There are some things that run in my family. Hereditary baldness is one of them, but that’s not what I’m on about here. For me, it’s a love of all things blue oval, but specifically those wearing the renowned Cosworth badge on their boot lid.
This generational association with Ford can be traced back to my grandad. He was a quality control engineer in the ’70s who owned various Fords of the time; Anglias, Cortinas, Mk1 and Mk2 Escorts. His evenings would be spent in the garage tuning Crossflow and Pinto engines. This is where my dad, Paul, a well-respected engine builder and tuner in the modern day Cosworth tuning world began to learn his craft.
I too would follow this pattern, although my learning took place in a slightly different environment. As I was growing up in the late ’90s and early 2000s, my dad was building PJ Motorsport (PJM). He and his team were regularly turning out cars pushing 500+bhp, with engines built and tuned in-house. I was fortunate enough to witness the work that went into some of these builds, and as I got older I would get more involved, bolting parts on the engines, fitting hoses, and undertaking other simple jobs.
As well as learning about what it takes to build and maintain a tuned Cosworth, I also learnt what it takes to handle one in the real world. Most of this learning came from the passenger seat of my dad’s Diamond White three-door Sierra Cosworth. It didn’t matter if he was going to the local shops or embarking on a 200-mile round trip, as long as he was going in the Cossie you can bet I was going along for the ride. This very car was a massive part of my childhood growing up, and always made me want to one day have my own Cosworth.
Fast forward to the present day and I am pleased to say that I have my own Cosworth – a two-wheel drive Sapphire finished in Flint Grey which I’ve owned now for two and a half years. It’s been on the road for the vast majority of this time, and I’ve covered roughly 6,000 miles.
Currently the car is being treated to some paintwork and a fresh engine build that should see the YB pushing around 450bhp.
With the recent rise in values of classic and retro cars, the business that my dad started over two decades ago and I’m now a director of, has gone from strength to strength over the last few years. In our Wolverhampton-based workshop, have a well-stocked parts department catering for the Ford Cosworth, Pinto and Zetec engines, an engine build clean room, and a Dynapack 3000 chassis dyno which allows us to fine tune all of our own engines.
The engine build room is where most of our work takes place, and we have completed some great projects and builds over the years.
Currently we have some interesting builds taking place including a Group A-spec Cosworth YB for an Escort Cosworth rally car, a fully forged Zetec 2.0L turbo for a Ford Focus race car, and of course engine builds for our own PJM projects. Most engines are installed in house, usually with an aftermarket ECU upgrade for maximum tuning capability.
Looking to the future, we have a lot in the pipeline at PJ Motorsport. On the mechanical side of things, the main focus will be building more engines and developing our upgrade and tuning packages. I look forward to keeping the Ford Cosworth passion alive by carrying on the family business here in the UK for the next 21 years and beyond.
Mark Jagdev
Facebook: cosworthspecialists
Instagram: pjmotorsport
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