Cooper T86
The Cooper T86 was a Formula 1 racing car that the British Formula 1 team Cooper used in 1967 and 1968.
Development history and technology
In 1967, Cooper brought a new racing car, the T86, from the middle of the season to replace the completely outdated T81 . The T86 was a committed attempt to build a lightweight Formula 1 racing car. The car was extremely light, very low and narrower than its predecessor. However, the Maserati engine remained Cooper's real problem. The engine was way too heavy and used too much fuel. The lightweight construction car was only used four times in 1967 and failed each time.
In 1968, the leaders of Cooper on turned BRM to the unpopular V-12 engine from Maserati to replace. After the attempt with the lightweight T86 failed, the T86B had a full-length monocoque again . The BRM 12-cylinder engine was lighter than the Maserati engine, but the unit was the weakest engine of the 1968 season . The car got improved front brakes and from the middle of the season rear and front wings .
Racing history
The Cooper team, regardless of motor inferiority, has been unlucky the entire season. Ludovico Scarfiotti , who switched from Ferrari to Cooper, had a fatal accident in a hill climb on the Roßfeldhöhenringstrasse with a Porsche 909 Bergspyder . Brian Redman was out for most of the season after a serious accident at the Belgian Grand Prix . Vic Elford and Lucien Bianchi , who were hired as replacement pilots, filled the gap with flying colors. In both the races in Spain and Monaco , the two achieved third and fourth place overall.
At the end of the 1968 season, the British racing team finished sixth in the Formula 1 constructors' championship.
A T86B was converted for the Formula 5000 and sold to a privateer who started using the vehicle in 1969. A T86C with an Alfa Romeo engine was never quite finished. Vic Elford came close to scoring points with a private T86 in Monaco in 1969 when he finished seventh. This ended the Cooper era in Formula 1.
literature
- David Hodges: Racing Cars from A – Z after 1945. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-613-01477-7 , p. 68.
