Description
By: Andrew Noakes .
The Ford-Cosvorth DFV and its derivatives form the greatest family of racing engines ever created. Despite early teething troubles, Keith Duckworth's masterpiece won its first race and quickly rose to dominance in Formula One. Remarkably it remained at the pinnacle of motorsport for more than 15 years and won 155 World Championship Grands Prix.
However, the DFV was more than just a Formula One engine. It twice won the gruelling Le Mans 24-hour sports car race. It powered a whole generation of drivers in Formula 3000, the stepping stone to Grand Prix racing. It was successful in the Tasman series and in the British Hillclimb Championship, and its turbocharged DFX derivative dominated Indycar racing in the 1980s, recording more than 150 race wins.
This fascinating book details the entire Formula One career of the DFV series, from the engine's conception in 1965 and its supremely successful debut in the back of the Lotus 49 in 1967, through its dominance of Fl in the 1970s, to its re-emergence in the 1980s in 3.5-litre form. The book also looks at the DFV's main rivals – from the likes of Ferrari, Eagle, BRM, Matra, Renault and Honda – and reveals how changing engine regulations finally brought its F1 career to an end.
The story extends to all the DFV's derivatives, including the Tasman series DFW, the short-stroke DFY, the DFL for endurance racing, the 3.5-litre DFX and DFR and the turbocharged Indycar DFX and DFS, together with the DFVs used in Formula, 3000, hillclimb cars and even the odd Transit van..
This fitting tribute to the most successful Formula One engine of all time also includes a wealth of archive photographs, some of them never before seen in print.
After training as an automotive engineer at Loughborough University, Andrew Noakes became a freelance writer and editor. He founded Classics Magazine in 1997, eventually becoming the magazine's Editor in Chief before returning to freelancing in 2002. Since then he has contributed to numerous motoring magazines and websites, including Classic & Sports Car, CAR, Auto Express, Classics Monthly, Classic Car Weekly and PistonHeads.com, and has written books on several classic marques. He also lectures in automotive journalism at Coventry University.
