Cosworth may still own rights to "Chevworth"

[Jakester]

Alex Timmerman, of Forsythe Performance Research, was in Sebring, peeking around at cars and talking to ALMS officials and team people.

From Speed:

That may not be the only thing FPR is all about. Coincidentally, Cosworth Racing (which is owned by Gerald Forsythe and former Champ Car partner Kevin Kalkhoven) just so happens to have a viable LMP1 engine in its arsenal—the Cosworth XH (which is based on the IRL engine developed for Cosworth and, ultimately run by Chevrolet).

When we noted that fact to Timmermann, he smiled.

“Yes, Cosworth does have a sports car engine,” he said. “It would be an excellent platform for an auto manufacturer that was interested in competing in the ALMS to come in and badge that engine. Gerry also owns Pi Systems and, of course, he still owns the race team. When you own all those parts to the puzzle, it gives you a lot of options . . .”

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/alms-sebring-12-hours-notebook-thursday//P2/

Hmmm.....

[VeracityTeks]

Alex Timmerman, of Forsythe Performance Research, was in Sebring, peeking around at cars and talking to ALMS officials and team people.

From Speed:

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/artic...-thursday//P2/

Hmmm.....

Despite the mess that is openwheel right now, I hope Gerry and Kevin, together or seperately, take care of Cosworth. What a great company, would be a shame if it went away. I believe thet still have a lot of potential in many different arenas.

[owfan19]

Despite the mess that is openwheel right now, I hope Gerry and Kevin, together or seperately, take care of Cosworth. What a great company, would be a shame if it went away. I believe thet still have a lot of potential in many different arenas.

Cosworth works on some pretty cool things outside of racing, I think they will be busy for awhile. Such as an Unmaned Airplane engine.

[Indyknut]

Despite the mess that is openwheel right now, I hope Gerry and Kevin, together or seperately, take care of Cosworth. What a great company, would be a shame if it went away. I believe thet still have a lot of potential in many different arenas.

Agreed.

[Spike]

I think the "sportscar engine" mentioned is a different engine and not the Chevworth. I had a talk with Ian Bisco (VP of Cosworth) a couple of years ago at Long Beach and asked about the Chevy engine and he said the GM had eventually bought of the whole program and all the engines (which Ian said were all packed away in a warehouse somewhere). He went on to say that if Cosworth wanted to do an IRL engine it would be cheaper (and better) to do a whole new design rather than to buy back the design and hardware from GM.

[Red Byrd]

I hope Cosworth has a future in Indycars, even if it something along the lines of all the outfits servicing Honda's... such as Illmor-Honda, Cosworth-Honda, Speedway Honda, HPD-Honda, ect...

[Grinder-Tank]

I hope Cosworth has a future in Indycars, even if it something along the lines of all the outfits servicing Honda's... such as Illmor-Honda, Cosworth-Honda, Speedway Honda, HPD-Honda, ect...

I find it odd that Indycars never came up. But we are talking Forsythe here.

[Mack Too]

The Cosworth NA was an engine that was IRL approved but never raced, the 3rd generation Chevy was a horrible mistake, not even as good as the Toyota mistake. Clearly both manufacturers underestimated what HPD/Ilmor could get out of the Ilmor engine design they acquired. Anyway, IIRC Chevy made some significant changes and improvements to the engine, one far enough out-of-the-box that they had to get series permission to make it that involved a redesigned plenum. I think some of the Chevy changes were proprietary, they may still own the rights to at least portions of the Chevworth, which was designed when Ford still owned the Cosworth.

I find it interesting that, as with the IRL, a manufacturer would have to badge the engine to run it in ALMS..

[bobn]

I find it interesting that, as with the IRL, a manufacturer would have to badge the engine to run it in ALMS..

No rule requires badging. Judd, AER, AIM, all run engines in ALMS/ACO. I believe the postion attributed to Cosworth is a "desire" to have it badged, not a requirement.

I could be wrong, but I think the Mazda P2 unit is done by Cosworth, therefore already giving Cosworth a presence in the ALMS, albeit branded.

[use2know]

I suggest a quick Google of Alfonso "Gold Hat" Bedoya....

[Mack Too]

No rule requires badging. Judd, AER, AIM, all run engines in ALMS/ACO. I believe the postion attributed to Cosworth is a "desire" to have it badged, not a requirement.

I could be wrong, but I think the Mazda P2 unit is done by Cosworth, therefore already giving Cosworth a presence in the ALMS, albeit branded.

Thanks, I guess I picked that up from the lead quote.

[step33T]

My understanding is that Cosworth does indeed own the original design of what later became the Chevy engine. But, that may not be worth all that much, particularly as a starting point for a new engine.

GM reportedly owns all of the improvements to that design - which were many - and thus they would own the engines in their final 'as raced' states.

As noted, it was the improved upon engine that really seemed to "work", so it probably wouldn't be all that economical to pull the basic design out and start all of that work again.

And there is also the TIME factor. Cosworth has probably learned a lot since they created that engine, so a clean sheet of paper would be a better starting position, particularly as the new engine would have to run an alternative fuel to at least some degree, and it would also have a sportscar application.

IMHO - Cosworth and whomever paid them for a new sportscar engine would be better off starting from scratch, as noted above! And that is certainly a challenge I hope they undertake.

[Fogelhund]

I could be wrong, but I think the Mazda P2 unit is done by Cosworth, therefore already giving Cosworth a presence in the ALMS, albeit branded.

You would indeed be wrong. The Mazda P2 unit is done by AER.

http://www.b-kmotorsports.com/car-and-engine/

Cosworth has a clean sheet design P1 engine, but no takers as of yet. Perhaps Forsythe can try that out...