ARA Model Review: 1959 COOPER T51-CLIMAX FPF FORMULA ONE #24
7 July 1998
BRUMM 1:43 SCALE 1959 COOPER T51-CLIMAX FPF FORMULA ONE #24, WINNER, MAY 10, 1959 MONTE CARLO GRAND PRIX, MONACO, JACK BRABHAM Brumm Catalog #R278 Distributed by Automobilia, division of Lustron Industries, Inc. 18 Windgate Drive, New City, New York 10956 Phone or fax: 914-639-6806 e-mail: lustron@worldnet.att.net As with all Brumm models (manufactured in Italy), the model is 1:43 scale and is presented in a see-through plastic display case with a removable cover. The 1:43 scale is a good compromise between space considerations regarding display and sufficient size to permit reasonable levels of detail. Model length: 3.25 inches; width: 1.25 inches; height: 0.7 inch Model construction: Metal with plastic interior (detailed) and windscreen, exhaust and mirrors Display case length: 5.25 inches; width: 2.375 inches; height: 1.875 inches The Brumm Cooper T51 model in beautiful British Racing Green is an essentially "spot on" replica of the #24 Cooper T51-Climax FPF driven to victory by Jack Brabham in the May 10, 1959 Monaco Grand Prix! The victory was the first for Brabham in a World Championship event and began a championship season for both Brabham and Cooper! Unlike the "substantial" front-engined Grand Prix cars of the 1950s, the Cooper T51 represents the advent of "smaller, lighter, more aerodynamic" design! The Brumm model accurately reflects the far more compact design of this vanguard of the "rear-engine revolution." Page 81 of Racing Cars and the History of Motor Sport by Peter Roberts (Octopus Books, London, 1973), contains a very clear grid shot of the #24. Page 159 of Mike Lang's Grand Prix! (Haynes Publishing, 1981) contains a full-page photograph of #24 in action at Monaco. The Brumm model conforms in all visible details to the two photographs! The #24 is correctly shown in a white circle and is properly positioned; the Cooper nose badging is correctly depicted. The car's white striping, on the nose and tail, is accurately depicted and positioned. The car's silhouette, featuring various scoops, dual fuel fillers, and wraparound windscreen, is accurately detailed. The T51's mirrors are faithfully depicted and positioned. The wheels are correctly depicted and the tires feature the correct Dunlop identification. The exhaust, positioned at the rear on the right side exiting underneath the wheel assembly, is a correct representation. The detailed interior matches the available photography and the cutaway drawing published in the Cooper autobiography. The model thus evokes the proper "look and feel" of the prototype! Cooper as a marque is best known for achieving the honor of the first rear-engined World Championship race win (1958 Argentine GP, Stirling Moss, Rob Walker Cooper T45-Climax) and for winning the 1959 and 1960 World Championships with Jack Brabham; in the United States, Cooper is also remembered for its groundbreaking 1961 Indianapolis 500 effort with Jack Brabham. Car Facts and Feats (Guinness, 1971) notes that "Charles and John Cooper, father and son, brought about a revolution by evolution, through a series of extraordinarily simple cars. Quite simply, the Coopers proved through racing success that the correct place for the engine of a racing car is behind the driver-while earlier essays in this configuration had by no means been unsuccessful, they had simply not been overwhelmingly convicing." As John Bentley noted in his book, The Grand Prix Carpetbaggers: The Autobiography of John Cooper, "From the time he was eight, when his father built him a single seater with a lawn mower engine at the family garage, John Cooper's life was race cars and race courses. John Cooper designed and built some of the best cars ever raced." Mike Lawrence, in his Directory of Grand Prix Cars 1945-65, describes the Cooper T51 as follows: "The 1959 cars (T51) were virtually the same as the 1958 (T45) version." As he had noted, "the 1958 cars (T45) also had coil spring and double wishbone front suspension and an additional top wishbone at the rear. Disc brakes became usual equipment and there was a new front anti-roll bar and a wider body." Cooper notes that the 1959 Climax FPF four-cylinder, twin-cam engine "displaced 2495 cc (152.2 cubic inches) and put out 239 bhp at 6750 rpm." Lawrence enthused "In the Manufacturers Championship, Cooper came first from Ferrari and it was an achievement which cannot be underestimated. Some