The Cooper T73 is a 1.5-litre

Formula One car A Formula One car (also known as an F1 car) is a single-seat, open-cockpit, open-wheel formula racing car with substantial front and rear wings, and an engine positioned behind the driver, intended to be used in competition at Formul ...

, designed, developed and produced by

Cooper Cars 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 gara ...

for the

1964 Formula One season The 1964 Formula One season was the 18th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It included the 1964 World Championship of Drivers, won by John Surtees; and the 1964 International Cup for F1 Manufacturers, won by Ferrari – both of which were ...

Development

Bruce McLaren Bruce Leslie McLaren (30 August 1937 – 2 June 1970) was a New Zealand racing car designer, driver, engineer, and inventor. His name lives on in the McLaren team which has been one of the most successful in Formula One championship history, ...

had persuaded Cooper to build a car, the T70, for the 1964 Tasman Series. It was based on the 1963

T66 T66 may refer to: * T66 (rocket launcher), an American multiple rocket launcher * Avions Fairey T.66 Tipsy Nipper, a Belgian aerobatic aircraft * Ericsson T66, a mobile phone * Cooper T66 The Cooper T66 is a Formula One racing car from the Coop ...

, and the T73 in turn was based on the T70. Consequently it still had a tubular steel chassis, but with additional stressed steel panels welded to the floor and sides. Front suspension was by double wishbones and inboard spring/dampers connected by rocker arms. At the rear there was a lower wishbone and a trailing arm connected to an upper link. The Tasman car had a small fuel tank for the shorter Tasman races, so the T73 had additional pannier tanks. As before, the

Climax Climax may refer to: Language arts * Climax (narrative), the point of highest tension in a narrative work * Climax (rhetoric), a figure of speech that lists items in order of importance Biology * Climax community, a biological community th ...

FWMV V8 supplied the power through a Cooper six-speed gearbox.

Racing history

The T73 was driven by

and

Phil Hill Philip Toll Hill Jr. (April 20, 1927 – August 28, 2008) was an American automobile racing driver. He was one of two American drivers to win the Formula One World Drivers' Championship, and the only one who was born in the United States ( ...

in 1964, debuting at the Monaco Grand Prix. McLaren's car broke a wishbone in practice and he drove the previous year's T66 in the race, while

retired with suspension failure. Thereafter, it was another season of disappointment, with McLaren's best results being second place in Belgium and Italy. He finished seventh in the World Championship. Hill had an even worse season, scoring a solitary one point and managing to crash both his T73 and the spare T66 in Austria, resulting in his temporary sacking by John Cooper, which resulted in him sitting out the Italian Grand Prix, replaced by John Love. The season ended with Cooper fifth in the Constructors' Championship. McLaren and new teammate

Jochen Rindt Jochen is a given name. Notable people with the name include: *Jochen Asche, East German luger, competed during the 1960s *Jochen Böhler (born 1969), German historian, specializing in the history of World War II * Jochen Babock (born 1953), East ...

raced the T73 at the 1965 South African Grand Prix, after which it was replaced by the T77, although Rindt resorted to the spare T73 at the Italian Grand Prix when he bent a valve in his main car. One of the works cars was later sold to J.A. Pearce Engineering who fitted it with a Ferrari GTO 3-litre V12 and entered it in several races in 1966 and 1967 for Chris Lawrence. It was not particularly successful although it A derivative hybrid version, called the T71/73, was a mix between the T73 and the

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 r ...

T71 chassis, powered by a 1.5 litre Ford Twin-Cam engine and built by

Bob Gerard Racing Frederick Roberts Gerard (19 January 1914, Leicester – 26 January 1990, South Croxton, Leicestershire) was a racing driver and businessman from England. He participated in numerous top-level motor racing events on either side of World War ...

Development

Racing history

Formula One World Championship results

Formula One Non-Championship results

References