It was Cosworth who conceived it , and now, through Bruce Wood (director) in statements to Henry Catchpole of Carfection, revealed the most “humble” origins of the V12 epic.
It would take 12-13 months to get a functional unit, far too long to know if they could prove to themselves that they could fulfill such a challenging and conflicting specification — not just achieve a high specific power for an HL (over 150 hp/l) and simultaneously comply with emission regulations.
To reduce this time the solution was to start by making a smaller engine — took an (existing) four-cylinder block to which they fitted a three-cylinder head, an exact replica of three of the cylinders in the Valkyrie's engine.
From the beginning we had a three-cylinder engine (…), (this) because we have four catalysts, where each catalyst serves three cylinders, so using a three-cylinder engine we were able to replicate all the parts of a genuine quarter of the final product.
Result? 5-6 months were enough to have a functional unit, proving that it was possible to meet the performance and emissions targets.
In other words, there is at Cosworth a three-cylinder NA, with just over 1600 cm3 delivering 253 hp at over 10,000 rpm — I want, I need this engine...
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