Keith Duckworth

[pistol pete]

Keith Duckworth, the man who designed the Cosworth Formula 1 engine, the most successful engine in the history of the sport, has died at the age of 72. Duckworth's influence on motor racing was enormous not simply as a designer but also for the role he played in building up the British motor racing industry by supplying affordable engines to small teams in a variety of different formulae.

From here: www.grandprix.com/ns/ns16050.html

[trackcar]

That is indeed sad news .. I have a motor sport video of the birth of the coswarth dfv and it's early years in gp racing .. fascinating to watch. very sad indeed to hear of his passing .. not really a great age either .. very gifted man.

[Podie]

Blimey... another one gone.

[Graham]

There seems to be a huge gap in the enginering world. everywhere i go for racing and enginering stuff all the gifted guys seem to be late 60's and then nothing till a few guys in their early 30's


what happened did all the talent go into IT maybe as the cutting edge industry where the excitment was ?

[jellison]

Reall Pity - did not realise he was 72 - look at Bernie!

Lets hope Williams really do EXTRA Well this year - Go NICO....

21k rev here we come.

[Marki]

Podie said:

Blimey... another one gone.

Thats what i was thinking....... He was a genius


>> Edited by Marki on Tuesday 20th December 15:23

[porkus]

[redacted]

[Eric Mc]

I'm pretty sure that is the explanation. Duckworth's generation were all early post war apprentices and graduates and the "sexy" industry then was aviation. A whole batch of those chaps trained under government or industry schemes at the large aircraft manufacturers of the day or the RAE at Farnborough. Many stayed in the aviation world but a few were enticed away to the more glamourous and (sometimes) more exciting world of motor racing.

[NDT]

A sad day.
Although I worked at Cosworth long after Keith and Mike had left, you could still feel some of their influence, in the sense that the place had a 'family' atmosphere and a passion about what we did. I'm told a lot of this disappeared after Audi took over.
Latterly Keith did consultancy work at Triumph (and I assume other places), where he was also held in a lot of respect.
Incidentally his son Roger is also a very clever guy.

[FourWheelDrift]

Roger Duckworth (Keith's son) has set up a webpage where messages can be posted.

www.keithduckworth.co.uk/