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Cosworth 4
Contacts and the new racing series Formula Junior |
So Duckworth had enough work, and soon he even had his first real employees. His contacts were probably an important reason for the huge boom that this company would one day experience. In addition, the
introduction, or the changing of the regulations in various racing series, was on its way. Thus, the Formula Junior was born, which attracted his interest. However, in contrast to the rest of the world, he didn't use the Fiat
engine as the basis, instead, through a former fellow student, he made contact with Ford.
For the first time Ford engines as a basis |
They had an engine in their program which, because of its short stroke and stable crank mechanism, was more suitable. It was all about getting more performance, at higher RPM from these, as before, OVH-engines
through modifications in the combustion chamber and the valve-drive. Indeed, as later projects would also show, the planned deadline could not be met because of, almost unsurmountable, big problems.
Duckworth and short answers, that doesn't fit together |
This is where Duckworth's philosophy came from, to accept nothing untested from others, but rather, to rely on his own opinion. Thus, he finally arrived at a self-developed cam-profile and combustion chamber design,
which, in the end, helped the engine of the respective Lotus-18 racing car (see above picture) to be particularly successful. However, during the long and almost hopeless testing phase, the company threatened to
almost go down.
Contacts and accompanying firms |
If he had not had his comrade-in-arms, somebody like Ben Rood, a little older and long since with his own company, he would probably have, despite his own ingenuity, have failed. Although Ben Rood was not an
engineer, he got to where he was through a great deal of practical experience and even the rebuilding of, mostly motorcycle-racing engines. His company received orders from Cosworth, in the beginning only few, but
once the business with the Formula-Junior really got underway, his firm worked exclusively for Cosworth.
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