DECEMBER 27, 2004

Cosworth Technology sold

Audi has sold its high-performance engine unit Cosworth Technology Ltd to Germany's Mahle. Audi bought the Cosworth business from Vickers in 1998 and split the racing department away and sold it to Ford, leaving Cosworth Technology to do engine development work for Audi and other customers. Mahle is a manufacturer of engine components which enjoys sales of $4.2bn. Cosworth has sales of around $250m a year but the company has no right to make commercial use of the Cosworth brand name. That right belongs to the racing company, which is now in the hands of Kevin Kalkhoven and Gerald Forsythe.