Cooper T45

I photographed this car in the paddock at Donington Park at the Vintage Sports Car Club's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2007.

It's the 1958 Cooper T45 of Scotty Taylor, chassis F2-8-58, which the programme of the event says has a 1,960cc engine. The Cooper T45's first F1 win was at the Monaco Grand Prix in 1958 with Rob Walker's 2-litre car driven by Frenchman Maurice Trintignant - this followed the win by Stirling Moss in Rob Walker's Cooper T43 in Argentina the same year. The car pictured above was originally owned by Jim Russell who raced the car in 1958 and the early part of 1959 until an accident at Le Mans ended his racing career. Jim Russell had started a school for potential racing drivers in 1956 based at Snetterton, and the Cooper was put to use at this school and also entered in appropriate races driven by Mike McKee. You can see Jim Russell's signature on the body of the car between the front wheel and the rear-view mirror.