1959 Cooper T51

This is a photograph that I took in the paddock at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1998.

It’s the 1959 Cooper T51 of Andrew Garner which the programme of the event says has a 2½ litre engine, presumably the 2,495cc Coventry Climax FPF engine that powered these cars in 1959. The T51 was the car with which Jack Brabham won his first World Championship in 1959.

Cooper T51 and Jaguar D-Type

The Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1994 featured a tribute to Juan Manuel Fangio and there was a display of cars in the paddock in which he had competed in the 1950s. His nephew Juan Manuel Fangio II drove a Maserati 250F in track displays during the meeting and was joined by several other cars that had been displayed in the paddock beside those of Fangio. This is a photograph that I took at Luffield corner during one of the displays.

Neither of these cars competed in any of the races at this meeting and the leading car here is a 1959 Cooper T51, the car that took Jack Brabham to his first World Championship success in that year. Behind it is a 1955 Jaguar D-Type, one of the long-nose models that won the 1955 Le Mans 24 Hour Race, and this car is XKD606, a former Ecurie Ecosse car.

1959 Cooper T51

This car competed in the HGPCA Pre 1966 Race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's meeting at Oulton Park in June 2006.

It's Richard Longes' 1959 Cooper T51 and has a 2,495cc engine, presumably the Coventry Climax FPF engine that powered these cars in 1959. It seems to be chassis F2-18-59.

1959 Cooper T51

The Coys International Historic Festival meeting of July 1994 at Silverstone featured a tribute to Juan Manuel Fangio and there was a display of some of the cars with which he was associated. At the side of this display were a few cars that didn't compete in any of the races at the meeting but which that took part in demonstration runs during the meeting and this is one of the photographs I took of some of them.

There's nothing in the progamme of the event about these cars, but the car in the background is a Cooper T51, the model with which Jack Brabham won his first World Drivers' Championship in 1959. Nearest the camera is a Jaguar C Type that another photograph I took shows to have the number 18, which is the number borne by the winner of the 1953 Le Mans 24 Hour Race driven by Tony Rolt and Duncan Hamilton, and if it is that car it is chassis number XKC051. Alongside it is the 1959 Aston Martin DBR1, chassis DBR1/2, that won the 1959 Le Mans 24 Hour Race in the hands of Roy Salvadori and Carroll Shelby.

1959 Cooper T51

This is one of the competitors in the Historic Grand Prix Cars Association Pre '65 Grand Prix Car Race at the Christie's International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1992.

It's the 1959 Cooper T51 of Martin Stretton, and is in the colours of the British Racing Partnership/Yeoman Credit Racing Team of 1959-1960. It is one of two cars that were raced by the British Racing Partnership in 1959, mainly in Formula 2 races with a 1½ litre Borgward engine, then by the Yeoman Credit team in both Formula 1 and some Formula 2 races in the 1960 season with 2½ litre and 1½ litre Coventry Climax engines. Martin Stretton's car has the 2,495cc Coventry Climax engine.

1959 Cooper T51 & 1958 Lotus Eleven Le Mans

I took this photograph in the paddock at the Silverstone Historic Festival meeting in August 2001.

On the left is the 1959 Cooper T51 of David Cooke that he drove in the John Cooper Trophy Race for Pre 1966 Grand Prix and Tasman Cars. The T51 was a development of the Cooper T43 and and T45 cars for the 1959 F1 season and was usually powered by a 2½ litre Coventry Climax engine, though the programme of this events says that David Cooke's car had a 1,998cc engine. On the right is David Cooke's 1958 Lotus Eleven Le Mans with a 1,498cc engine. The Lotus Eleven was primarily designed to compete in the 1,100cc class of racing, but competed with a variety of engines ranging from 750cc to 1,500cc. The Lotus Eleven Le Mans differed from the standard Lotus Eleven in that it had a wider chassis frame in order to provide Le Mans regulation-width seats, and cockpit and footwell minimum dimensions, but the overall width of the bodywork was no different to the standard car.

