Cooper T51

The Cooper T51 was a single-seater racing cars of the Cooper Car Company. 1959 Jack Brabham was on a T51 world champion in Formula 1

The Cooper T51 was built in 1959 for the 1.5 -liter Formula 2 and was also used in the Formula 1 World Championship. 1959 Jack Brabham dominated the World Cup and secured Cooper also the Constructors' title. The T51 was the first mid-engine race car, with a Formula 1 title was retracted, and finished the front-engine era. Although Cooper 1960 grew 718 strong competition from the Lotus 18 and Porsche, the title went well this year at Brabham and the British team, which at the beginning of the season of the T51 was used.

The Formula 1 factory cars were powered by the 2.5 -liter engine of Climax. However, the Italian Scuderia Centro Sud familiar to a 2.5-liter Maserati engine. In T51 by Rob Walker, a BRM engine was used, but this project was dropped after one race left. Walker had also tested a Coletti transaxle and found a solution for the problem with the transmission. From the mid- season Walker sat in the car Stirling Moss Coletti housing, but the World Cup was already lost by the failures in the spring. Also, two T51 with Ferrari engine there were that were used in 1960 by the Scuderia Castellotti.

In Formula 2, the T51 in 1959 were equipped with BRP Borgward engines, but also in this formula, the competition from Lotus and Porsche in 1960, becoming stronger and Cooper were sometimes beaten quite convincingly.

The T51 was the most important use of the private vehicle teams this year. Almost all the top drivers this time as Lucien Bianchi, Tony Brooks, Olivier Gendebien, Masten Gregory, Dan Gurney, Bruce McLaren, Maurice Trintignant and Wolfgang von Trips drove the T51.