enthusiasts from a Surrey garage were Champions of the world, when all they had initially set out to do was to have some fun and cheap racing with some Fiat Topolino bits and a J.A.P. engine. Why, they had not even run in F1 three years before and it was less than 29 months since a British car (Vanwall) had first won a World Championship event, and that was the result of years of dedicated effort by a millionaire industrialist. This was Boys' Own Paper stuff." Cooper's 1959 efforts encompassed the entry of "works" T51 and T45 chassis with Climax FPF engines and Rob Walker's entry of T51 chassis with Climax FPF engines for Stirling Moss and Maurice Trintignant. In the 1959 World Championship season-opener at Monaco on May 10, works T51s were entered for Jack Brabham and Bruce McLaren while Masten Gregory was entered in a T45. Walker entered T51s for Moss and Trintignant. Moss won the pole; Brabham qualified third, Trintignant sixth, Gregory eleventh (in the T45) and McLaren thirteenth. Jean Behra, driving for Scuderia Ferrari in 1959, led the first 21 laps in a Dino 246. Moss took the lead on lap 22 and held it through lap 81 before retiring with gearbox failure; this was to be the first of several such failures in 1959 and was traced, unfortunately after the season, to problems at Colotti (Moss' cars used Colotti gearboxes unlike the works cars)! Moss' misfortune was Brabham's good fortune as he led the remainder of the 100-lap race and won by 20.4 seconds over Ferrari team leader Tony Brooks' Dino 246. Brabham also set Fast Lap. Trintignant was third in the second Walker T51, two laps down, after enduring a one-lap pit stop to attend to a throttle problem. McLaren was fifth, four laps down, after a collision with Harry Schell! Gregory (in the T45) suffered a gearbox failure after six laps when running tenth. Cooper notes in his autobiography that "there was almost no oil in the gearbox and this problem remained to plague us for quite a while, yet, until I finally hit on the solution." Later, Cooper notes, "a small modification to the gearbox lid performed the trick immediately." However, the fix apparently wasn't discovered and made until after further problems at Zandvoort! Brabham's victory (plus Fast Lap) over Brooks very prophetically set up the 1959 World Championship battle: Brabham led Brooks by three points, 9 to 6, and was destined to lead the points throughout the championship en route to the 1959 title! Round two, the Dutch GP, was held May 31 at Zandvoort. Cooper entered T51s for Brabham and Gregory with no entry for McLaren, while Moss and Trintignant drove T51s for Walker. Brabham qualified second, Moss third, Gregory seventh and Trintignant eleventh. Joakim Bonnier took the pole in the works BRM 25 and led 58 of the 75 laps en route to victory by 14.2 seconds over Brabham for BRM's first-ever World Championship GP win! The other seventeen laps were led by the two works Cooper T51s and Moss in the Walker T51! Gregory led laps two through eleven before encountering gearbox troubles; he eventually finished third, on the lead lap. Brabham led laps 30 through 33. Moss set Fast Lap and led laps 60 through 62 before retiring with gearbox trouble! Trintignant finished eighth, two laps down. Brabham now had fifteen World Championship points; Bonnier was now second with eighth and Brooks third with 6. Round three of the 1959 World Championship, the Grand Prix of France, was held at Reims on July 5. Cooper entered T51s for Brabham and Gregory and a T45 for McLaren. Cooper also tried a fully-enclosed streamliner T51 but it was abandoned after practice runs revealed a tendency to "lift." Trintignant drove the only Walker T51 as Moss was driving the BRP (British Racing Partnership) BRM 25! Tony Brooks won the pole in a works Ferrari Dino 246 and led all fifty laps to score a 27.5 seconds victory over teammate Phil Hill in a Ferrari 1-2! Brabham finished third, on the lead lap, after running second from laps 21 through 25. McLaren finished fifth, on the lead lap, in the T45; he ran as high as fourth from laps 43 through 46. Trintignant ran second from laps six through nineteen but spun; he finished eleventh, fourteen laps down. Gregory ran second on laps four and five but wilted in the heat, retiring with heat exhaustion after onlly eight laps. Moss in the BRP BRM 25 set Fast Lap. Brabham now had 19 World Championship points and led the title chase over Brooks' 14. The British Grand Prix of 1959 was held