1960 Cooper T53

This car took part in the Innes Ireland Trophy Race for Pre-1966 Grand Prix & Tasman Cars at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1994.

It's the 1960 Cooper T53 of Allan Miles, described in the programme of the event as having a 2,459cc engine, presumably the Coventry Climax FPF unit. It appears to be chassis F1-9-61, a car built for French driver Bernard Collomb to use in the 1961 season and was eventually wrecked in practice for the 1962 Brussels Grand Prix. Some parts of the car were acquired by John Harper in the late 1970s and it was reconstructed, later going to Allan Miles who raced it in historic events from 1988 to 1999. The car is painted dark blue with a white nose band, the colours of Rob Walker who had a Cooper T53 in 1961, chassis F1-7-61, that competed in some non-championship events in the early part of that season.

1960 Cooper T53

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 1960 Cooper T53 of Allan Miles, described in the programme of the event as having a 2,495cc engine, presumably the Coventry Climax FPF unit. It appears to be chassis F1-9-61, a car built for French driver Bernard Collomb to use in the 1961 season and was eventually wrecked in practice for the 1962 Brussels Grand Prix. Some parts of the car were acquired by John Harper in the late 1970s and it was reconstructed, later going to Allan Miles who raced it in historic events from 1988 to 1999. The car is painted dark blue with a white nose band, the colours of Rob Walker who had a Cooper T53 in 1961, chassis F1-7-61, that competed in some non-championship events in the early part of that season.

 

Car number 34 behind this car is another Cooper T53, that of Frank Sytner, which also took part in this race and the number 22 to the rear is another of Allan Miles’ cars, a 1953 Cooper Bristol MkII.

1960 Cooper T53

I took this photograph in the paddock at the Vintage Sports Car Club's meeting at Oulton Park in June 2006.

It's the 1960 Cooper T53 of Barry Cannell which the programme of the event says had a 2½ litre engine and appears to be the car that oldracingcars.com describes as 'the Jersey car'. The T63 was built by the Cooper Team with a 2,497cc 4-cylinder inline Coventry Climax FPF engine to contest the 1960 F1 season. Jack Brabham and Bruce McLaren drove the car that year, Brabham winning his second World Drivers' Championship and McLaren finishing in second place. Cooper (obviously) won the World Constructors' Championship.

 

Immediately behind the Cooper is the 1935 Riley Special of Tim Hopkinson and on the right in the background is Paul Mullins' 1936 ERA R7B.

1961 Cooper T53

This was one of the competitors in the Pre-1966 Grand Prix & Tasman Cars race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 2000.

It's the 1961 Cooper T53 of Douglas Mockett with a 4-cylinder inline 1,475cc Coventry Climax engine and is chassis #F1-3-61. Originally built for Lucky Casner's Camoradi team it was driven by Masten Gregory in the 1961 season.

1960 Cooper T53

I took this photograph in the paddock at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1995.

It's a 1960 Cooper T53, the car that brought Jack Brabham the second of his two consecutive World Drivers' Championship titles in 1960 and was powered by a 4-cylinder inline 2,497cc Coventry Climax FPF engine. There were two races at this meeting featuring Grand Prix cars of this era, a Pre '61 Grand Prix Car Race in which Gerry Porter drove a Cooper T53 and car number 10 was a Maserati 250F, and a Pre '66 Grand Prix and Tasman Cars Race in which Allan Miles and Stephen Griswold drove Cooper T53s and car number 10 was a Brabham BT11.

1961 Cooper T53

This was one of the competitors in the Pre-1966 Grand Prix & Tasman Cars race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1999.

It's the 1961 Cooper T53 of Douglas Mockett with a 4-cylinder inline 1,475cc Coventry Climax engine and is chassis #F1-3-61. Originally built for Lucky Casner's Camoradi team it was driven by Masten Gregory in the 1961 season and on 25 March 2018 I showed a photograph of the car that I took during practice for the 1961 British Grand Prix at Aintree.

1960 Cooper T53

This car competed in the HSCC Pre '65 Historic Grand Prix Championship race at the Historic Sports Car Club's Spring Historic Race Meeting at Oulton Park in May 1986.

It's shown in the programme of the event as John Harper's 1960 Cooper F1 car with a 2,496cc engine. The car was built by John Harper in the early 1980s from remains said to have been Arthur Owen's British Hillclimb Championship winning Cooper T53, and it may be chassis F2-5-60, the car that Bruce McLaren drove in the 1960 Formula 2 season.

1961 Cooper T53

This was one of the competitors in the HGPCA Pre-1966 Grand Prix Cars Race at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2002.

