1958 Cooper T45

This car was one of the competitors in a 10 lap race for Pre-1961 Racing Cars at the Vintage Sports Car Club’s Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in August 1992.

It's Mike Haywood's 1958 Cooper T45 with what the programme of the event said was a 2 litre engine. The Cooper T45 was an improved version of the T43 and was used in both Formula One and Formula Two racing.

1958 Cooper T45

This car competed in the Pre-1966 Grand Prix and Tasman Cars Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1998.

It's Mike Haywood's 1958 Cooper T45 with what the programme of the event said was a 2 litre engine. The Cooper T45 was an improved version of the T43 and was used in both Formula One and Formula Two racing. 

1958 Cooper T45

This car took part in the HGPCA Pre-1966 Grand Prix Cars race at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2002.

It's the 1958 Cooper T45 of Brian Jolliffe and has the 2 litre Coventry Climax 4-cylinder inline engine. The Cooper T45's first F1 win was at the Monaco Grand Prix in 1958 with Rob Walker's 2.2 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.

1955 Maserati 300S

This was one of the competitors in the Coys Race for Pre-1959 Drum Brake Sports Cars at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2002.

It's the 1955 Maserati 300S of Rodney Smith, chassis #3060, and was driven in the race by Mark Gillies. The Maserati 300S has a 6-cylinder engine based on the 2½ litre unit of the 250F Grand Prix car with a lengthened stroke to bring the capacity up to 2,991cc. The car's first major race was the 1956 Sebring 12 Hour race where it was driven by Cesare Perdisa and Carlos Menditéguy, but Menditéguy crashed and overturned the car during the race. The car was then badly damaged when the trailer retrieving it was hit by a truck. The rebuild wasn't completed till 1957, but on its return to Sebring in 1959 the car was once again badly damaged in Edwin Lawrence's fatal accident during practice. It was rebuilt yet again with a fibreglass body, and later a 3.9 litre Chevrolet V8 engine was installed.  The car was fully restored to its current form in the early 1990s. The car number 18 in the background is the 1958 Cooper T45 of Anthony Ditheridge which took part in the HGPCA Pre-1966 Grand Prix Cars race.

Two Coopers

This photograph was taken at Donington Park at the SeeRed meeting in September 2005.

On the left is the 1958 Cooper T45 of Bill Kirkpatrick that competed in the Ron Flockhart Memorial Trophy race. The Cooper T45 was derived from the T43 of 1957 that had competed in Grand Prix racing in that year with a 2 litre Coventry Climax engine, but in 1958 the T45 was on equal standing with the other Formula One teams with a 2½ litre unit. Rob Walker's rear-engined 2½ litre Cooper Climax T45 was good enough to win the first two races of the season, the Argentine Grand Prix (Stirling Moss) and the Monaco Grand Prix (Maurice Trintignant), and although Mike Hawthorn with his Ferrari 246 Dino won the World Drivers' Championship that was the last one to be won by a front-engined car. Bill Kirkpatrick's car at Donington Park had a 1,960cc engine. The car next to it is Brian Joliffe's 1955 Cooper T39 Bobtail with a 1,460cc Coventry Climax FWB engine. The T39 was raced in the popular 1½ litre class in sports car races in the mid-1950s, competing against the Lotus Eleven, Maserati 150S, Porsche 550 and others.

Craner Curves, Donington Park

This is a photograph taken at the Craner Curves during the first lap of the Ron Flockhart Memorial Trophy Race at the VSCC's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2004.

Leading is Andrew Smith in his 2 litre 1957 Cooper T43 followed by two more Coopers, the 2 litre 1958 T45 of Anthony Ditheridge and the 2 litre 1957 T43 of Tania Pilkington. The two cars behind them are the 3.8 litre 1958 Lister Jaguar Monza of Rod Jolley and Alexander Boswell's 3 litre 1952 Ferrari 625A. Following them is a group consisting of B Type and A Type Connaughts, a Cooper Bristol and another Cooper T45. Bringing up the rear are the 4.2 litre 1957 Kurtis Offenhauser KK500G of Stuart Harper and the 2 litre 1953 Cooper Bristol T23 of David White.

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.

Cooper T45

This was one of the cars competing in the Ron Flockhart Memorial Trophy Race at the SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2004.

It's the 1958 Cooper T45 of Antony Hancock. The T45 was a development of the 1½ litre Formula 2 T41 of 1956 and the T43 of 1957, and which by 1958 was also being campaigned in Formula 1 events with a 2½ litre engine. According to the programme of the event this car at Donington Park was fitted with a 2 litre engine.

Cooper Climax T45

This car is pictured in the paddock at Aintree in April 1960 where it took part in the BARC 200 race for Formula 2 cars.

It's the Scuderia Centro Sud Cooper Climax T45 and was driven in the race by Maurice Trintignant, finishing in fifth place. It's the ex-Rob Walker car and is chassis #F2-9-58.

Cooper Monaco

I took this photograph at the Historic Grand Prix Cars Association's Donington International Grand Prix meeting in May 2004.

Both cars belong to Anthony Ditheridge, and number 20 is a 1959 Cooper Monaco T49 which the programme of the event says has a 1960cc engine. The car was named the 'Monaco' by Charles and John Cooper after Jack Brabham's victory in the 1959 Monaco Grand Prix. Car number 8 is a 1958 Cooper T45, also with a 1960cc engine according to the programme. The T45 was developed for Formula 2 racing and  it would have originally had a 1½ litre engine.