at Aintree on July 18. Brabham and Gregory again drove the works T51s with McLaren in a works T45 and Trintignant again was in the only Walker T51 as Moss again drove the BRP BRM 25. Brabham won the pole, with Trintignant starting fourth, Gregory fifth and McLaren eighth. Brabham led the entire 75-lap race and won by 22.2 seconds over Moss, who set Fast Lap in the BRP BRM 25 in its best result! McLaren finished third in the T45, only 0.2 second behind Moss after a battle which saw McLaren actually in second place on lap 67! McLaren also shared Fast Lap with Moss. Trintignant finished fifth, one lap down, after running third from laps fifteen through twenty-three. Gregory finished seventh, two laps down; he ran as high as third on lap six but according to Cooper's autobiography Gregory's engine was overheating (he even stopped for water). Brabham left England with 27 World Championship points while Brooks was still at 14! Round five of the 1959 World Championship, the Grand Prix of Germany, was held for the first (and only) time at the super-fast Avus track. The race was held in two heats with the finish determined on "aggregate" as the organizers felt that tires would not survive an uninterrupted race. Brabham and Gregory were again entered in the works T51s with McLaren in the works T45. Moss returned to the Walker team for the remainder of the season as he joined Trintignant in driving a T51. Moss qualified second, Brabham fourth and Gregory fifth; McLaren qualified ninth in the T45 and Trintignant qualified twelfth. Tony Brooks won the pole in a works Ferrari Dino 246; he won both heats, leading 42 of the 60 total laps and setting Fast Lap, winning on aggregate by 1.6 seconds over teammate Dan Gurney. Gurney was second in the first heat and third in the second, leading eight laps of the event. Third, only 3.52 seconds behind Gurney, was teammate Phil Hill in a Ferrari 1-2-3! Hill finished third in heat one and second in heat two, leading seven laps of the event. Trintignant was the first non-Ferrari home in fourth, one lap down, as all the other Coopers retired! Trintignant was sixth in heat one and fourth in heat two. Three of the Coopers retired with gearbox failure: Moss after one lap, Brabham after fifteen (due to an incorrectly machined pinion gear according to Cooper's autobiography) after running as high as third from laps two through four, and McLaren after 37 laps as he finished fourth, a lap down, in the first heat but retired after eight laps in heat two when running fourth after having moved as high as third. Gregory led the only laps not led by Ferrari, laps three and four and twenty-three of heat one, when his engine blew on lap twenty-four! Brooks' victory and Fast Lap increased his point total to 23, only four behind Brabham's 27! Cooper still led the Constructors title chase with 29 points, although Ferrari now had 24. Round six, the Grand Prix of Portugal, was held at Monsanto on August 23. Again Brabham and Gregory drove works T51s with McLaren in the T45; Moss and Trintignant drove the Walker T51s. Coopers qualified 1-2-3-4 at Monsanto with Moss on the pole, Brabham second, Gregory third and Trintignant fourth! McLaren qualified eighth in the T45. Moss led the entire 62-lap event, setting Fast Lap, two win by one lap over Gregory! Trintignant finished fourth, two laps down. Brabham ran second for the first 23 laps but hit a telegraph pole on the 24th avoiding a lapped car! McLaren retired after 38 laps with clutch problems while running third. Dan Gurney finished third in a Ferrari Dino 246, the first non-Cooper, 1 minute, 51.22 seconds behind Gregory! With neither Brabham or Brooks scoring points, the drivers' Championship chase remained static but Cooper began to pull away from Ferrari in the Constructors standings. Masten Gregory suffered a broken collarbone, fractured leg and several cracked ribs in the Tourist Trophy sports car race at Goodwood and thus couldn't compete in the final two events of the 1959 World Championship season. Round seven, the Grand Prix of Italy at Monza, was held September 13. Brabham drove the works T45 at Monza with the T51s assigned to McLaren and substitute driver Giorgio Scarlatti. Moss and Trintignant drove Walker T51s. Moss won the pole with Brabham starting third; McLaren qualified ninth, Scarlatti twelfth and Trintignant thirteenth. Moss won the race by 46.7 seconds over Ferrari's Phil Hill. Moss led 43 of the 72 laps, making no tire