Cooper T51 and ERA Delage

These unlikely looking competitors took part in the 12 Lap Allcomers Race at the VSCC's Richard Seaman Trophy Vintage Car Races meeting at Oulton Park in August 1992.

Number 1 is Martin Stretton in his ex-BRP/Yeoman Credit 1960 2,495cc Cooper T51 and 229 is Chris Mayman in his cousin Anthony Mayman's 1927/36 ERA Delage, a 1927 Delage 15 S8 Grand Prix car with a 1,982cc supercharged 1936 ERA engine. The Cooper is passing the ERA Delage going into Lodge Corner.

The Coopers were raced by the British Racing Partnership in 1959, mainly in Formula 2 races with a 1½ litre Borgward engine, then by the Yeoman Credit team in both Formula 1 and some Formula 2 races in the 1960 season with 2½ litre and 1½ litre Coventry Climax engines.

The ERA Delage was created by Rob Walker who replaced the original engine of a 1927 Delage Grand Prix car with an ERA engine.

On 19 December 2016 I showed a photograph of one of the ex-BRP/Yeoman Credit Racing team's Cooper T51s, and on 9 April 2018 photographs of the ERA Delage.

Cooper T51

This car competed in the HGPCA Race for Pre-1966 Grand Prix Cars at the Historic Grand Prix Cars Association's International Historic Grand Prix meeting at Donington Park in May 2004. 

It's John Clark's 2½ litre Climax-engined 1959 Cooper T51. The T51 was the car with which Jack Brabham won his first World Championship in 1959, and on 20 May 2014 I showed photographs of Jack Brabham in a Cooper T51 at Silverstone in 1993.

Cooper T51

This was one of the competitors in the Pre-1966 Grand Prix and Tasman Cars race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1998.

It's the 1959 Cooper T51 of Peter Gooch. The car is one of three cars originally purchased by the British Racing Partnership/Yeoman Credit Racing Team in October 1959 for use in the 1960 racing season. It was fitted with a Coventry Climax FPF 2½ litre 4 cylinder in-line engine and features the unusual carburettor air intake only found on the Yeoman Credit cars. Chris Bristow, Tony Brooks, Olivier Gendebien and Phil Hill were amongst the drivers who raced the Yeoman Credit cars in the 1960 season.

On 19 December 2016 I showed a photograph of this car that I'd taken at the 1999 Silverstone Coys meeting.

Cooper T51

This car took part in the Maserati UK Race for Pre-1966 Grand Prix & Tasman Cars at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1999.

It's the 1959 Cooper T51 of Peter Gooch, and is in the colours of the British Racing Partnership/Yeoman Credit Racing Team of 1959-1960. The two British Racing Partnership cars of 1959 ran with 1½ litre Climax and Borgward engines, but the programme of this event says the car is fitted with a 2½ litre engine as used by the Yeoman Credit Racing Team in F1 races in 1960. On 20 May 2014 I showed a photograph of the late Sir Jack Brabham at the wheel of a Cooper T51 at the Coys meeting at Silverstone in July 1993.

Crowded Paddock

This is a photograph I took in the paddock at the SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2007.

There's a preponderance of British Racing Green, and even the blue car nearest the camera is a British car - it's the 1955 Cooper T39 Bobtail of Adrian van der Kroft that I featured on 11 July 2016. Adrian van der Kroft is also the owner of car number 38, a 1952 HWM F2 car fitted with a Jaguar engine. There are 5 Cooper Bristols - those of David White, Patrick Walker, Nigel Bancroft and Geoffrey O'Connell lined up together at the rear, and the one with the red nose is Paul Grant's. Number 49 is the 1954 HWM Jaguar of Michael Steele, 27 is Ian Nuthall's 1952 Alta F2, and numbers 10 and 7 are Nick Wigley's 1954 Connaught B type and 1959 Cooper T51 respectively.