Keith Duckworth - Cosworth - V6 Turbo

V6 Turbo

It was at the 1984 British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch that Duckworth and Ford finally agreed to build a turbo powered engine to replace the DFV. Initially a Straight-4 engine was built and tested but it proved to be very unreliable and unable to produce the necessary power required to be competitive in Formula One. Eventually it was decided that a V6 engine would be built, developed and tested throughout 1985. The new 850 bhp (634 kW; 862 PS), 120° Ford-Cosworth V6 turbo engine, dubbed the GBA, made its debut at the 1986 San Marino Grand Prix in the Team Haas (USA) Ltd entered Lola THL2, the car driven by 1980 World Champion Alan Jones. While the engine proved somewhat reliable, its was down on power compared to the other turbo charged engines used in 1986 such as the Honda, BMW, Renault and TAG-Porsche engines, which were reportedly producing in excess of 1,000 bhp (746 kW; 1,014 PS). As a result, neither Haas Lola drivers Jones or Patrick Tambay were able to exploit the excellent Lola chassis (generally believed to be the best handling car of the year) due to the underpowered engine, scoring only 8 points for the season, with a best finish of 4th for Jones at the Austrian Grand Prix (Tambay finished the race in 5th, the race also seeing the first points scored for the new engine).

The Duckworth designed GBA V6 was more successful in 1987, its final year of competition. With the Haas team leaving Formula One, the engine would be supplied exclusively to the Benetton team (who had used the BMW engine with success in 1986). The restriction of turbo boost to just 4.0 Bar in 1987 helped the Ford engine to be more competitive, although some unreliability had crept in with 9 engine or turbo related retirements during the season. Drivers Thierry Boutsen and Teo Fabi were able to claim one podium finish each during the season, at Austria (Fabi) and Australia (Boutsen), while Boutsen led his first Grand Prix when he briefly led the Mexican Grand Prix. Following the season, Ford-Cosworth abandoned the V6 turbo and once again concentrated on their new 3.5L naturally aspirated V8 that had been raced through 1987 by teams such as Tyrrell and the new French Larrousse outfit.