stop, while Hill, the leader of the remaining 29 laps, set Fast Lap but made a tire stop! Brabham also made no tire stop in the T45 and finished third, on the lead lap. Trintignant finished ninth, two laps down, with Scarlatti twelfth, four laps down, after, according to Cooper's autobiography, he suffered gear linkage problems, including a two-lap pit stop to recover shifting capability. McLaren retired with engine failure after 22 laps while running sixth. Brabham now had 31 points to 23 for Brooks entering the final round of the 1959 season. The season finale, the Grand Prix of the United States, was held at Sebring on December 12. Cooper entered a T51 for Brabham and a T45 for McLaren. Moss and Trintignant drove the Walker T51s. Harry Schell also had a T51 entered by his "Ecurie Bleue." Moss took the pole with Brabham qualifying second, Schell third, Trintignant fifth and McLaren tenth. It was later revealed (post-race) that Schell's third-fastest lap was a "prank" as he short-cut the circuit. Polesitter Moss led the first five laps but retired with gearbox failure! Brabham then led laps six through 41 of the 42-lap race but ran out of fuel on the last lap, and thus McLaren won by 0.6 second over Trintignant, who set Fast Lap on the final lap trying to catch McLaren! Thus Coopers led every lap of the event! Brabham finished fourth, on the lead lap, while Schell ran into clutch problems and retired after five laps. Tony Brooks, hit by teammate Wolfgang Trips on the first lap, pitted for an "inspection" and finished third, on the lead lap, but 3 minutes, 3 seconds behind runnerup Trintignant. Brabham's three points for fourth at Sebring were a "dropped score" and he completed the 1959 season with 31 points to Brooks' 27. Moss ranked third with 25.5 points, 18 earned in the Walker Coopers, 7.5 earned in the BRP BRM. Phil Hill was fourth for Ferrari with 20, with Trintignant fifth at 19 in the Walker Coopers and McLaren sixth with 16.5 in the works Coopers. Masten Gregory tied for eighth ranking (with BRM's Bonnier) competing in six of the eight events in the works Coopers. In the Constructors Championship, Cooper-Climax achieved the title with 40 points; the cars actually scored 53 points "gross" but three results totalling 13 points were "dropped." All Cooper-Climax entries, not just those entered by the works, were eligible for points, and thus the Walker Coopers of Moss and Trintignant earned points for Cooper, although their contribution made no difference to the eventual results. Trintignant's fourth at Avus gave Cooper three points it would not have achieved otherwise as none of the works Coopers finished; Moss' win at Monsanto came with Gregory second and thus Cooper would have won anyway (although Gurney's Ferrari would have been second rather than third) and Moss' Monza win came with Brabham third and thus without Moss the Phil Hill Ferrari would have won with Brabham second. All told, the Walker Coopers resulted in a "+5" Constructors points for Cooper, not essential for the Cooper title. Ferrari was second with 32 points (38 "gross" as two results totalling six points were dropped). BRM was a distant third with 18. Brabham competed in all eight 1959 World Championship events for Cooper, seven driving T51 entries, once in a T45 (Monza). In the T51s he won twice and achieved one second, one third, and one fourth-place finish for a total of five point-scoring finishes. He suffered one mechanical retirement (Avus) and wrecked once (Monsanto), achieving an average finish of 4.85 in seven T51 starts. He won one pole (Aintree), started second four times, third twice and fourth once for a T51 average start of 2.29! He set one Fast Lap (Monaco) and led four races for 134 laps (28.87%), completing 380 of 464 possible laps, or 81.9%. In the T45 at Monza he started and finished third, on the lead lap. His eight 1959 World Championship starts thus saw him win twice, score one runnerup finish, finish third twice and fourth once for six point-scoring finishes, completing 452 of 536 laps (84.32%) and leading four races and 134 laps (25.0%) with an average finish of 4.625 and an average start of 2.375! McLaren drove works Cooper entries in seven 1959 World Championship races; he competed twice in T51s and five times in T45s. In the T51s he finished fifth once (Monaco) but suffered a mechanical retirement in the other T51 start at Monza. His average start and finish in the T51s was identical, 11.0. He completed 