Book Review: The Story of the Ford Grand Prix Engine by John Blunsden and David Phipps
Positives
Negatives
In the last few F1 seasons, the engine has been the single most determining factor for the dominant form of the Mercedes AMG team. The sport has seen many famous power units delivering successful winning eras for many teams – Renault RS2 v10 (Williams, Benetton), Honda RA168 v6 (Honda, Lotus) and the Ford Cosworth DFV […]
In the last few F1 seasons, the engine has been the single most determining factor for the dominant form of the Mercedes AMG team. The sport has seen many famous power units delivering successful winning eras for many teams – Renault RS2 v10 (Williams, Benetton), Honda RA168 v6 (Honda, Lotus) and the Ford Cosworth DFV v8 (Tyrrell, Lotus) spring to mind.
Published in 1971, “The Story of the Ford Grand Prix Engine” by Blunsden and Phipps traces the origins and development of the Ford Bosworth DFV engine that would power the Lotus, Matra, McLaren and Tyrrell to wins and championships in the late ’60s and early ‘70s.
In spite of its cover, the book has much less of a technical focus and more a historical look at the F1 races during each season from 1967 through to 1970. This is probably its main weakness, as it would have been better to provide a bit more insight into the engine’s technical evolution over those years. Chapter 2 does provide a little bit of the business side of F1, which covers some of the commercial arrangements and contracts with Ford (Walter Hayes) and Cosworth (Duckworth) for Ford to pay Cosworth GBP100,000 to develop F1 engines for Ford for 1967 and 1968.
Co-author David Phipps contributes to the book via his photos and interviews with designer Keith Duckworth. Chapter 4 is Keith Duckworth recollecting about his design philosophy for the V8 engine. Easily the best chapter in my opinion.
The B&W photos include some detailed engine component shots but just like the rest of the book, there seems to be more emphasis on race cars and driver photos than stories about the engine itself.
Wow Factor/Money shot: Brown, Duckworth and Costin of Cosworth looking over the DFV on the dyno.
Suitable for: F1 history fans
