Indy 500 and Monaco Grand Prix winning Maserati and Cooper ...
This weekend two of the world's most prestigious races are run; the Indy 500 and Monaco Grand Prix. To get you further in the mood for these two fabulous events, we have taken a closer look at two former winners; the Maserati 8CTF and the Cooper T60 Climax respectively.
Developed to take on the mighty Silver Arrows in the 1938 Grand Prix season, the Maserati 8CTF did not come into its own until it was handed to privateers to race a year later. One was sold to Mike Boyle and as the 'Boyle Valve Special' it was driven to back-to-back victories in the Indy 500 by Wilbur Shaw. This was the first time a driver won two in a row and Shaw even came close to making it three. Amazingly, one of the Indy winner's sister cars was later driven to two victories in a row in the daunting Pikes Peak hill-climb. Our detailed article is illustrated by a 24-shot gallery of two of three examples constructed. Among the drivers of the Indy-winning example is Bobby Unser, who, just like Shaw, scored three wins in the Indy 500.
After unleashing the rear-engine revolution in Formula 1, Cooper struggled to maintain its championship winning form once the rivaling teams caught on. After the 1960 season victories were very rare. One notable exception was Bruce McLaren's win in the 1962 Monaco Grand Prix with the Cooper T60 Climax. This was the first Cooper developed for the new generation of Climax V8 engines. Unfortunately it would turn out to be Cooper's only victory in the five F1 seasons run under the '1.5 litre' regulations. The Monaco winning car was displayed for several decades in the Donnington Grand Prix Collection from which it was only recently let go. We captured the Cooper T60 at its first outing, which appropriately was the 2010 Monaco Historic Grand Prix.
Enjoy the links:
1962 Cooper T60 Climax - Images, Specifications and Information
1938 Maserati 8CTF - Images, Specifications and Information
If you should see a man walking down a crowded street talking aloud to himself, don't run in the opposite direction, but run towards him, because he's a poet. You have nothing to fear from the poet - but the truth.
(Ted Joans)
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