Cosworth – Turning Good to Awesome

23 April 2012
Cosworth is like Jesus in some ways, what is does is take Fords saloons and hatches and turns them from water to wine, not literally. Nowadays known as Fast Fords. What they do is add more power and sometimes strip away excess weight, tweak with suspension and add better brakes and out comes a hatches with the capabilities of a supercar. The first example of this was in 1986 when Cosworth tuned the Sierra, a normal four door saloon. With a 204 Bhp Turbocharged 2.0 Litre engine, and a top speed of 150 Mph getting to 60 Mph in 8.6 Secs. Weighing in at 1217 Kg. When tested it was found to be one of the best cars of the time. It was fast, practical, and not to hard to live with everyday. 

Then after not much activity, 5 years later was unveiled the Escort RS Cosworth, a car that had possibly the biggest spoiler ever on a production car. It had a 227 Bhp 2.0 inline 4 cylinder Turbocharged engine and could do 137 Mph. Getting to 60 mph in just 6.2 Secs and weighing in at 1418 Kg.

So far Cosworth had made many great cars also including the Mercedes 190E Cosworth and used they’re engines in Formula 1.

After being involved in Indy Car, F1, Champ Car, WRC and MotoGP for quite along while they decided to have a go at another production car. Since 1992 no sports cars had been created but recently have tuned the Focus RS calling it the RS500. This was a limited Edition as only 500 were made, costing around £35,500. It has a massive 345 Bhp! All that coming from a 2.5 Litre 5 cylinder Turbocharged engine. Getting from 0-60 Mph in 5.6 Secs and going on to a massive top speed of 165 Mph. Not bad for a car weighing 1450 Kg. So surely the most impressive car yet?

But just a few months later, Cosworth joined with the most unlikely of partners, Subaru. Turning a quite basic 296 Bhp Impreza WRX STi into a 2.5 Litre Turbocharged, 395 Bhp monster. Called the Subaru Impreza STi Cosworth CS400, with only 75 being made. Now if you thought the Focus RS500 was expensive, be prepared to be amazed as this costs a massive £49,995. Going from 0-60 in just 3.7 secs, quicker than a Mclaren Mercedes SLR. With a limited top speed of 155 Mph, but rumor has it that it can reach 175 Mph, very quick!

Selling out nearly straight away, despite costing £50,000 this is the ultimate hatch. Yet still being a usable day-to-day car.

Cosworth may only be a tuning company, but they do things even manufacturers can’t do.

Author: Ryan Thrift

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Comments are closed.

— ADS BY GOOGLE —

Social Widgets powered by AB-WebLog.com.