118 of 172 laps, or 68.6%. In Bruce's five T45 starts, he scored a win, a third, and a fifth for three point-scoring finishes; he retired with mechanical problems twice (Avus and Monsanto). He achieved one Fast Lap (Aintree) and led one race for one lap (Sebring) and won! His T45 average finish was 5.8 from an average start of 9.0. He completed 242 of 289 possible T45 laps, or 83.74%. All told, his seven 1959 World Championship starts for Cooper produced a win, a third, and two fifth-place finishes for four point-paying finishes, three mechanical retirements, one Fast Lap, one race and one lap led, 360 of 461 possible laps completed (78.09%) and an average finish of 7.29 from an average start of 9.57. Masten Gregory competed in six 1959 World Championship races for Cooper, five in T51 entries and once in a T45. In the T45 at Monaco he started eleventh and placed thirteenth, retiring after six laps with gearbox failure. In the five T51 starts, he achieved a runnerup finish (Monsanto) and a third (Zandvoort), one non-point finish (seventh at Aintree), and led two races for thirteen laps. He suffered two mechanical retirements and quit one event due to heat exhaustion. He completed 240 of 322 possible T51 laps, or 74.53%, posting an average finish of 8.0 from an average start of 5.4. In his six total 1959 World Championship Cooper appearances his average finish was 8.83 from an average start of 6.33 and he completed 246 of 422 laps possible, or 58.29%. Giorgio Scarlatti was the only other Cooper works driver in 1959, starting and finishing twelfth at Monza, four laps down. The works Cooper team entered fifteen T51s in 1959 World Championship competition, achieving two wins, two seconds, two thirds, a fourth, and a fifth for eight point-paying finishes. The T51s achieved one non-point finish, one pole, one Fast Lap, suffered four mechanical retirements, one accident retirement and one driver fatigue retirement. The works T51s completed 806 of 1030 laps, or 78.25%, leading six races and 147 laps (27.43%). The works T51s posted an average finish of 7.2 from an average start of 5.13. The works Cooper team entered seven T45s in 1959 World Championship competition, achieving one win, two third-place, and one fifth-place finish for four point-paying finishes. The works T45s achieved one Fast Lap and led one lap in one race. They suffered three mechanical retirements and completed 320 of 461 laps, or 69.41%, posting an average finish of 6.43 from an average start of 8.43. The 22 works Cooper entries in 1959 World Championship racing achieved three wins, two runnerup finishes, four third-place finishes, a fourth and two fifths for a total of 12 point-paying finishes and one non-points finish. Works Coopers posted one pole and two Fast Laps, suffering seven mechanical retirements, one accident retirement, and one driver fatigue retirement. The 1959 works Coopers completed 1126 of 1491 laps, or 75.52%, led six races and led 148 laps (27.61%). The 1959 works Coopers posted an average finish of 6.95 from an average start of 6.18. The Rob Walker Cooper T51 team entered all eight races. Maurice Trintignant competed in all eight events, earning one runnerup finish, one third-place finish, two fourth-place finishes and one fifth for a total of five point-paying finishes plus three non-point finishes and NO retirements! Trintignant set one Fast Lap (Sebring). He completed 512 of 536 possible laps, or 95.52%! His average finish was 5.75 from an average start of 7.875. Moss competed in six events driving Rob Walker Cooper T51s. He won twice but retired with gearbox failures in the other four events! Moss won four poles and set two Fast Laps. Stirling completed 284 of 411 laps, or 69.09%. He led five races for 173 laps, or 42.09%. His average finish of 8.5 came from an average start of 1.5! The fourteen 1959 World Championship starts by Rob Walker's Cooper T51s thus produced two wins, one runnerup finish, one third-place finish, two fourths and one fifth for seven point-paying finishes plus three non-point finishes. The Walker T51s achieved two poles and three Fast Laps, retiring from four events with gearbox failures. They completed 796 of 947 possible laps, or 84.05%, and led five races for 173 laps, or 32.28%. The combined works Cooper and Rob Walker T51 entry totals for 1959 World Championship racing show 29 entries producing an average finish of 7.07 from an average start of 5.14. The T51s won four races, finished