Cooper Monaco

I photographed this car in the pit lane during a practice session at the SeeRed meeting at Donington Park on June 2008.

It's the 1959 Cooper T49 Monaco that was driven in the one hour long BRDC Historic Sportscars race by Mark Clubb and Martin Stretton. I've seen the name 'Monaco' for this car ascribed to both Maurice Trintignant's win in the 1958 Monaco Grand Prix in a Cooper Climax T45 and Jack Brabham's victory in the same race the following year in a Cooper Climax T51, but since the Cooper Monaco was announced in November 1958 the Maurice Trintignant win seems to be the most likely source. It was the successor to the smaller centre-seat Cooper T39 'Bobtail' that the company had produced since 1954. A variety of engines were used in the Monaco, mainly Climax and Maserati, ranging from 1½ litres up to 2½ litres, and this particular car has a 2 litre unit. It's probably the car detailed in this racecarsdirect.com feature.