Cooper T53
The Cooper T53 was a Formula 1 racing car , built in 1960 by the British motorsport team Cooper . The T53 was the world champion car from 1960.
Development history and technology
The factory Formula 1 Cooper from 1960 was lower and slimmer than its predecessor, the Cooper T51 . As the competition from Lotus grew tougher - Innes Ireland showed the strengths of the Lotus 18 at the start of the season at the Argentina Grand Prix - Cooper had to make rapid progress in developing the race car, although Bruce McLaren won the race for Cooper (McLaren drove the T51).
The lattice frame of the T53 had four stable main beams. All four wheels were individually suspended from double wishbones with coil springs. The Climax FPF engine developed just under 250 hp (184 kW). It drove the rear wheels via an improved five-speed gearbox . The front end has been aerodynamically shaped, an advantage on fast routes such as Silverstone , Reims and Monza .
Racing history
The T53 made its debut late in the season. Jack Brabham drove the new Cooper racing car to second place in the International Trophy at Silverstone in May. In Monaco , McLaren drove a strong race when the T53 made its first appearance in the world championship, but in second place could not prevent the first Grand Prix victory for Lotus by Stirling Moss in Rob Walker's Lotus 18 .
The potential of the car became clear when Jack Brabham, the 1959 world champion , won five Grand Prix races in a row from the race in the Netherlands and was again driver world champion. The T53 also secured the second consecutive title in the constructors' championship.
In 1961, the T53 became a great sales success for the Cooper team. Teams like Scuderia Centro Sud replaced the Climax engine with a Maserati engine . In South Africa, some private teams used an Alfa Romeo engine as a drive. The Yeoman Credit Team with drivers Roy Salvadori and John Surtees also had a lot of success with the T53 .
The T53 was also used by various teams in the short-lived Intercontinental Formula in 1961 . Stirling Moss and Jack Brabham won every five races in this series with the car.
literature
- David Hodges: Racing Cars from A to Z after 1945 , Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-613-01477-7 .
