1953 Cooper Bristol T23

This car took part in the Chopard HGPCA 100 Mile Grand Prix Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1994.

It's the 1953 Cooper Bristol T23 - originally known as the Cooper Bristol MkII - of John Beasley. The car has a 1971cc 6-cylinder inline Bristol engine that was derived from the pre-war BMW 328 unit. Father and son Charles & John Cooper had started the Cooper Car Company in 1946, and at first specialised in building cars for the new 500cc class of racing that British enthusiasts had started as a simple and economical way to go motor racing after the war. This developed into the International Formula 3 class in 1950, and Cooper then ventured into the Formula 2 class by putting a 1,100cc JAP engine into one of these cars, way below the 2 litre limit allowed, but even with the lack of power the car was still reasonably competitive because of its light weight. When the World Championship was run under Formula 2 regulations in 1952 because of a dearth of the larger-engined Formula 1 cars Cooper decided to design a car to compete at that level. The 1,971 Bristol engine was chosen, but the Cooper Bristol MkI (later designated the T20) could not really compete with the Ferraris and Maseratis in World Championship races and was much more successful in minor British events. In 1953 the MkII (later T23) car was introduced, having a tubular frame chassis instead of the box section frame of the earlier car and the drive train was altered to lower the driver's seat. Although a better car it wasn't much more successful than the MkI, and the following season when the new 2½ litre Formula 1 regulations came into force the car was rendered obsolete. They still soldiered on for a few years, mainly in minor British events, and then became regulars in the historic racing scene, where they're still to be seen to this day.

Behind the Cooper Bristol is Thomas Bscher's 1957 Maserati 250F V12, a car built with a 2,491cc V12 engine instead of the 250F's usual 6-cylinder inline 2,490 unit. It's chassis #2531 and is one of only 2 cars specifically built to take the V12 engine, and the only one to take part in a World Championship race. It was entered for the 1957 Italian Grand Prix and driven by Jean Behra, but retired towards the end of the race with overheating problems. When Maserati disbanded the team at the end of the 1957 season the engine was removed from the car, which was sold to Brazilian Antonio de Barros who installed a V8 Chevrolet engine and raced it till the mid-1960s. It was eventually rescued by Colin Crabbe and restored by Stephen Griswold with the 3 litre V12 engine from a Maserati T63 sports car. The programme of this Silverstone meeting shows the engine capacity of the car to be 2,500cc, but I can't find anything that says it's been reunited with the correct V12 engine.