1966 Cooper-Maserati

This is a photograph that I took at the Donington Park Museum in October 1989.

It's a 1966 Cooper-Maserati, and this is what the book 'Great Racing Cars of the Donington Collection' says about it:

The Cooper-Maserati

Cooper stage a comeback

 

Following their dismal lack of success in the last three seasons of 1½ litre racing, the Cooper Car Company became part of the Chipstead Motors Group and with added backing they found a new enthusiasm. For 3 litre racing in 1966 they adopted the massive, thirsty but powerful Maserati V12 engine, which was installed in their first monocoque chassis, a ‘bathtub’ type designed by Tony Robinson, a racing mechanic-cum-engineer of long-standing experience. These T81 Cooper-Maseratis were big, hefty cars, but they were ready early in the season and attracted such customers as Rob Walker, Jo Bonnier and the Frenchman, Guy Ligier. Jo Siffert raced Walker’s car, while Jochen Rindt, Richie Ginther and later John Surtees handled the works entries. Surtees joined the team after a mid-season break from Ferrari, and he developed the unwieldy but reliable cars into really competitive propositions late in the season. He won the Mexican Grand Prix – Cooper’s first major success since McLaren’s win at Monaco in 1962. This, in conjunction with his Belgian win for Ferrari and second and third places for Cooper, made him runner-up to Brabham in the World Championship. Pedro Rodriguez scored a lucky win for the T81s in the South African GP, opening the 1967 season, and later in the year the type was replaced in works hands by lighter and slimmer T81B derivatives. In 1968 the new BRM V12 engine was adopted in preference to the ageing Maserati unit, and this became Cooper’s final fling in Grand Prix racing. The Cooper Maserati was never a great racing car, but it gave this pioneering marque their last Formula 1 successes.