Each engine costs a different amount of money to have per race; the most expensive is the Honda engine while the Ford Cosworth engine is the least expensive.
The car's engines are produced by British engineering company Cosworth.
The 1983 championship saw the debut of the Bap Romano owned and driven Kaditcha K583 Cosworth, the first Australian Group A Sports Car built with a closed top and Ground effects aerodynamics.
Queensland based owner/driver Bap Romano won the series driving his Romano WE84 Cosworth from 1982 champion Chris Clearihan (driving the Kaditcha-Chevrolet that Peter Hopwood used to win the 1983 Championship) and Andrew Roberts driving a self designed Roberts S2 Ford.
In December 1984 Costanzo accepted an offer from that year's Australian Sports Car Champion Bap Romano to co-drive the Romano WE84 Cosworth in the 1984 Sandown 1000 as part of the 1984 World Endurance Championship, the first FIA World Championship event held in Australia.
The original version, which first appeared in the Astra GTE, Calibra and Vauxhall Cavalier/Opel Vectra between 1988 and 1991, was cast by Cosworth and was marketed under the name 'Coscast'.
Engines were mostly by Cosworth (based on Ford blocks) and Honda, though some other units appeared, including various Fiat based units and dedicated racing engines from BMC and BRM.
Trevor Taylor and Cosworth co-founder Mike Costin tested the car extensively, the first problem being the positioning of the oil tank, which for weight distribution had been placed directly behind the driver's backside, causing considerable discomfort.
The large engine bay helps accommodate most engines, including 2.0-litre Cosworth, BMW straight six and Rover V8.
Ford VIS (Variable-resonance Intake System) - on their 2.9-liter 24V Cosworth (BOB) based on the Ford Cologne V6 engine in the later model Ford Scorpio.
With Duckworth having left to form Cosworth in 1958, Mike Costin, who, despite being the co-founder of Cosworth, remained with Lotus for a while longer, adopted the improved Queer Box in Lotus 16 into a configuration for directly mounting it behind the engine for Lotus 18 with dedicated oil scavenge and pressure feed pumps, further improving its reliability while retaining the small and light design.
Powered by Lotus-Ford Twin Cam or its Cosworth derivatives mostly mated to Hewland Mk.8 or Mk.9, it is still built by Xanthos Sports Cars.
This was demonstrated in a Top Gear episode (S15E02) where James May took a 190E 2.3-16 Cosworth and repeatedly confused reverse and first gear.
In 2013, Mällinen finished third in the SCCA National Championship Runoffs driving a Swift Engineering Cosworth 016.a for Swan Racing.
The 1999 event saw 1984 World Rally Champion Stig Blomqvist drive the late Carl Merrill's Ford Escort Cosworth to victory over 83 National and Divisional teams.
A petrol company sponsorship was promised but fell through, and SH1 received a 1L Cosworth MAE built by Holbay (later by EMC Motorsport), fit with two twin-choke diagonal throat sand-cast Weber carburetors for Formula 3 racing.