British Invasion: Cosworth to Set Up Shop in Detroit
A company whose name is synonymous with performance wants to put down roots in Big Three territory.
Cosworth, the British manufacturer of specialized engine parts and electronics, aims to open a $30 million plant in the northern suburbs of Detroit by 2018, Automotive News reports.
The Shelby Township facility will produce V8 cylinder heads for an unnamed producer of “high-performance road cars,” according to Cosworth CEO Hal Reisiger.
Made possible by a $2.1 million loan granted by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, the facility will employ up to 110 people. The grant helped lure Cosworth away from its U.S. business base in Indiana.
While there’s only a single customer for now, more parts for more manufacturers could follow, something Cosworth is crossing its fingers for. Reisiger said the plant will have enough flexibility to produce several products at once.
The company’s long-term goal is to either expand the plant or build a new facility next to the existing one.
A V8 engine developed by Cosworth will find a home under the hood of TVR’s newest bit of eccentric motoring, the first of four models planned by the on-again, off-again British automaker. The company also offers aftermarket Power Packages for the Toyobaru twins, crate engines, racing engines and electronics, and a slew of performance parts.
[Image: Rev 13:18/ Flickr]
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If you listen to Trump you would think American manufacturing completely left for Mexico and China. Art of the deal for angry. It's the "art of the deal".
I live approx 8-10 miles from where I know they will set up shop. It's a large industrial corridor that broke ground in approx 2001, called Cherry Creek Corporate Park, then got hammered in 2008-2010, and is now thriving again with new industrial facilities being built (steel frame fabrication and R&D structures). It's off of M-53 and 23 mile road and is a massive complex. Cosworth had better diversify their client base, however, because there's a LOT of competition within a 40 square mile radius (from Northville to Warren to Sterling Heights to Milford to Romulus to Windsor to Madison Heights to Dearborn to Detroit itself , and everywhere in between).
It just has to be "Ford Cosworth".
I've said it before and I'll keep saying it: the Detroit region isn't about building "American cars". It's the center of the global auto industry as much as NYC is the heart of the financial industry and as Los Angeles is to movies/tv/video. This follows by a day or so news that Google is opening up an autonomous vehicle R&D center in Novi. Historical note: Shelby Twp is where the Packard Proving Grounds are located. Packard had a transmission factory nearby as well.