Cooper T53-SMTS-RL039

Following Jack Brabham's success in winning the 1959 World Championship in his work's Cooper T51 ."the Surbiton "Blacksmiths" set about improving the car for the 1960 season. Despite Charles Cooper's insistence that they should leave well alone. Brabham, in parallel with Lotus boss Colin Chapman, lrtually founded the art of setting-up a racing car's suspension, he and John Cooper developed the new "Low-line" Cooper T53 with all-round coil-Jpring suspension. a smaller frontal area. a new straight tubed rear chassis section. and a vastly expansive (for Cooper!) Owen "The Beard" Maddocks designed trans-axle, costing £10100 each. Charles Cooper refused to countenance the new suspension. until it proved successful. whereupon it was suddenly his idea ! John Cooper never did let-on to h1s father the gearbox cost, the "Old Man" protesting that even £400 was too much!
The T53s debut Grand Prix was in Monaco. where Bruce Mclaren finished second. this was followed by wins for Jack Brabham in the Dutch. Belgian. French,British and Portuguese Grands Prix. a dominant performance which gave him and Cooper their second consecutive World Championship.
This kit represents the Cooper T53s driven by Jack Brabham (no.2) and Bruce Mclaren [no.4) into 1st and 2nd places in the 1960 Belgian Grand Prix. at Spa.