50 years ago today: Cosworth's first F1 win

It was 50 years ago today – June 4, 1967 – that Jim Clark and his Lotus 49 scored the first grand prix victory for the Ford Cosworth DFV (for "Double Four Valve") V8 in the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort. And it happened in the debut race for the iconic powerplant that would go on to become one of the greatest all-around success stories in motorsports history.

The spectacular debut for the engine included a pole position for Clark's teammate Graham Hill in an identical Lotus-Ford Cosworth by a full half-second. Hill led the first 10 laps of the race before a broken gear in the camshaft drive sidelined him, but Clark dominated from there on. Clark went on to score three more wins that season, although the reliability issue that prevented Hill from scoring that first win also dogged the Scot, who finished third in the year's world championship.

Those issues were overcome by the following year and despite Lotus having lost exclusive use of the DFV, it reaped the rewards of its development. Hill – team leader following Clark's tragic death in an F2 race at Hockenheim that April – went on to take the first of 12 driver's and 10 constructor's world championships for the DFV. It was last used in F1 until 1988 – 21 years after its victorious debut.

A turbocharged variant of the DFV, the DFX, came to Indy car racing in the 1970s and quickly emerged as a dominant force. Developed independently by Parnelli Jones using ex-F1 DFVs from his F1 program, it scored 10 Indianapolis 500 wins, 10 CART and three USAC series titles.The DFV was also adapted for endurance sports car racing, and claimed Le Mans 24 Hours victories in 1975 and 1980.

The following documentary about the development of the DFV, "9 Days in Summer," was produced by the Ford Motor Company's film section: