Cooper T41

[henk4]

This is the first of several threads dealing with the Cooper F2 and F1 cars that were the forerunners of the racing car design that is now commonly accepted.
The Cooper cars involved the T41, T43, T45, T51 and T53, all neatly following the year of actual production, with T41 starting in 1956, T43 in 1957 etc.

The most detailed information on the Cooper racings cars comes from Doug Nye's comprehensive book, simply titled "Cooper Cars". He had access to the official Cooper records (sitting in a specifically described notebook ) which lists "more or less" all the chassis produced by Cooper since 1957. Doug also notes in his book in several places that a complete list of chassis numbers, specifying which car did what and where was beyond his (and probably everybody's) possibilities. The race results for the respective years, also shown in the book do provide useful information on the participating chassis, but are not fully complete.

In consultation with John T we have decided to "attack" the minefield again, but rather than going from the past to the present, I want to show as many cars as possible that came in front of my camera on several occasions during the past 4 years and some earlier than that. Many of those I could identify by using the frame plate wrapped around one of the frame tubes, other cars did not have a plate, or had a number not
Based on the lists produced in the Annex to the book it might be possible to go back form the present car and see if we can build a complete record of each chassis that is currently being raced or exists.

So let's start with the T41, the "mother" of all the famed cars, which was taken into production in 1956. Here we already have a minor difficulty as Doug's list only starts from 1957.

It is certain that at least four chassis were built, and the numbering system is gratifyingly simple.
All cars were designed as Formula 2 class (introduced in 1957) so the number simply became F2-X-56,57,58,59,60. Only when the 1.5 liter formula 1 was introduced in 1961, which coincided with the demise of F2, the F2 part in the number was replaced by F1-X-61 and so on.

So here we go with T41, also known as the Mk1.

At least four chassis, F2-1-56 until F2-4-56 can be confirmed, but are there any more?

Here is a shot of F2-4-56, taken at Silverstone in 2006, which accroding to the info provided, might have been the Salvadori works car.