vice president. DeLorean sent engine designers to England to find new and exciting ways to improve the Vegas performance in light of the 1973 gas crisis. New and exciting is Cosworth thing, so it seemed natural
to the team in England would help Chevy do something cool. The Cosi Vega was designed at the twilight of the muscle car craze. While everyone else was
trying in vain to find speed and hamstrung big block V8, Cosworth gave the Chevy a European touch and filled out the engine
bay with a four cylinder. This car had double overhead
cams and fuel injection which made it stand way out when compared to some of
the barges of the smog era. This was one of the ways Cosworth completely innovated
performance car culture. (upbeat music) A few years ago, Nissan
approached Cosworth and asked them to build them a V6 engine for their GTR LM Nismo racecar. Nissan wanted to do something new with this Le Mans competitor. And when you want to try
something new, where do you go? You go to Cosworth. Well, most of Le Mans prototype cars have engines mounted behind the driver, Nissan wanted to try a front engine design to drastically improve aerodynamics. Cosworth didn't have time to
build several different V6s to test combustion ratios
and emissions and all that. So the idea they came up with was to start with engines
designed to be tested, or mules, to study combustion
characteristics on a smaller scale before going through the
trouble to make a large V6. The engineers started by taking one of their four cylinder engines, cutting off one of the cylinders and creating a three cylinder engine. With a small three cylinder to study, they could refine what they needed to before they built the
real engine for Nissan. This three cylinder took just five months to go from idea to testing on the dyno to soon after its design was
adapted into a powerful V6 for the rather ugly looking Nismo. I love ugly cars, so I can say that. It's a lot like the
original DFV and FBA engines of the 1960s, the same engineering properties apply. Now, let's talk about supercars. The same mule idea used on a Nissan V6 would be used to create the
Aston Martin Valkyrie V12. Aston Martin asked Cosworth
to build them a powerful V12 and Cosworth knew two things, one, they weren't going
to put turbos on it. And two, before they went ahead and built the gigantic 12 cylinder engine, they were going to build a
small three cylinder engine to test out how it would perform. It's especially important to do this sort of development
work for road cars. To meet emissions regulations, you need to be precise about
when the engine combusts. With a three cylinder, Cosworth can ensure that
fuel and air is combusting exactly when it should. They can mess with things and hit targets without going to the
trouble of building a large and expensive V12. Once the three cylinder
achieves the desired numbers you can make a V12 and have a very good idea
of how it'll perform. Now, the Valkyrie's
engine is just amazing. I mean really, but the engine
Cosworth made to test it out is coincidentally maybe
one of the best ever built. And I mean ever. I mean, think about it, there's a reason Hondas are
so reliable and high revving with their four cylinder engines. A three cylinder made to test
the power going into a V12 is a recipe for performance heaven. But here's the sad part of the episode. Cosworth has no plans to
sell this three cylinder mule as its own engine. It was designed to test combustion for large supercar engines
but think about it, if Cosworth was going
to pull a 90s Cosworth and take a hot hatch,
like the Ford Fiesta, slapped their accidental
three cylinder into it, it would be amazing. It'd be like the Fiesta
ST already is super fun, but with this ripper in there it'd be high revving and a blast to drive. Hot hatches especially in the
US are kind of a dying breed. Cosworth already has this engine made. All they need to do is
market this as Cosworth built and mentioned the engine
as part of Aston Martin and they'll sell like hotcakes or other things that sell very well. While Cosworth has innovated and created a lot of
engines in their time. It's interesting to think what would come if this mule engine set out on its own. Also, what other engines can you think of that were created to be thrown away just for testing purposes? Very strange, but cool. Strangely enough, the
Aston Martin Valkyrie is not the only insane V12 powered car Cosworth has been working on lately. Former Formula One design
guide, Gordon Murray, has been putting together
his own beast of a vehicle called the T50. Murray, seeing the work
Cosworth did for Aston Martin and along with the years of sweet engines, said I'll have what they're having mate. While the Valkyrie is a six liter V12 his T50 uses a 3.9 liter
V12, a smaller displacement, that means higher revs. The engine is capable
of doing over 12,000 RPM and just like last time, a mule was used to perfect this engine. I can't wait to see this thing on track. Murray recently posted a
teaser of them testing the T50, just kind of like putting around on the old top of your test track, that thing, going to be a ripper for sure. Once again, Cosworth
had to build something capable of insane numbers
that was only made so they can make an even bigger and more insane version of it. That's like a nesting doll of HRSPRS. Most people talk about
Cosworth as a joint venture between two successful Lotus alum, but it's actually a lot more than that. It was the inception of
a new way of thinking. It was the origin of one of
the most efficient F1 engines ever built. The engineers at Cosworth
are some pretty cool people who take chances that usually pay off and their ideas are still
shaping engine design to this very day. ♪ Pop up, up and down ♪ ♪ Stickers ♪ ♪ Pop up, up and down ♪ ♪ Stickers ♪ ♪ Stickers ♪ Now available. It took forever to design these things, but the results are amazing. ♪ Pop up, up and down ♪ ♪ Stickers. ♪ We're printing them right now. So go get them while you still can, donutmedia.com. Tell them James sent you. There's actually no way
that you can do that but maybe tell yourself under your breath when you, hit the cart. ♪ Pop up, up and down the headlights ♪ ♪ Pop up, up and down the headlights ♪ ♪ Stickers ♪ Thank you very much for
watching "Wheelhouse". If you liked this episode please consider hitting that like button, that subscribe button, if you haven't already, we put out cool stuff
nearly every single day. Let me know in the comments what your favorite Cosworth car is. Dude, those Vega
Cosworths are pretty sick. Just because an engine makes more power doesn't make it more reliable for those about to talk about
another three cylinder engine that makes a lot more power. Checkmate, already got you. Follow Donut on social media. @donutmedia. Follow me @nolanjsykes. Be kind, take care of each other. See you next time.