second three times, third three times, fourth three times and fifth twice for a total of fifteen point-scoring finishes plus four non-point finishes. The T51s won five poles and set four Fast Laps, leading seven races for a total of 320 laps (59.70%)! The T51s suffered eight mechanical retirements, one accident retirement and one driver fatigue retirement, completing 1602 of 1977 possible laps, or 81.03%. The eight-race 1959 World Championship season produced wins by four teams using three chassis marques, four chassis models, and three engine marques. Jack Brabham, Tony Brooks, and Stirling Moss each won two races with Joakim Bonnier and Bruce McLaren scoring one victory apiece. The works Cooper team won three races, the Walker Cooper team won two events, Scuderia Ferrari won two races, and the works BRM team triumphed once. Cooper chassis won five events, with the works T51 entries winning twice and Walker's T51s also winning twice and the works T45 winning once (McLaren at Sebring). Scuderia Ferrari Dino 246s won twice and the works BRM 25 won once. Each of the five Cooper victories was powered by a Climax FPF four-cylinder engine. The works Ferrari took four of the eight runnerup finishes (Phil Hill two, Brooks and Gurney one each) while Brabham and Gregory (works Cooper T51s), Trintignant (Walker Cooper T51) and Stirling Moss (BRP BRM 25) achieved one apiece. Cooper chassis achieved five of the third-place finishes (two by works T45 entires, two by works T51 entries, and one by a Walker T51) with Brabham achieving two and Gregory, McLaren and Trintignant one apiece in the Coopers. The works Ferrari Dinos took the other three third-place finishes, one apiece by Brooks, Gurney, and Phil Hill. All told, of the 24 possible 1959 World Championship "podium" finishes, thirteen were achieved by Cooper chassis and Climax FPF engines, nine by Ferrari chassis and engines, and two by BRM chassis and engines. The works Cooper team and the Scuderia Ferrari achieved the most 1959 "podiums" by a team, 9 apiece, followed by the Rob Walker Cooper team's four. The works BRM and BRP BRM teams each posted one "podium" finish. Brabham led the drivers in "podium" finishes with five; Brooks posted four. Phil Hill and Moss achieved three "podium" finishes apiece, Gregory, Gurney, McLaren and Trintignant two apiece, and Bonnier one. Cooper-Climax FPF entries led the most races, seven, and the most laps, 321, or 59.89% of a possible 536 laps. Ferraris led three races for 157 laps, or 29.29%. BRM led one race for 58 laps, or 10.82%. The Rob Walker Cooper T51 effort tied for the team leadership in races led (with Cooper) with five and led the teams in laps led with 173 (all by Moss), or 32.28%. The works Ferrari team led three races (third-ranking) but led 157 laps (29.29%) for second-ranking. The works Cooper team tied for the entrants' leadership in races led with five but led 148 laps, or 27.61%, third-ranking. Only one of the Cooper team's laps was led by a T45, but it was the final lap at Sebring and earned a victory. The works BRM led one race for 58 laps, or 10.82%. Moss led all drivers with five races led and 173 laps led (32.28%), all in the Walker Cooper T51s. Brabham was next with four races and 134 laps led (25.0%), all in works Cooper T51s. Brooks led two races for 92 laps for Ferrari, Bonnier led one race for 58 laps for BRM, Phil Hill led two races for 36 laps for Ferrari, Jean Behra led one race for 21 laps for Ferrari, Masten Gregory led two races for 13 laps in works Cooper T51s, Gurney led one race for eight laps for Ferrari, and McLaren led one race for one lap in a works Cooper T45. Brabham (works Cooper T51), Brooks (Ferrari), and Moss (Walker Cooper T51) each led a race all the way. Cooper also led every lap at Sebring with three cars (Brabham in the works T51, McLaren in the works T45, Moss in the Walker T51). Cooper T51-Climax FPF entries took five of the eight 1959 World Championship pole positions with Ferrari's Dino 246 taking two and BRM's 25 achieving one. The Walker Cooper T51 achieved four poles (Moss), Scuderia Ferrari two (Brooks), the works Cooper T51 effort one (Brabham), and the works BRM team one (Bonnier). Cooper-Climax FPF entries achieved five of the nine (one shared) 1959 World Championship Fast Laps, with T51s achieving four and a T45 one. The BRM 25 and Ferrari Dino 246 each achieved two Fast Laps. The Walker Cooper T51 team achieved three Fast Laps, the works Cooper team two (one