Tim Harvey posing with his pit crew was the winner of the Maserati Trophy for HGPCA Pre' 66 Grand prix Cars, in a Cooper T51
The Cooper T51 was a Formula One and Formula Two racing car designed by Owen Maddock and built by the Cooper Car Company for the 1959 Formula One season. The T51 earned a significant place in motor racing history when Jack Brabham drove the car to become the first driver to win the championship with a rear-engined car, in 1959. The T51 was raced in several configurations by various entrants until 1963 and in all no less than 38 drivers were entered to drive T51s in Grand Prix races. Aesthetically and aerodynamically the T51 was a natural development of the T43 and T45 cars that had given Cooper their first two wins. The Coopers continued their practice of building spaceframe chassis that ignored orthodox design thinking in having several curved links and the rear-engine layout meant weight savings and aerodynamic advantages over the front-engined cars, which typically had separate gearbox and differential cases, and had to find room for propshafts to the rear wheels. Also the location of the fuel tanks on either side of the cockpit rather than at the rear meant the car handled more consistently with different fuel loads, a vital factor during races which lasted up to three hours. One notable throwback, however, was the car's leaf spring rear suspension, although it used a more modern coil spring and wishbone setup at the front. The T51 had already won the Glover Trophy at Goodwood and the Silverstone International Trophy before it made its first World Championship appearance in the 1959 Monaco Grand Prix, with no less than eight examples entered. The Cooper works team fielded Jack Brabham, Bruce McLaren and Masten Gregory, Stirling Moss and Maurice Trintignant were entered by Rob Walker, two F2 cars were entered by Equipe Nationale Belge for Lucien Bianchi and Alain de Changy, with Ivor Bueb driving another F2 machine. Only the five cars qualified, with Stirling Moss in pole position (Cooper's first) and Brabham starting in third place.
Size: 4920px × 3744px
Location: Silverstone Circuit, Towcester, Northamptonshire, NN12 8TN
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 66, 1959, 2015, car, cars, classic, cooper, crew, grand, harvey, hgpca, historic, maserati, pit, pre, prix, race, silverstone, t51, tim, trophy, winner
