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David Keith Duckworth (10 August 1933 – 18 December 2005Motorsport.com CHAMPCAR/CART: The passing of Keith Duckworth 2005-12-19) was an England mechanical engineer. He is most famous for designing the Cosworth DFV (Double Four Valve) engine, an engine that revolutionised the sport of Formula One.
Duckworth served his two years of national service with the Royal Air Force, during which time he briefly trained to become a Aviator but was grounded for dangerous and incompetent flying and was reclassified as a navigator. Duckworth claimed that allergy to medication he was receiving caused his flying problem - in civilian life he became a keen light aircraft and helicopter pilot.
After completing his tour of duty, which he finished as a navigator, Duckworth studied engineering at Imperial College London, earning a BSc degree in 1955.
Chapman's idea was to reduce weight by using the engine as a stressed part of the chassis, bolted straight on to the front monocoque tub, removing the need for a spaceframe around the engine and making it easier for mechanics to maintain the cars. This arrangement has been standard in F1 ever since.
The DFV made a famous debut in the third race of the season, in the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort. In the back of the Lotus 49, it proved lightning-quick straight out of the box, with Graham Hill taking pole position and Jim Clark taking the win. Teething problems prevented Clark mounting a serious title challenge but the Lotus-Ford was undoubtedly the class of the field. In the DFV was made available to all teams, and with its enviable power (about ) and relatively low price the DFV quickly began to fill up the grid. This spawned a plethora of small, mainly English-based low-budget teams throughout the 1970s, with the DFV last racing in a Tyrrell Racing in . The DFV's last race was the Austrian Grand Prix, held on the fast Österreichring circuit, where driver Martin Brundle failed to qualify the underpowered car. By 1985 the DFV, now upgraded as the DFY, was rated at around , though it was up against turbocharged cars and had generally become uncompetitive.
The DFV's last win was at the 1983 Detroit Grand Prix with Italy driver Michele Alboreto piloting his Tyrrell 011 to a surprise, but popular victory. The final podium finish by a DFV powered car came a year later in Detroit when Brundle drove his Tyrrell 012 to second place (Tyrrell were later disqualified from the season for technical infringements).
With further development, the GBA V6 was more successful in , its final year of competition. With the Haas team leaving Formula One, the engine would be supplied exclusively to the Benetton Formula team (who had used the BMW engine with success in 1986). The restriction of turbo boost to just 4.0 Bar in 1987 helped the Ford engine to be more competitive, although some unreliability had crept in with 9 engine or turbo related retirements during the season. Drivers Thierry Boutsen and Teo Fabi were able to claim one podium finish each during the season, at Austria (Fabi) and Australia (Boutsen), while Boutsen led his first Grand Prix when he briefly led the Mexican Grand Prix.
With turbo engines to be banned by the FIA from , Ford-Cosworth abandoned the V6 turbo at the end of 1987 and once again concentrated on their new 3.5 litre naturally aspirated Cosworth DFZ V8 that had been raced through 1987 by teams such as Tyrrell and the new French Larrousse outfit. The DFZ was a development of the original DFV, while Benetton would have exclusive use of its successor, the Cosworth DFR in .
Keith's son Roger joined his father's company and worked as a development engineer in the Road Engines division being a key part of the team that delivered the YB family of engines for the Ford Sierra RS Cosworth and Ford Escort RS Cosworth vehicles. Roger left Cosworth in 1998 and founded Integral Powertrain Ltd with three of his Cosworth colleagues.
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