T45, one T51), the BRP BRM team two, and Scuderia Ferrari two. Moss took four of the nine (one shared) 1959 World Championship Fast Lap honors, two driving the BRP BRM 25 and two at the wheel of a Walker Cooper T51! Brabham scored one Fast Lap driving a works Cooper T51, McLaren one piloting a works Cooper T45, Trintignant one in a Walker Cooper T51, and Brooks and Phil Hill one apiece in Scuderia Ferrari Dino 246 entries. Ferrari pilot Tony Brooks won two of the three races not won by Cooper-Climax entries, BRM driver Joakim Bonnier the other. In the five races won by Cooper-Climax entries, Brooks was the leading non-Cooper twice (as he led the opposition in four of the eight events!), with Moss (BRP BRM 25), Gurney (Ferrari), and Phil Hill (Ferrari) leading the non-Coopers in the remaining four events. Works Cooper T51-Climax FPF entries contested five non-championship Formula One races in 1959; Rob Walker entered Moss in three of the events, although in one his Cooper was powered by a BRM engine. In the March 30, 1959 Goodwood Glover Trophy, Moss won in the Walker Cooper T51-Climax from fifth starting position, setting Fast Lap en route to a 16.6 seconds victory margin over Brabham in a works T51; Brabham had started third. Gregory started seventh and finished fifth, a lap down, in another works T51. McLaren drove a works T45, starting and finishing sixth, two laps down. Harry Schell had won the pole in the works BRM 25, led early, but faded to third, one second behind Brabham. The April 18, 1959 Aintree "BARC 200" saw Ferrari score a 1-2 with its Dino 246s in the hands of Jean Behra and Tony Brooks. Behra led laps 31-67 and won by 10.4 seconds over Brooks. McLaren started a works T45 eleventh but finished third, on the lead lap but one minute, 43.4 seconds behind Brooks! Gregory won the pole in a works T51 and led the first 19 laps of the race before his clutch failed! Moss started sixth in a Walker T51 powered by a BRM 258 engine; he set Fast Lap and took the lead after Gregory retired, leading laps 20-30 before retiring with gearbox problems! Brabham started fifth in a works T51 but retired after only 18 laps due to a gasket failure. The May 2, 1959 Silverstone International Trophy resulted in a win for Brabham in a works T51. He started fourth in the event; the race included Formula 2 cars and in fact the other Cooper entries were F2 cars. Brabham led the first two laps and the last 47 en route to a 17.6 seconds victory over Roy Salvadori in an Aston Martin DBR4/250. Salvadori set Fast Lap. Ron Flockhart finished third in a BRM 25, seven seconds behind Salvadori. Moss had won the pole in the BRP BRM 25 and took the lead from Brabham on lap three only to spin on lap four! The September 26, 1959 Oulton Park International Gold Cup saw Cooper T51-Climax entries start and finish 1-2-3! Moss took the pole in the Walker T51, set Fast Lap and won the race by 5.2 seconds over runnerup starter Brabham! Chris Bristow started and finished third in the BRP Cooper T51-Climax, albeit 92.4 seconds behind Brabham. McLaren started fifth in a works T51 but retired after nine laps with gearbox failure. Roy Salvadori finished fourth, two laps down, in the High Efficiency Motors Cooper T45 powered by a Maserati 250S engine, with Graham Hill fifth, three laps down, in a works Lotus 16-Climax FPF. The October 10, 1959 Snetterton Silver City Trophy featured mostly Formula 2 entries; Ron Flockhart won the pole in a BRM 25, set Fast Lap, and won the race after leading laps 1-6 and 10-25. Brabham started sixth in a works T51 and finished second but never led. Bruce Halford finished third in a BRM 25. Graham Hill led laps 7 through 9 in a Lotus 16-Climax but then retired with driveshaft failure. All told, the five 1959 nonchampionship events produced three wins for Cooper T51s, two by Moss in Walker entries, one by Brabham for the works. Ferrari and BRM split the remaining race wins. Brabham's works T51 efforts in the five races produced a win, three runnerup finishes and a mechanical retirement. Gregory achieved a fifth and a mechanical retirement in works T51s while McLaren's only effort in a works T51 ended in mechanical retirement. In works T45 entries, however, McLaren achieved a third and a sixth. Our website at http://members.aol.com/autoracg/ provides a wealth of useful and interesting auto racing information! The site also contains descriptions of the many services and products available from Auto Racing Analysis!