Cosworth

Bruce Wood

Bruce Wood is a crucial member of the Cosworth team, a long-standing member of staff and, as Technical Director, he is often the face of the company to clients and industry partners.

Wood, who graduated at Brunel University with a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering, manages all the engineering within the company, providing direction on future programmes, and managing day-to-day engineering innovation and output.

The past five years has seen Cosworth Group undergo a complete transformation.  Wood said the team at Cosworth Group had surprised and delighted themselves in discovering their skill set wasn't just applicable to engines. He said there has been a big culture shift at Cosworth as they realised what else they can do. Wood admitted he originally joined Cosworth for the chance to work in motor racing however, over the space of six months, like a lot of the team, he realised it wasn't actually motor racing he loved, but good engineering.

Wood said motor racing was an 'isolated existence' and Cosworth has a diverse skills set that is being successfully applied across many other sectors. When he joined Cosworth, Wood's real ambition and desire was design - more specifically he wanted to design his own racing engine. In 1996 he saw his dreams realised as the chief designer for the XD engine which raced in the American C.A.R.T Series. The engine won 16 races over four years. "That was when I really felt like I had achieved what I wanted to, and it led to my taking over of the American Racing department of Cosworth," he said.

A big part of Wood's role at Cosworth is to liaise with existing and potential customers, promoting the company skill sets. "I find that part of the job really rewarding. I must have toured people around the Cosworth site hundreds of times, but I never get bored of it. Cosworth's talent is pushing the boundaries of high-performance engineering and seeing the work in action still excites me.

Wood said a close knit team of engineers, who have worked together for 15 to 20 years, is a huge benefit to the company and allows him to spend a reasonable amount of time externally, liaising with customers and helping them get to the bottom of their engineering challenges.  Cosworth delivers the competitive edge through skills in precision engineering, technology and manufacturing. Wood said knowing the team is motivated and disciplined allows him to work with customers and partners safe in the knowledge that everyone is getting the job done.