1963 Cooper T66

During the Formula 2 era of the Formula One World Championship a small company based in Surbiton, Surrey, England would make an immediate impression. Although the next few years would see the company struggle in Formula One, by the end of the 1950s, it would prove itself to be both revolutionary and the team of the future. Though revolutionary in many ways, Cooper and his team would take methodical steps to improve and reassert itself in the Formula One arena. This same approach would help Cooper to lead a revolution that would impact the world over.

While the Cooper tail would actually begin with Formula 3 and its 500 chassis, the real legend of Cooper Car Company would actually cement itself in the hearts and minds of Formula One fans throughout 1959 and 1960 with the mid-engined T51 chassis, the car that would really start the rear-engine revolution in motor racing.

The T51 would earn Jack Brabham his first World Championship in 1959 after helping him to score two victories and a total of five podium finishes. This performance would be wildly improved upon the following year when a T53 chassis would help Brabham to earn five straight victories and take a second World Championship by a comfortable margin over his Cooper teammate Bruce McLaren.

Cooper's new number one driver, McLaren would have the task of taking the new T60 chassis he had been given and help turn it into a race winner. It wouldn't take long. Just the second race into the 1962 season the T60 would earn victory on the streets of Monaco. Unfortunately for Cooper and McLaren, it would prove to be about the only highlight of the season as the car and the team would only manage a couple of 2nd place finishes throughout the remainder of the season.

Cooper had been here before. When Cooper made its first appearance in Formula One it had been during the Formula 2 era. Powered by a Bristol engine, Cooper would enter its new T20 chassis in races against the mighty Ferrari 500 F2. Like everybody else during the period, the Cooper would be dominated by the Ferrari. However, the company would still manage to impress; the biggest impression being made in the rain at Spa-Francorchamps and Boreham.

In both cases Mike Hawthorn had been at the wheel. At Spa, in the rain, Hawthorn would drive a tremendous race and would finish the race an incredible 4th place behind two Ferraris and a Gordini. Then, at the famous race at Boreham in August of 1952, Hawthorn would be leading the Ferrari 375 of Luigi Villoresi late into the race. Had the circuit not dried out, Hawthorn likely could have won the race in a Formula 2 car ahead of a Formula One machine.

So it was more than obvious Cooper had an ability to produce a car that had an ability to amaze. Then, with the double World Championship, Cooper demonstrated he had the ability to produce a car that could dominate. By the end of the 1962 season, Cooper would be busy designing a car that would help the team regain its place in the Formula One world.

The T60 represented that first step for Cooper. Sporting a lower, wider chassis, the car looked light and nimble, an absolute necessity at the time with the new 1.5-liter regulations imposed by the sporting regulations. Unfortunately, the T60 would be going head-to-head with Lotus' 25 chassis and its brand new monocoque design. In spite of this, the T60 would earn McLaren victory at Monaco and would leave him in 3rd place in the Drivers' title by the end of the season.

What made Brabham so special was his engineering mind. He had an ability to work with the designers to fashion an improved, and much more competitive car. Cooper wasn't all that disturbed when Brabham left because he knew he had another driver just like Brabham in McLaren. And, heading into the winter of 1962 and 1963, Bruce would work closely with the team's designers to fashion a new evolution of the team's car.

McLaren would get involved with the new car's design almost right from the very beginning. It would quickly become clear the design team could redesign the car's fuel tanks to help slim down the lines of the new car even more than those seen on the T60. Additionally, some of the car's parts would be moved or repositioned to help with the car's balance and to help reduce the size of the car even more. The end result would be what would become known as the T66.

While the T66 would bear a good deal of similarity to its predecessor, there would still be some differences. The nose, for instance, would be slimmer in width and sporting a much more shallow oval-shaped radiator opening. The double wishbone suspension and coil spring arrangement would remain slightly hidden under the flared bodywork just like the T60, but the top lines of the car's bodywork would not rise much once traveling aft along the car.

But although the way the front suspension blended into the bodywork remained relatively unchanged, the layout of the suspension's geometry would not. This would be another area in which McLaren would work closely with the design team to help correct an issue he did not like on the T60.

