Cooper T51

The standard F1 T51 was the first Cooper powered by the 2.5-litre 4-cylinder engine which Cooper and Lotus had commissioned Coventry Climax to build specifically for their rear-engined machines. The pioneering nature of this configuration created problems of its own, since there were so few rear-engined production cars from which a gearbox could be sourced. This shortage eventually created a niche in the market which paved the way for Hewland's prominence, but in the meantime many different solutions were tried, with varying degrees of success. The works Coopers were fitted with modified Citroen gearboxes, while Rob Walker's team ran bespoke units from Italian specialist Valerio Colotti, although these proved much more fragile.

In all, eight different engines were used in the back of T51s in championship races, with 2.2- and 1.5-litre Climax engines in addition to the standard 2.5: Scuderia Centro Sud and others used 2.5 and 1.5-litre engines from Maserati; the British Racing Partnership team used F2 powerplants from Borgward; Scuderia Eugenio Castellotti used their own Ferrari-derived 2.5-litre units; and one car used a Ferrari 2-litre engine lifted from a 625LM.

Guglielmo Dei set up Scuderia Centro Sud to publicise his business as distributor of Maserati cars to central and southern Italy, hence the name he chose for his team. Having fielded Maserati 250Fs for several years he switched to T51s midway through 1960, with the Climax replaced with a two-year-old 2.5-litre Maserati straight-4 250s engine which was used in Maserati's unspectacular 250S sportscar. In this configuration Centro Sud entered the T51 in 14 World Championship races, more than any other entrant. After converting to the 1.5-litre formula post-1960, Centro Sud's Cooper Maseratis still made the occasional appearance in minor Italian F1 races as late as 1963. Dei never kept his drivers for long, as they tended to be either journeymen, faded former stars like Maurice Trintignant, or up-and-coming racers like Wolfgang Von Trips who would soon be snapped up by bigger teams. In all, more than a dozen drivers drove T51s for Centro Sud.

Scuderia Centro Sud Championship results (key)

1960 Yeoman Credit Racing T51

The British Racing Partnership team was founded by Ken Gregory and Alfred Moss, Stirling's father, in late 1957. They spent 1958 and 1959 competing in Formula Two events, with the odd entry into F1 races, particularly in the UK, and experimented with 1.5-litre Borgward engines for their 1959-spec T51s, under an arrangement whereby Stirling Moss would use the Borgward-engined BRP cars with Rob Walker as the entrant.
For 1960 they had agreed for the three Samengo-Turner brothers, motor racing enthusiasts who owned Yeoman Credit Ltd., to bankroll their season with 2.5-litre Climax-engined F1 entries as well as a full slate of F2 entries with Borgward. BRP's list of drivers for 1960 was quite impressive, including at various points future champions Phil Hill and Denis Hulme, respected names like Tony Brooks and Dan Gurney, as well as Ferrari sportscar ace Olivier Gendebien. The Yeoman Credit cars were distinctive in having a mint green and red colourscheme and an air intake that stretched from the top of the car above the front axle along the left side of the cockpit to the engine's intake trumpets behind.
By the end of 1960 BRP had lost three drivers - Ivor Bueb, Harry Schell (who also ran his own T51 under the Ecurie Bleue banner) and Chris Bristow - to fatal accidents, and the Samengo-Turners decided to take their money to Reg Parnell's team instead, and since Parnell had filled up Cooper's order book BRP had to switch to Lotus for 1961.

British Racing Partnership Championship results (key)

†In 1960 only the best-performing car for each chassis-engine combination scored Constructors' points in each race, and on every occasion this was a works Cooper-Climax.

Named after the Ferrari driver who died in testing at the Modena circuit in 1957, Scuderia Castellotti was founded by Giuseppe Corsi in Lodi in 1958. It used modified Ferrari Tipo 553 2.0-litre engines bored out to 2.5 litres and rebranded as "Castellotti", with "Eugenio" on the cam covers. The cars were easily distinguishable from other F1 T51s in that their exhausts were fitted on the left, while all other engines used in T51s had their exhausts on the right. The team competed in four events in 1960 with lesser-known Italian drivers Gino Munaron, Giorgio Scarlatti and Giulio Cabianca.
Cabianca scored the team's first championship points by finishing fourth at the 1960 Italian Grand Prix. Cabianca was at the wheel of a T51-Castellotti in Modena in 1961 when he fell victim to one of Formula One's most bizarre accidents while testing. With his throttle stuck open he was unable to stop, went out of the circuit onto public roads and collided with four bystanders before crashing into the wall of the coachbuilder Orlandi. In the aftermath, the inadequacy of the Modena circuit's structures were lambasted in a court case, effectively preventing the track from running any further events.[1]

Scuderia Castellotti Championship results (key)

The T51 was entered into championship races by a further twelve organisations, the most notable being Reg Parnell, who later took over Yeoman Credit's racing activities from BRP, and Fred Armbruster, who entered Pete Lovely in the 1960 United States Grand Prix with a T51 uniquely fitted with a Ferrari Tipo 555 engine, a different engine to those used by Scuderia Eugenio Castelotti. The final World Championship appearance for a T51 came when Trevor Blokdyk took his Scuderia Lupini T51-Maserati to twelfth place in the 1963 South African Grand Prix.

Privateer Championship results (key)

* All points were scored by other entrants