Cooper Maserati T61 by European Editor Peter Collins. Click on Gallery at top right to see PC's images
V FOR VICTORY?
Do you ever bother to look at those signs that tell which town is twinned with which? The other day I came across an example that must have been set up with the continental party having to wear extremely pink rose-tinted spectacles and be possessed of an extremely vivid imagination to believe there was much in common between the two places, but the car you see here, brought together part of South West London and the hometown of the Este family in Italy, and later Luciano Pavarotti.
On the face of it, the Surbiton of Cooper Cars had little in common with the exotic headiness of Maserati’s Modena, but this car brought the two together as a way of trying to find what Sir Stirling Moss describes as ‘that hidden advantage’.
The quintessentially British racing-car producer Cooper had a long history of building successful cars, even if it was slow to react to changes in evolving technology and the market-place. Boss John knew how to make money out of the business and mostly this involved spending as little as possible in the first place. The cars were essentially simple in concept and throughout the 1950s this had stood them in good stead.
As well as being at the forefront of pioneering the rear-engined race-car in Grands Prix, they had amassed a good back-up business building sports racing cars. Mostly powered by 2-litre Coventry Climax four-cylinder motors, the latest version, as the 1950s turned to the 60s, was dubbed the Monaco.
UK national racing at this time was fairly parochial. Rarely did anyone try rocking the boat with any different new-fangled foreign stuff, mainly because it was expensive and communications with somewhere like Italy were a pain. You had to book a long-distance telephone call in advance!
But there was always the aforementioned Moss ‘hidden advantage’ factor. This card had been played very successfully in sportscar racing in the US by Roger Penske, who later went on to run one of the most successful Indycar teams. He bought the remains of a crashed 1961 GP Cooper and rebuilt it into a sportscar using outriggers to support vestigial bodywork. The car was light and, using a torquey 2.7 Climax motor, very quick. It immediately started winning and eventually was inevitably banned with the claim that its two seats were too narrow.
By 1962, Eric Broadley at Lola was beginning to see the light and realised the potential of the using lighter, more powerful engines and set about designing the first of his winning V8-powered models. At the same time, in the US, the concept of a Cooper chassis fitted with a proprietary American V8 was taking off, led by Carroll Shelby of AC Cobra fame. The plan was that Cooper T61M sportscar chassis, suitably strengthened, would be supplied from Surbiton and a 4.7 litre Ford V8 as per Cobra fitted. The resultant confection was christened the King Cobra.
Only one was built up in the UK and this was little used by the time Ford abandoned the project, but the seed was sown that was to lead to such iconic sports racers as the McLaren Can Am cars and the Lola T70 series.
Tommy Atkins had been the entrant of British ace Roy Salvadori’s Cooper sportscars for a few years when the idea struck that the combination of a Cooper and a sophisticated Italian racing V8 might just be that secret weapon they needed to win UK national sports racing. A Cooper T61 chassis was obtained and through his and Salvadori’s relationships with UK agent Condiri and the Modena concern – which was to lead with the latter to the lovely Cooper Maserati T81 Grand Prix cars – a big V8 was obtained.
To make sure it all stayed together, Harry Pearce, Atkin’s chief mechanic, built up the chassis in similar fashion to the then current Cooper GP cars but the tubular frame was strengthened by a 20-guage steel sheet under-tray that was welded and riveted in position. The number stamped on the engine – 151/10 – proves it to be one of the units built for the 1963 Maserati Le Mans effort. A V8 of 4941cc it reputedly developed 430bhp at 7000rpm and, according to Steve Hart, it weighs little more than a Climax four of half the capacity.
Pearce went to Modena to collect it and had to wait while it was rebuilt due to a crank vibration. The unit ran on four 46IDM Weber carburettors instead of injection, the car’s tubular frame carried the vital liquids – oil and water – from front to back, and huge Girling brakes were fitted.
First time out was at Silverstone in April 1964, where a second place was obtained. It also proved that the engine was not right and later tests at Climax showed it was developing valve-bounce at 6000rpm and possessed a very narrow rev-band. It was undriveable in the wet and Salvadori switched off one of the magnetos in these conditions to help matters.
In May at Goodwood, Salvadori broke the lap record as he brought the car through from a very bad start to win the Whitsun Trophy prompting Autosport’s reporter to say that: “one can assume that this car is now really right”. Its performance at the GP support race at Brands in June was reported as “the car has yet to be sorted in the handling department” and “when it is finally sorted out we can expect some fireworks” from the same magazine.
After just the one year of competition the team disbanded and the car eventually found its way into the hands of Maserati fan Toby St George Matthews who drove it once in a club race when his ex-Rindt and Elford Cooper Maserati T86 GP car wouldn’t start!
It was acquired by Peter Kaus for the Rosso Bianco collection and sold on from there to Michael O’Shea at a Goodwood Revival Bonhams auction.
To no-one’s great surprise the car proved, hmm, difficult to handle after a restoration by Maserati expert Steve Hart. This was through no fault of his, it was simply that, as already mentioned, it was a bit of a beast. Luckily, a lot more is known and understood about chassis and suspensions today, so, enlisting the help of Roberto Giordanelli, O’Shea initiated a development programme. It was desperately needed as Roberto found the car impossible to handle, even in a straight line.
The car was taken back to basics and painstakingly the team ran through a problem-solving exercise that took many days of testing. Suspension was adjusted and tweaks administered until at last came the day when both Michael and Roberto took the car out and returned with smiles.
With the help of time, modern technology and not a little expenditure, the car is a competitive proposition and Michael has now enjoyed driving the attractive green racing car with its rare Maserati V8 scream at most of Europe’s leading circuits, including the recent 2011 Silverstone Classic. For sure this will be a winning combination.
