SEPTEMBER 18, 2004

America considers Cosworth situation

The American racing scene's reaction to the announcement that Cosworth is for sale has been measured. In addition to designing and building Formula 1 engines for Jaguar, Jordan and Minardi, Cosworth supplies the engines for the Champ Car World Series and provides General Motors with its Chevrolet engines for the Indy Racing League. The business is worth around $25m a year. In addition Cosworth does work with Aprilia in the Moto GP world and was supplying engines for the Ford World Rally Championship programme in addition to a considerable amount of work on old engines, notably the DFV.

Ian Bisco, the man in charge of Cosworth USA, says that he does not see there being any major problems.

"In the 25 years I've worked here we've had five different owners," he told Speed TV's Robin Miller. "Call me naive but I don't think it's going to be too difficult to find a buyer. Our company on the whole has some good income-generating business and quite a few incentives. To do business we don't have to be owned by Ford."

Suggestions that General Motors might take over the company have been rejected although it is possible that Cosworth USA, which emplys 65 people in Torrance, California could be sold separately and maintained as an engine preparation business. The design of the engines however is done in Britain, where Cosworth employs around 500 people.