Cosworth Tuning: It’s In The Blood At PJ Motorsport

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Currently the car is being treated to some paintwork and a fresh engine build that should see the YB pushing around 450bhp.

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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.

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The engine build room is where most of our work takes place, and we have completed some great projects and builds over the years.

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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.

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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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1

We didn't get these here in Aus, although given their appearance at GROUP A Bathurst, are rather iconic. The only car that could take it to R32 GTR. Great read. Why the preference to silicone Intake Pipe?

2

Thanks! The silicone intake pipes are easy enough to buy off the shelf for different turbo and filter neck sizes :)

3

Great article Mark, and fantastic story! You’ll have to have us visit some time and get a tour of the place

4

You’re welcome any time

5
thathellastockusdm3rdgenyaris@instagram

These are so clean, I always wonder time if things are renders.

These just so pretty.

-Seb

6

Thanks!

7

Love the Cossies!

8
Sham Lord Loxley

Dream was to end up with either Mk1 or Mk2 Escort with Cosworth setup, ended up with a Mk2 with YB Turbo setup

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9

Absolutely fantastic article Mark, and a wonderful insight to your family business Its not that often these days that you find a family business thats in such high demand as you guys are and you always find the time to offer help and advice however you can. Even on your day off you came over to my home to check out my car and didn’t even charge me for the fix ! Your my go to Specalist and I can honestly say my car will be going no where other than to PJ Motorsport.
Thank you for the excellent service lads
Craig

10
Michael Rinaldi

That Mk I is the dog's bullocks

11

Great write up having owned 2 XR4TI's here one of which had a Cossie diff and some other cool parts. I followed those with 4 SVO mustangs. This took me way back thank you for that memory trip

12
Cory Peterson

Really cool article. Love that white Escort.

13

This doesnt feel like a IATSH article, it reads like a great big advertisement. Disappointing really.

14

Great read Mark, well done mate.. Lovely Saph mate...looks mint. Some cracking motors in that read Cheers Chris

15

I'm pretty sure i used to see that 3 door RS500 (dark grey) parked opposite the Express and Star offices in Queen Street in Wolvo. Mad how no one seemed to pay it any attention. It looks as good now as it did in the 90's. Glad to see PJ motorsport is still going strong, just goes to show what a good business they run

16

My Dream.. to own either an Escort Cozzie, or a 3 Door Sierra Cozzie... Just need to find the right one as they are approaching the 25 year rule here in the states... and it will be harder to find, as I would like to find a LHD one so I've been eyeing Germany a lot lately.

17

Blast from the past. I used to live in Penn, so saw these cars around (must have been the days the business was started) so its great to see the business still going. I remember the feature of the PJ 3 door in Revs (?) magazine as well? these are the guys that made me want a saph!

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