Gallery: six reasons why we love Cosworth

We’ve recently driven the Toyota GT86 Cosworth. While it’s not an out-an-out, Toyota-affiliated model, it’s a thoroughly worthy upgrade for the little sports car.

More importantly, though, it represents the return of a rather iconic name to the performance car mainstream. Cosworth. Or 'Cossie' to its friends.
 
High time to whip out the emergency and bunting and celebrate a Great British company, we figured. Get scrolling for a brief history of Cosworth, and why we love it so much...

You may know Cosworth best for its big-winged Fords, but you’d be missing what made its name worthy in the first place.
 
Most famous of Cossie's powerplants is the ‘DFV’, the most decorated engine in Formula 1 history. A 90-degree V8, its initials stand for Double Four Valve, and it won on its very first outing in Jim Clark’s Lotus 49 in 1967.
 
Starring in an era when rules and regulations weren’t as prescribed as they are now, the DFV outfoxed lairier 12-cylinder engines by providing cars with a better power-to-weight ratio. It stuck around for nearly 20 years, producing 500bhp by its retirement.
 
What McLaren would currently give for an engine this reliable, eh?

Alright, so we couldn’t wait long to show you a ludicrously spoilered Ford. But we’re sure you’ll forgive us. What you’re looking at here is a bona fide hot hatch legend.
 
Its numbers won’t drop jaws now, but back in 1992, the Escort Cosworth's 227bhp warranted the deployment of a four-wheel-drive system. Something the new Focus RS calls on to carefully distribute a whole 118bhp extra…
 
Early versions were sold to homologate Ford’s world rallying efforts, but production continued afterwards, at which point the spoiler could be deleted from the order. Those who did so were incorrect, however.

Mercedes saloon cars pushing antisocial levels of power through their rear wheels are ten-a-penny nowadays. No less fun for it, mind, but they’re an accepted and reliable part of the automotive landscape.
 
This has not always been the case, though, and in 1983 the strait-laced 190E received the performance treatment – via a 2.3-litre four-cylinder engine from Cosworth.
 
It’s famous not just for being a cool, offbeat performance car, but also for launching Ayrton Senna’s career. Sort of.

Cosworth wasn’t just a mastermind of F1 success. Almost as celebrated as the DFV is the BDA. Its initials are far more technical, so instead let’s pretend they translate into ‘excellent rally car engine’.
 
For that’s what it was, the BDA powering numerous old forest racers, with early rear-driven Escorts a particularly iconic application. Their wail remains a highlight of historic rallies, too.
 
As with all of Cosworth’s engines, plenty of iterations were spun from the BDA, entering all manner of schools of motorsport, including sports cars, Formula 2 and hillclimbing.

Cards on the table: this isn’t a performance car that will live long in any hall of fame. Rough around the edges, high in price and low in volume, it doesn’t sit with either the best Cossies or best Scoobies.
 
Yet we love it regardless. Talented though Subaru’s STI saloon remains, it is still pushing out the same 300-odd bhp it has for comfortably more than a decade. Cosworth rocked the boat with a 33 per cent power increase and all manner of chassis and brake upgrades.
 
And let’s not forget this was a 400bhp, all-wheel-drive hot hatch when the Mercedes A-Class was still a dumpy mini MPV…

The hero. The car most of us probably really know Cosworth for. On the one hand it’s a spectacular sports saloon, with a niche two-door layout, heavily turbocharged 224bhp engine and rear-wheel drive.
 
On the other, it’s a 500bhp touring car boasting rare levels of success, with 40 straight BTCC wins in the Group A class it dominated and a World Touring Car record so strong that the regulations were essentially tweaked to outlaw it.
 
That’s an endorsement to make any road car cool. In the Sierra’s case, it was ice-cold in the first place.