RACE RETRO SHOW 2025

It’s show time in the UK at the moment and hot on the heels of Autosport International comes Race Retro. We spent a very productive Friday at the show and caught up with a number of customers and car owners. In no particular order, here are five of the numerous Cosworth-powered cars that caught our eye.

Duckhams Escort

The combined HSCC and Historic Modsports & Special Salooons had a number of their group’s cars on display this year including this fantastic looking Duckhams-liveried Ford Escort Mk1. The car belongs to Steve Barnard, who discovered the remains in 2022 – a classic barn find. He has spent the last couple of years rebuilding it. Power comes from a Cosworth BDG engine.

The ex-Geoff Wood car hadn’t been raced in 40 years but finally returned to the race track in September last year, finishing second at a Curborough sprint. Barnard plans to race it this year in the Historic Modsports & Special Saloons championship, so keep an eye out for it.

Jaguar Racing R5

We’ve always had a soft spot for the Jaguar Racing Formula 1 cars. Despite a run of poor results, the cars looked resplendent in green and white livery, and today are recognised as one of the best looking cars that graced the F1 grid between 2000 and 2004.

The R5 was the final car that Jaguar produced before being sold to Red Bull, and this is chassis number 1, raced by Mark Webber throughout the 2004 season. This car belongs to the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust.

We actively support a number of customers who are running Jaguar Formula 1 cars with engine parts and consultancy and we also have various memorabilia parts from these engines on our on-line shop.

Ford Escort RS Cosworth

The Escort was the mainstay of national and international rallying throughout the 1990s and it has gone on to further success in various historic rallying categories. At the heart of the car was the hugely popular Cosworth YB engine with numerous modifications that increased the power from 224 hp in road-going form to in excess of 500 hp. Some of these changes necessitated the use of uprated engine components including fully forged pistons that we continue to supply today.

This particular example is owned by Mark McClelland, who bought the car in 2021. It has a rich pedigree in rallying. It was driven by Rod Menzies on the Network Q RAC Rally in 1993 and 1994. It was then used as a reconnaissance car by the Ford World Rally Team with François Delecour, Ari Vatanen and Petter Solberg all taking the wheel.

Metro 6R4

OK, this isn’t technically a Cosworth-powered car, but the Metro 6R4 does contain a handful of Cosworth parts. Although the V64V engine was basically an Austin Rover design, the designer David Wood drew on his experience and contacts at Cosworth to create a lot of the architecture of the engine.

In Graham Robson’s excellent book “Cosworth – the Search for Power”, he quotes Cosworth chef designer Mike Hall as saying: “David Wood wanted to use as many proven parts as possible. In the end, we supplied all the valves, the springs, guides, and so on – they were straight DFV parts – as well as pistons. We also cast and machined all the cylinder heads – they used DFV-type ports.”

TWR eventually bought the rights to the V64V engine, and it found a home in the Jaguar XJ220 super car. But the legacy of this remarkable engine lives on, with many enthusiasts still running MG Metro 6R4 cars both on the road and in historic rallies. Today, we sell our Cosworth DR4601 valve springs and related parts to a number of customers who are rebuilding these engines.

McLaren M23

The Prescott Hill Climb stand featured one of the most recognisable Formula 1 cars from the 1970s, the McLaren M23. The M23 raced for a number of years in the mid ‘70s but is probably most remembered for winning the Drivers Championship with James Hunt in an epic 1976 season.

The engine was of course the iconic Cosworth DFV which by this time was being built by both Cosworth and a number of contracted engine builders, with Nicholson McLaren Engines maintaining the DFV engines for McLaren.

The DFV continues to be a popular powerplant for historic Formula 1 championships and we have a range of parts available for this engine.

We are Cosworth’s official distributor for their historic engine parts, and we supply a wide range of parts for a number of different Cosworth historic engines, from BD, YB and DFV through to the more recent F1 engines like the CK, TJ and CA. Our mission is to help our customers build better engines by supplying high quality parts backed up with a design consultancy that utilises over 25 years experience in top level motorsport.