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Formula One
F1: Mid-Engine Coopers Revolutionized F1
Better-balanced race cars conquered more-powerful front-engine Ferraris for chapionship.
Wouter Melissen  | http://www.ultimatecarpage.com  |  Posted November 23, 2009   Goodwood (GB)
This Cooper T51 was driven at Sebring to mark the 50 years since Jack Brabham famously pushed it across the finish line at the 1959 U.S. Grand Prix. Photo: Wouter Melissen)
Formula 1 history was made when Jack Brabham pushed his Cooper T51 Climax across the line in the 1959 United States Grand Prix at Sebring. For the first time a mid-engine car was used to win the driver's and constructor's World Championships.

It was not just the location but also the type of engine that would have a lasting effect on the sport. Cooper had proven that a customer engine could do the job, which opened the door to success for teams such as Lotus and later Brabham and McLaren in a once manufacturer-dominated sport.

Moments before Brabham's epic effort, Bruce McLaren had become the youngest ever driver to win a Formula 1 race in a sister T51. This record stood for nearly five decades.

Well over a year earlier, Stirling Moss had already revealed the potential of the “horse behind the carriage” layout when he drove a Rob Walker-entered Formula 2 Cooper T43 to victory at Buenos Aires against full-bore Grand Prix cars. The superior handling characteristics enabled Moss to bridge the 50-plus horsepower deficit compared with the more conventional Ferraris.

Chassis F2-24-59, considered to be the most original T51 in existence, still has its as-raced Coventry Climax engine and Colotti Transaxle. The ex-Yeoman Credit Cooper is seen here at the 2009 Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance. (Photo: Wouter Melissen)
A few months after Moss' groundbreaking victory, French veteran Maurice Trintignant scored a win on Monaco's tight streets in Walker's latest Cooper T45. On faster circuits such as Reims and Monza, the small Coopers were still comfortably outpaced by the larger-engine rivals. For a serious assault on the titles, Cooper needed a full 2.5-liter engine, which was duly provided by Coventry Climax in 1959.

The 2.5-liter Climax FPF was the latest development of a four-cylinder engine that was originally developed in the early 1950s to power fire-pumps. Although obviously not intended for racing, it was designed by Walter Hassan and Harry Mundy to be light and powerful.

These two men were no strangers to cars and it did not take long before the all-aluminum 'four' made its debut in a racing car. During the following years, it gradually grew in size and received a twin-overhead camshaft cylinder head.

In its full Formula 1 guise, the Climax FPF displaced 2,495cc, which was just shy of the 2.5-liter limit. It produced around 240 horsepower breathing through two twin-choke Webers. This was an obvious improvement over its smaller predecessors but still well short of the leading Ferrari and BRM engines.

Cooper's earliest race cars used mid-mounted motorcycle engines, but that was more for practical reasons than an actual design choice. With the imminent arrival of a new 1.5-liter Formula 2 class in 1957, the Cooper brothers John and Charles made the choice to replace their existing front-engine single seaters with the revolutionary T41, which sported a mid-mounted Climax four cylinder and reversed Citroen gearbox.

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Wouter Melissen

UltimateCarPage.com

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