The Cooper T45 was an

open-wheel An open-wheel single-seater (often known as formula car) is a car with the wheels outside the car's main body, and usually having only one seat. Open-wheel cars contrast with street cars, sports cars, stock cars, and touring cars, which have thei ...

formula racing Formula racing (known as open-wheel racing in North America) is any of several forms of open-wheeled single-seater motorsport. The origin of the term lies in the nomenclature that was adopted by the FIA for all of its post-World War II single- ...

car, developed and built by the

Cooper Car Company The Cooper Car Company is a British car manufacturer founded in December 1947 by Charles Cooper and his son John Cooper. Together with John's boyhood friend, Eric Brandon, they began by building racing cars in Charles's small garag ...

in 1958, and designed by

Owen Maddock Owen Richard Maddock (24 January 1925 – 19 July 2000)Jenkins (2016) was a British engineer and racing car designer, who was chief designer for the Cooper Car Company between 1950 and 1963. During this time Maddock designed a string of success ...

. It competed in

Formula 2 Formula Two (F2 or Formula 2) is a type of open-wheel formula racing category first codified in 1948. It was replaced in 1985 by Formula 3000, but revived by the FIA from 2009–2012 in the form of the FIA Formula Two Championship. The name return ...

racing as well as in

Formula One racing A Formula One Grand Prix is a sporting event which takes place over three days (usually Friday to Sunday), with a series of practice and qualifying sessions prior to the race on Sunday. Current regulations provide for two free practice sessions ...

, where it won one World Championship Grand Prix, the 1958 Monaco Grand Prix, being driven by

Maurice Trintignant Maurice Bienvenu Jean Paul Trintignant (30 October 1917 – 13 February 2005) was a motor racing driver and vintner from France. He competed in the Formula One World Championship for fourteen years, between 1950 and 1964, one of the longest caree ...

Development history and technology

The Cooper T45 was the successor to the

Cooper T43 The Cooper T43 was a Formula One and Formula Two racing car designed and built by Cooper Car Company for the 1957 Formula One season, first appearing at the 1957 Monaco Grand Prix in a works car for Jack Brabham. The T43 earned a significant plac ...

. The chassis remained almost unchanged, but the wheel suspension was revised. The engine was lowered. Until 1959 the cars had drum brakes, which were then replaced by disc brakes.

Racing history

For the Formula 1 version, Climax developed a 2.2-litre engine. Since this engine was exclusively available to the works team, Rob Walker had to resort to the 2-litre engine, which had less power. In 1958, Frenchman

surprisingly won the Monaco Grand Prix with the Walker 2-litre T45. However, the car lacked power on the fast stretches. Especially against the competition from Ferrari and Vanwall, the Coopers had no chance. Works driver

Roy Salvadori Roy Francesco Salvadori (12 May 1922 – 3 June 2012) was a British racing driver and team manager. He was born in Dovercourt, Essex, to parents of Italian descent. He graduated to Formula One by 1952 and competed regularly until 1962 for a su ...

was third at Silverstone and second at the Nurburgring and fourth overall in the Drivers' Championship. Cooper finished third in the Constructor's Championship, which was held for the first time.

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

) (results in bold indicate pole position, results in italics indicate fastest lap) Formula Two entry.
Points also scored by the

.
All points scored by other Cooper models.
Points also scored by other Cooper models.

References

{{F1 cars 1961 Cooper Formula One cars Formula Two cars 1958 Formula One season cars 1959 Formula One season cars 1960 Formula One season cars 1961 Formula One season cars