The main problem McLaren wanted the designers and engineers to deal with was the T60's tendency to dive heavily under braking. This would upset the balance and handling of the car and made for the driver to feel very uncomfortable. The double wishbones, coil springs and dampers and the anti-roll bar would obviously remain. However, their layout and geometry would be altered to help cope with the problem.

Speaking of driver comfort, the car's cockpit would feature a single, wrap-around windscreen that blended beautifully into the car's lines, but it made for one cramped office for the driver. Once down inside the car, the driver would find the Cooper C6S 6-speed manual gearbox change lever on his right side and only the necessary gauges.

At the driver's feet he would find the brake pedal that actuated the Girling disc brakes on all four wheels of the car and the throttle that controlled the use of the 195bhp capable of being produced by the Coventry Climax FWMV 1.5-liter V8 engine.

And it would be around the area where the engine bolted to the back of the car that another of the changes between the T60 and the T66 could be seen. Whereas the T60 would sport a rather high body-paneling over the top of the inlet pipes and the engine, the T66 would be quite different. The top line of the wrap-around windscreen would represent the top line of the bodywork over the engine. Instead of covering the inlet pipes, they would protrude high above the paneling at the back of the engine. This would end up fostering a tight, rounded rear end dominated by the twin exhaust pipes and the Cooper gearbox.

The T66 represented a huge step forward from the T60. The handling and stability of the car under braking and in the midst of turns certainly improved. However, the evolutions to the chassis would prove to be too little too late.

The 1963 season would turn into a battle between Graham Hill and Jim Clark. Unfortunately, the battle between the Scot and the Englishman left little room for the New Zealander. While the T66 would certainly improve upon the T60's performance, the team's performance would not improve. In fact, the team would slip down the constructors standings even more than the year before.

Over the course of the 1963 season Bruce McLaren would fight hard just to finish 6th in the Drivers Championship. In 1962, despite an ill-handling T60 chassis, McLaren would take a lone victory. The T66 would not be in the same league as the BRM P56 and P60, nor would it be as competitive as the Lotus 25. This would be made all the more obvious when McLaren would struggle to take three podium finishes throughout the whole of the season.

It was clear the improvements made by the team had made for an improved chassis. Unfortunately, Cooper was no longer on the leading edge of the technical revolution in Formula One. The team would continue to struggle over the course of the next few seasons. However, just before Cooper decided to pull out of Formula One as a manufacturer he would manage to put together a couple of successful seasons with Maserati engines powering Cooper-designed chassis.

While the Cooper T66 would not be all that successful on the track the car remains a popular and striking car to behold at historic grand prix and events. Whereas the T51 represented a revolution, the T66 would come to represent refinement and a focus to detail that would come to define Formula One from then on.

Sources:
'1962 Cooper T60 News, Pictures and Information', (http://www.conceptcarz.com/z21765/Cooper-T60.aspx). Conceptcarz.com: From Concept to Production. http://www.conceptcarz.com/z21765/Cooper-T60.aspx. Retrieved 18 December 2012.

Horton, Roger. 'John Cooper: The Man Who Beat Italia', (http://www.atlasf1.com/2001/jan10/horton.html). Atlas F1. http://www.atlasf1.com/2001/jan10/horton.html. Retrieved 18 December 2012.

Tremayne, David. 'John Cooper: A Very British Marque, A Very British Man', (http://www.grandprix.com/ft/ftdt019.html). GrandPrix.com. http://www.grandprix.com/ft/ftdt019.html. Retrieved 18 December 2012.

'Cooper T66 Climax', (http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/car/3531/Cooper-T66-Climax.html). Ultimatecarepage.com: Powered by Knowledge, Driven by Passion. http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/car/3531/Cooper-T66-Climax.html. Retrieved 18 December 2012.

Wikipedia contributors, 'John Cooper (car maker)', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 27 July 2012, 00:59 UTC, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Cooper_(car_maker)&oldid=504352819 accessed 18 December 2012

By Jeremy McMullen