It's a 1961 Cooper T53 with a 1½ litre engine and was driven in the race by Ted Rollason. The T53 was a 'lowline' version of the Cooper T51 and this car, chassis F1-1-61, was driven for the Yeoman Credit Racing Team in 1961 by John Surtees. At the end of that season it was taken to South Africa for Tony Maggs to compete in the South African Springbok series after which it was sold to a Rhodesian driver, a Mr Kilner and was fitted with an Alfa Romeo engine in place of its Coventry Climax unit. It was raced in South Africa and Rhodesia until 1967 when it was involved in an accident at Kyalami when being driven by another Rhodesian driver, John Coetzer, and was totally wrecked. The remains were some years later acquired by John Harper who fabricated a new frame and rebuilt the car. Ted Rollason bought the car in 2001 and competed with it that year and the following year, eventually selling the car in 2014 to German driver Wulf Goetze who continued to race the car after an intensive overhaul.

1961 Cooper T53 and 1958 Lola Mk I Prototype

These cars took part in two of the races at the Vintage Sports Car Club's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2005.

On the left is the 1961 Cooper T53 of Chris Bullimore with a Coventry Climax FPF 1,500cc engine which competed in the HGPCA Pre-66 Grand Prix Cars race. Jack Brabham had won the Drivers' World Championship in 1960 with a Cooper T53 in the last year of the 2½ litre Formula, and in 1961 the Cooper works team fielded the similar, but lighter T55. The T53 continued to be used in 1961, with a 1½ litre engine, by private entrants and this car, chassis #F1-15-61 went to Hap Sharp in the USA who drove it in the USA Grand Prix in 1961 and 1962. The car on the right is the 1958 Lola Mk1 Prototype of Richard Wills that had recently been restored by Hall & Hall and which competed in the 1950s Drum-Braked Sports Racing Cars race. It was the first Lola to be built, originally powered by a Coventry Climax 4-cylinder 1,098cc FWA engine to compete in the 1,100cc sports car category, and finished in second place in its second race driven by its builder Eric Broadley. It had great success in the hands of Eric Broadley and Peter Gammon, and as orders for the car increased Eric Broadley retired from racing in 1959 to handle the production of the car. Early models, like this prototype, had an aluminium body with the later ones being fashioned in fibre glass, and around forty examples of the Mk1 were built. Richard Wills' car now has the 1,216cc version of the Coventry Climax FWA engine, rounded to 1,220cc in the programme of this meeting. 

Cooper T53

This car competed in the HGPCA Pre-66 Grand Prix Cars Race at the SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2005.

It's the 1961 Cooper T53 of Ted Rollason and according to the programme of the event had a 2,700cc engine. It is apparently chassis F1-1-61, a car that was originally campaigned by the Yeoman Credit Racing team in the 1961 season, driven by John Surtees and Roy Salvadori. After taking part in the 1961-62 South African Springbok series the car was sold to a driver from Rhodesia, given an Alfa Romeo engine and was seen sporadically in Rhodesia and South Africa until 1967 when it was destroyed in a crash at Kyalami while being driven by Rhodesian driver John Coetzer. The remains of the car were acquired by Ivan Glasby and eventually sold to John Harper in the UK who rebuilt the car with a new frame, completing the task in 1999. Ted Rollason took over the car in 2001, competing with it for several years before selling it to German Wulf Goetze in 2014.

I've featured the Cooper T53 three times previously, most recently on 30 January 2019.

Cooper T53 Climax

This car took part in the Innes Ireland Trophy Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1997.

It's the 1960 Cooper T53 Climax of Allan Miles, described in the programme of the event as having a 2,495cc engine, presumably the Coventry Climax FPF unit. It appears to be chassis F1-9-61, a car built for French driver Bernard Collomb to use in the 1961 season and was eventually wrecked in practice for the 1962 Brussels Grand Prix. Some parts of the car were acquired by John Harper in the late 1970s and it was reconstructed, later going to Allan Miles who raced it in historic events from 1988 to 1999. The car is painted dark blue with a white nose band, the colours of Rob Walker who had a Cooper T53 in 1961, chassis F1-7-61, that competed in some non-championship events in the early part of that season.

Cooper T53

This is a photograph I took at Aintree on the practice day for the Aintree 200 race in April 1961.

It's the 1961 1½ litre Climax-engined Cooper T53, chassis #F1-3-61 entered by the Camoradi team and driven by Masten Gregory who started in 26th place on the grid (not having posted a practice time) but ended the race in 5th place. The Camoradi team was founded by American Lloyd Casner (CAsner MOtor RAcing DIvision) and is probably better known for its efforts in sports car racing, particularly with the Maserati T61 with which Stirling Moss and Dan Gurney won the 1960 Nürburgring 1,000 km race.

On 31 March 2016 I showed a photograph of another Cooper T53 that took part in this race, the Rob Walker car driven by Stirling Moss (chassis #F1-7-61) which only lasted for two laps.

Cooper T53

This is a photograph taken on practice day for the Aintree 200 race in April 1961.

It's the Cooper-Climax T53 (chassis #F1-7-61) of Rob Walker, driven (but only briefly) in the race by Stirling Moss. He had bearing troubles in practice, only qualifying in 23rd place on the grid, and his race only lasted till the second lap when the bearings eventually caused him to retire.