There aren't a lot of automotive engineering companies that manage to become universally known. Even though Cosworth has changed hands several times, the British company has stood the test of time and has built engines for Ford, Subaru, Mercedes-Benz, Rolls-Royce, Aston Martin, Audi and Opel. The company has recently shown that it can still be great by building the new V8 for the recently revealed TVR Griffith. Cosworth has had some amazing cars over the years, but here are our five favorites.

The Ford Escort RS Cosworth was one of the coolest cars of the 1990s. It started life as a Group A rally car that was homologated in limited numbers from 1992 to 1996. The Escort Cosworth was powered by a 2.0-liter four-cylinder turbocharged engine with 224 hp, that's more than a modern Fiesta ST and the Escort RS can even be looked at as a predecessor for modern Ford models like the Focus RS. Interestingly, this car wasn't even an Escort underneath. Instead, it was based on a shortened version of the next car on our list.

Before the Escort Cosworth, there was another badass Ford model that the US never got its hands on. The most powerful Sierra Cosworth, the RS500 model, produced 224 hp from a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder. Back in the 1980s, this car was unbelievably quick with a 0-60 time in the low six-second range. This is also the car that started that odd hatchback spoiler design, which has now become legendary.

Ford may have been one of the popular companies to put the Cosworth badge on its cars, but Mercedes-Benz may have been the first to make it cool. The Mercedes 190e is not as well remembered as the E30 BMW M3, but it was a fantastic car. The 190e Cosworth came with a 2.3-liter 16-valve engine with 185 hp in European spec. The engine was later increased to 2.5-liters and power went up to 204 hp. It may not be as sought after as the M3, but we still love the 190e.

The Subaru Impreza STI CS400 is one of the more recent Cosworth road cars that many people have actually forgotten. Subaru handed over its Impreza STI over to Cosworth back in 2011 to create an incredibly fast, limited edition model. Cosworth was able to take the 2.5-liter flat-four and tune it to produce 395 hp and 398 lb-ft of torque. The STI CS400 was able to hit 60 mph in just 3.7 seconds, making it one of the quickest Subaru models ever. Only 75 units were ever produced, which is why no one really remembers this car.

Even though we haven't seen any full reviews of the new TVR Griffith, we wanted to include it on this list. This car is extremely important because it marks the return of the spectacularly cool TVR Automotive Limited. TVR decided that its new car needed to have a special engine, which is why it hired Cosworth to build a savage-sounding 5.0-liter that is based on the Ford Coyote V8. The Griffith may be one of the last pure sports cars that we ever see. The car will have 500 hp and weight only 2,755 pounds. This car will show that TVR can still build awesome cars and Cosworth can still tune them to be even better.