Editing Ford Kent engine (section)

==Motorsport==
Ford Kent engines had a profound influence on motorsport, possibly more so than any other mass-produced engines did in the history of motorsport. The [[Orazio Satta Puliga|Satta]]/[[Rudolf Hruska|Hruska]] designed [[Alfa Romeo Twin Cam engine|Alfa Romeo]] 750/101 {{cvt|1290|cc|L|1|order=flip}} DOHC engine, and the [[Alex von Falkenhausen Motorenbau]] designed SOHC {{cvt|1773|cc|L|1|order=flip}} [[BMW]] M118 engine may have had similar influence on the motorsport scenes in Italy and Germany respectively, but not internationally.

[[Lotus Cars|Lotus]] used Ford Kent engines on [[Lotus Seven|Lotus Mk.VII]] to establish its corporate foundation, and subsequently used most of the [[Cosworth#Early types|Cosworth early racing engines]] for the legendary success in motorsport. Lotus also built the successful [[Lotus TwinCam]] engine for [[Lotus Elan]] on the Kent block, crank and conrods.

[[Cosworth]]'s [[Cosworth#Early types|initial products]] were all Ford Kent based, and the later [[Cosworth#The SCA series|SCA]], [[Cosworth#The FVA series|FVA]] and the [[Cosworth#The BDA series|BD series]] used Kent blocks to dominate many FIA categories including Formula 2 and Formula 3.

In addition, many respected racing engine builder/tuners, such as [[Holbay Engineering|Holbay]], Vegantune, Novamotor, [[Brian Hart Ltd.|Brian Hart]], Richardson and Wilcox owe their foundations to the Ford Kent-based engines.

Furthermore, the Kent Crossflow engine was used as the regulation engine in [[Formula Ford]], although it was originally proposed to be the pre-crossflow 1498&nbsp;cc Cortina GT unit in 1967 (before the establishment of the series). In Europe, Formula Ford switched to the [[Zetec]], but American Formula Ford continued to be Kent-powered until 2010; the [[SCCA]] having approved the use of the Honda [[Honda L engine#L15A7|L15A i-VTEC]] for Formula F.<ref>{{cite web|last=Abuelsamid |first=Sam |url=http://www.autoblog.com/2009/11/05/scca-approves-honda-fit-based-engine-for-formula-f/ |title=Ford Kent engine being replaced by Honda Fit based engine by SCCA |publisher=Autoblog.com |date=2009-11-05 |access-date=2010-11-05}}</ref>

As it was nearly impossible to succeed in motorsport without some activities in Formula 2, 3 or Formula Ford, most of the well-known racing drivers in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s owe their careers to Ford Kent to some extent, and the current historic motor racing depends heavily on the Kent-based engines.

On 16 October 2009, Ford announced that it would be putting the Kent block back into production in order to supply the historic racing community and active Formula Ford series that use the Kent engine with spares. According to a Ford press-release, engineering work began at Ford Racing's Performance Parts division in the US, with sales scheduled to start in 2010. This coincided with a [[Sports Car Club of America]] rule change allowing [[Honda L engine#L15|the Honda L15A7 engine]] to be used in Formula Ford events in that country, which uses the Ford Kent engine (SCCA does not sanction Duratec or Ecoboost classes).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://jalopnik.com/5383307/ford-introduces-16l-duratec-race-engine-restarts-kent-production |title=Ford Introduces 1.6L Duratec Race Engine, Restarts Kent Production |publisher=Jalopnik | first = Ben | last = Wojdyla |date=2009-10-16 |access-date=2010-11-05}}</ref><ref>[http://www.fordracingparts.com/parts/part_details.asp?PartKeyField=12142 Link to Kent block in Ford Motorsports Parts online catalog]</ref>

The 1300&nbsp;cc was the engine of choice for [[BriSCA Formula 2 Stock Cars]] until a rule change about carburettors pushed people towards the 2000&nbsp;cc [[Ford Pinto engine]].

[[Harry Mundy]] designed the [[Lotus TwinCam]] engine for [[Colin Chapman]], who needed the replacement for the [[Coventry Climax#FW|Coventry Climax FWE]] engine used in [[Lotus Elite]]. As [[Keith Duckworth]] and [[Mike Costin]], the co-founders of [[Cosworth]], used to be [[Lotus Cars|Lotus Development Ltd]] employees, the initial racing adaptation of Lotus TwinCam was carried out by Cosworth, and the Kent block [[Cosworth#The SCA series|Cosworth SCA]] was designed using the basic [[SOHC]] [[reverse-flow cylinder head]] configuration of the FWE. Due to Mundy being also the co-designer of the FWE, the Kent block Lotus TwinCam initially used the cam profile of the FWE,<ref>{{cite book|title=Lotus Twin-Cam Engine|first=Miles|last=Wilkins|publisher=Osprey|year=1988|isbn=1855209683|page=15}}</ref> and shared the same valve clearance adjustment shims with Coventry Climax FWA, FWB, and FWE in production.