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[BritishBear]

Morning all

Some of you know that I'm compiling (slowly) a Formula 1 scrapbook detailing all sorts of odds & ends about drivers, teams & championships over the last 60 years, but 1 thing I can't as yet fathom. When talking about car engines, some people list a car as having a Ford V8 for example, and someone else may list the same car as having a Cosworth V8. My question is this:

Would a Ford V8 / V10 / V12 be the same as a Cosworth V8 / V10 / V12, or are they 2 totally different things?

[texasmr2]

This may help; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosworth.

[Jabberwocky]

wait until you get to Supertech and Mecachrome

[BritishBear]

wait until you get to Supertech and Mecachrome

Whats the relation between these & Cosworth?

[Jabberwocky]

none but they where all part of Renault. I was on about confusion over names

[BritishBear]

none but they where all part of Renault. I was on about confusion over names

ahh I see now, but are they companies in their own right, like Cosworth is, or was it effectively a brand name?

[madbrad]

Mechacrome was the company Renault was using for the development and manufacture of their championship winning 3.5 and 3 litre engines, works(a word defined as "you don't have to pay") engines in the Williams and Benetton cars. Flavio, who was running Benneton, bought Ligier hwo were running a Renault customer engine, so he could put that engine in the Benetton, except as a works engine. That's how 2 teams simultaneously had a renault works deal. Ligier then ran the Mugen Honda customer engine and actually won the 96 Monaco GP with it. When Renault left F1 after 1996, Mechacrome continued the engine as a customer engine in Williams and Benetton and I forget what else. It was an immediate flop. No development resources available to keep up development. Williams and Benetton floundered. It was also branded a Supertek, found in the BAR and I forget what else. Flavio had left Benetton and now coincidentally was the salesman for Supertek. eventually Renault reentered the sport as a team by buying, coincidentally, flav's old team that ran those ex Renault engines, and hired Flav, coincidentally, to run it. So Flav always has some sort of connection to Renault. Then This Renault eventually won 2 more driver titles and I forget 1 or 2 constuctor titles.
I have no idea whether Mechacrome is the engine builder for Renault's second wave.

[BritishBear]

Mechacrome was the company Renault was using for the development and manufacture of their championship winning 3.5 and 3 litre engines, works(a word defined as "you don't have to pay") engines in the Williams and Benetton cars. Flavio, who was running Benneton, bought Ligier hwo were running a Renault customer engine, so he could put that engine in the Benetton, except as a works engine. That's how 2 teams simultaneously had a renault works deal. Ligier then ran the Mugen Honda customer engine and actually won the 96 Monaco GP with it. When Renault left F1 after 1996, Mechacrome continued the engine as a customer engine in Williams and Benetton and I forget what else. It was an immediate flop. No development resources available to keep up development. Williams and Benetton floundered. It was also branded a Supertek, found in the BAR and I forget what else. Flavio had left Benetton and now coincidentally was the salesman for Supertek. eventually Renault reentered the sport as a team by buying, coincidentally, flav's old team that ran those ex Renault engines, and hired Flav, coincidentally, to run it. So Flav always has some sort of connection to Renault. Then This Renault eventually won 2 more driver titles and I forget 1 or 2 constuctor titles.
I have no idea whether Mechacrome is the engine builder for Renault's second wave.

Got it, thank you kindly.

I've taken the approach that Ford have only built their own engines (I.E. not under the Cosworth name) when they supplied the Stewart team, otherwise any reference to Ford Engines were actually Cosworth engines, unless a clever bunny here disproves my line of thinking.

[Jabberwocky]

you could say the same about Mercedes engines being called Ilmor (spl)

[madbrad]

To my knowledge even the Ford works engines were made by Cosworth, all through the ages. At one point in he 90s Ford even went so far as to buy Cosworth, only to sell it around the time they Sold the Jag team to Red Bull.
And as was mentioned, Mercedes, as well as the Chevy branded motors in CART are made by Ilmor. I expect the same is the case in the vast majority of manufacturer branded engines in F1 Cart NASCAR IRL etc, except maybe Ferrari and Lambo and Yamaha when they each had an engine.

[BritishBear]

Excellent, thanks for the feedback

[Gaz]

Didn't Mclaren run Porche engine's badged as TAG's

[7UpJordan]

A lot of the Yamaha engines used in the 1990's were also just Judd developed engines re-badged as Yamahas.